American Idol begins another season
Posted on Jan 19 2007 | Tagged as: Technology
Millions watched American Idol’s season premiere the other night, and I was one of them. I watched most of the first 6 or so episodes last season simply because it was my first Idol season with a HDTV.
This year, after bragging about how many people watched last year, and how many records the Idols have sold over the last few years, they went to Minneapolis, which apparently doesn’t have very many talented singers. The show always highlights the highs and lows of the talent search, and this year is no different.
Watching the premiere, however, was more painful this year than ever, and it wasn’t because of the talent. Before the first commercial break, Idol highlighted a girl trying out for the show. Turns out her own idol, Jewel, was a guest judge on the show, so it was even more stressful for the girl.
She wasn’t that bad of a singer…not Idol-caliber, but not William Hung quality either. What was bad was the editing of the show. Instead of a standard tryout, followed by tears with her parents, then departure and on to another contestant, Idol barely edited out anything. For what seemed like 10 minutes (probably closer to 7), Idol kept showing the girl on the tryout stage, in the hallway, outside… It felt like watching a train wreck. You shouldn’t be looking, but you just can’t turn your head away.
I’m all in favor of making fun of people who can’t sing very well but think they can. They signed up for the Idol tryout, and certainly sign a waiver stating that all video of them can be used. This, however, was pretty bad…I can’t imagine Fox earned any new viewers during that first 15 minutes. I turned off my TV.
