Yes, I'll admit it. I watch American Idol, which isn't a far stretch since about 20 to 30 million people watch it every week.
I do remember that when I started watching it, I didn't really know if I would enjoy watching it, but I did. The singing coupled with the judges comments get you involved to the point where a person like me, who can't sing very well at all, is commenting during the show that someone is 'off key' or 'flat'.
In the past, I would watch in disgust as the least talented person in the competition would remain on the show while more talented people are voted off. Part of the reason for this happening is due to a site that sprung up four years ago called Vote For the Worst. Vote For the Worst's goal every week is to get all their readers to vote for the worst person and see how long they can keep them in the competition.
Initially, I was against this because I felt that it was unfair to those that were actually trying. Plus, it was keeping people that I hated to listen to around longer in the competition. This year, I'm embracing it.
Here's why. When I first started watching American Idol, I would be a little miffed when bad singers were chosen for the competition portion on the show. I would be even more annoyed when those singers continually made it through the competition while other, more talented singers went home.
Then I started to see the real picture. You see, American Idol really isn't about finding the most talented singer. If it was, they wouldn't subject you to the awful auditions during the audition weeks. If you do the math, it's literally impossible to hear every singer that shows up at the competition. They have thousands upon thousands of singers audition. Only a handful see the judges. It gets fishy when a lot of them suck really really bad, which means they are purposely chosen to sing for the judges, knowing that they are going to suck.
Sometimes, they take marginally talented people to go to the Hollywood tryouts. Then they take those marginally talented over more talented people for the real show (when it gets wittled down to the top 24) because they are prettier, more personable, or both. Why? Because they want variety. They want the bad singers. They want those with little range like a Sinatra-like singer trying to belt out Crocodile Rock or a Diva trying to sing a country song. They want the judges to wince and criticize because it adds variety.
Now that I've fully realized and accepted this I had a prediction when the show was whittling down singers to the final 12 that performs in front of the huge audience during the live show, that Sanjaya Malakar would make it to the top 12. Sure enough, to my wife's amazement, he did.
Why was I so sure? While he sucks, he has this very over the top charm that was sure to get him votes. Being half Indian doesn't hurt either as he gets the Indian vote. Getting a block of votes from an area or a segment of the population can take you far.
Two weeks ago, I started voting. We've voted in the past for certain contestants like Taylor Hicks (what were we thinking?), but never for the worst person. I decided to vote for him because of Vote For the Worst and for Howard Stern. Both want to see Sanjaya go far, which would be hilarious.
I voted about eight times that night for Sanjaya. My wife asked with a confused look, "Why are you doing this?"
I asked someone the next day at work if they watched American Idol. She said that she had and rattled off who she thought was good.
I proudly declared, "I voted for Sanjaya eight times."
A lady next to us whipped her head around so fast I thought she was going to pull a muscle.
"He's awful!" she said with a confused look.
"I know. It's funny."
That night, the results came and Sanjaya was safe. My wife looked over at me and in no polite terms threated me if I voted for him again. Normally, I don't take kindly to threats, but since I have to live with the threatener, I'm going to stop.
Besides, he's going to go far. This year, people are really fully embracing the vote for the worst guy mentality. He didn't even make the bottom three this week. Howard Stern had lots of his listeners calling in telling about how they voted hundreds of times for Sanjaya. Even Howard himself, who normally goes to bed at 9 pm stayed up late to vote for Sanjaya, all the while giggling.
Even my brother is voting for Sanjaya.
I think the time was right for someone like Sanjaya to get a movement behind him like this. It's not that people want mediocrity. I think that people are getting tired of the same formula that is American Idol. It's shaking things up.
They created this problem by purposely picking mediocre people amongst the two or three superior people. They alse created a problem wherein they ask people to vote for their favorite performer. This can splinter votes when a person that's like a superior performer gets voted off. Then the judges act shocked as if they can't believe that America did that.
Also, they don't show the voting numbers or ranks of the performers so you can't tell how well a person is doing. They want as many people to vote in each week, which isn't always possible.
If Sanjaya goes far, and I predict he will, you might expect some changes in American Idol. While the bad singers will still get in, I wouldn't be surprised if they started being more selective or even allowed people to vote for who they think should go home. That would solve part of the vote splintering problem
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