14 in 30 - The Sanjaya Curse

I watch American Idol. There, I said it. And I watch American Idol for the SINGING! How about that?

This is why I'm constantly irritated by the fact that the judges, who pretend to be professionals in the music industry, inevitably allow the likes of Sanjaya or Kevin Covais or Scott Savol (shudder) to make it past the top 12...(And yes, I had to look the names of those other two up, as I've tried to block them from my memory banks) WHY? When you know they're not good enough. They can't sing. And even if they have a half-way decent voice, they just don't measure up to the rest of the group. SO WHY would you allow them to move on, when you know American will latch onto them like the plague that they are, and destroy any hope the better singers have of making the top 10 to make room for these...um...contestants?

Tell me Simon, because as much as you can be quite the...how do we put this delicately...uh..."mean judge", you are actually almost always right. And yet, how did these guys get past you?

See, I almost get the Sanjaya thing...almost. Because the kid can actually sing, or at least, he sounded like he could in the auditions, and the whole Hollywood week and all that. He was obviously untrained, and young, but not horrible. So you were fooled, and then, when he suddenly was found to be WAY out of his league among the Melinda Doolittles...well, it was too late then, wasn't it? Because America was voting by then, and as we've learned by now, America is not to be trusted with their telephones. And I almost feel bad for the kid, because it's not his fault he's not fantastic, and it's certainly not his fault that the country has decided to turn him into the reason AI falls apart, and Simon quits the show. So, he's decided "Screw it, they're all having fun at my expense, I'm going to have fun too, and wear a faux-hawk and sing songs that I'm completely unprepared to sing".

And Kevin Covais? He annoyed the crap out of me, but I've mostly forgotten him, so I can't really elaborate on that one. Scott Savol (shudder) was a whole other story, because I actually had such a strong dislike for him that I stopped watching that season until someone called me to tell me he had finally been voted off. I couldn't stand to watch his self-satisfied smirk whenever someone else would be voted off before him, because he actually THOUGHT he belonged there. His look of shock when he was voted off (man I watched THAT BIT over and over again) only proved that he really believed he could sing. He could NOT...

But my rant isn't so much about the bad singers of past (and present) seasons as it is about the fact that unless something is done about this method of voting, AI is NOT, contrary to how much Simon wants to believe it, a singing competition. And it's a shame really. Because I watch it for the singing. And I own albums by at least 3 of the former idol contestants (winners or not), because good music has come out of this show.

The show does something right, after all, where would Daughtry be if he hadn't been unjustly voted off too soon? And this is why I continue to watch...but if Melinda Doolittle goes home before Sanjaya? I'm just sayin'...