Am I excited about American Idol?

So I've been watching American Idol ever since the first season. In fact, I don't think I've missed an episode in three years. It's one of the few shows my wife and I can watch together. Last season, I came down with a serious case of the McPheever. I cheered as America rose up to kick Chris Daughtry out of the competition. And I grew very emotional as Taylor Hicks gave some of the greatest performances ever by a disabled person, evenutally winning the whole thing, both for himself and for special needs people everywhere.


Soul Patrol, Soul Patrol, yaaaay!!!!!!

But now, as the show enters its sixth season tonight amid much fanfare, I'm not sure if I have another run in me. It's a big freaking investment! You sit through all the audition episodes, which range from highly entertaining to gruelingly tedious (sometimes it feels like it I'm the one rotting away in those hotel lobbies for all those hours), then the scene shifts to Hollywood, then there's the final 12. One day, you look up and it's Memorial Day weekend, and the three increasingly insufferable judges have shepherded the country toward another mediocre talent who is just attractive enough to avoid outright ugliness, and who you would probably openly mock if you saw them performing that Barry Manilow/Elvis Presley/Air Supply medley in the corner dive bar.


Oh, Paula -- can't you wait until six?

All in all, it's a good, clean, relatively harmless show. It's a televised singing contest! But on the other hand, I think the show, which wasn't exactly brilliant to begin with, is slowly getting stupider. And I think it may be sucking people down with it. Will I watch? Yeah, probably. But maybe I'll have one eye in a book this season.

Hyperlinks:
- Is there any limit for "American Idol"? [CNN]
- Lucky Dawg! Life is good for Randy Jackson [Boston Herald]
- Simon Cowell calls Bob Dylan "boring" [The Huffington Post]
- Paula Abdul visibly intoxicated in Seattle TV interview [YouTube]

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