American Idol '07 (Week 1)

The American Idol ratings juggernaut roared back to the airwaves with a seemingly endless stream of bad auditions and a lot of carping about how mean the judges are being this season (see here, for example.)

I don’t get all of the complaining. This is the 6^th edition of the show so we have to assume that most of the people auditioning for the show know what they’re getting into…if they’re particularly delusional about their talents the producers will put them through for the “entertainment” value and the judges (see above) will skewer them for the same reason (why else would the judges, the producers, and the editors let some of the most egregious performances go on and on to the point of utter embarrassment?)

I have to believe that a fair percentage of the people know that they don’t have a shot at getting into the finals but are desperate to be on TV anyway they can (others, of course, truly believe themselves to be blessed with vocal abilities they do not actually possess outside of their feverish, achingly hopeful imaginations and/or the lovingly uncritical opinions of their friends and families.)

Are the judges more impatient and snarky this season? Yeah…they’ve been to this rodeo a few times now and finding themselves presented with far more potential William Hungs than potential Kelly Clarksons is, for the most part, no longer that amusing to them (and I'm right there with them.)

(Speaking of judges, Jewel was remarkably cogent and supportive during the Minneapolis tryouts…she seemed more real and relaxed there than she does during her stint as co-host of the current season of Nashville Star.)

Is the talent level of potential Idols really that shaky this season? Apparently so…they only culled 17 Hollywood-bound candidates out of 10,000+ folks who gathered in Minneapolis and only 14 from the 9,000+ hopefuls who stood in Seattle’s schizophrenic weather for their chance at stardom.

Hey, it’s Idol…people may be complaining but many, many more people are watching (the number of people who watched the first two episodes are almost double the number watching what has been watching the average episode of Desperate Housewives, this season’s ratings leader up to now) but it is what it is and come this Spring someone will handed the crown and instant egress to the pop charts and all of this criticism about meanness will be long forgotten.