On The Air

Vote For The Worst brings us their Top 5 American Idol myths, and gives us a look at how the audition process really works.

1. The auditions take place over one or two days and everyone gets to see Simon, Paula, and Randy.
2. We see a truthful depiction of each audition.
3. The bad singers are not encouraged by the producers.
4. The good singers always make it through.
5. Everyone has a shot at becoming the American Idol.

And here’s the shocking truth: none of these things are true! Well, duh. And what really gets me is that the article has such an indignant tone to it, like they’re so pissed off that the Idol producers are lying to us, and they just want the truth to get out there, so everyone knows what deceiving bastards they are. And really, who cares? Most people already know this stuff, and the few that don’t aren’t going to have their world rocked by finding out. It’s not really news that reality shows aren’t strict documentaries, you know? And the whole world isn’t going to rise up in protest because they’re not. So the Idol producers aren’t concerned about putting the best singers through. So what? America isn’t concerned with voting for the best singers. And that’s because American Idol isn’t a singing competition, something that I’ve said before and I apparently have to keep saying over and over, because there are people out there who still don’t get it. Or people who get it and are outraged because of it. Like there’s some huge injustice being perpetrated on the American public, but the joke is that the American public is perpetrating the injustice on themselves, because they’re the ones that vote to keep Constantine on the show week after week after week, and it has absolutely nothing to do with his voice.

So you can get yourself all het up and overworked about the fact that American Idol lets bad singers through because they’re fun to watch, or you can sit back and look at the ratings for PBS and realize that America doesn’t want to watch documentaries. They want to be entertained, and that’s all it’s about. And if anyone should know this, it’s the people at Vote For The Worst, which celebrates the fact that some awful singers have made it to the final rounds. It’s a good article they wrote up, I just think they could do it without the judgemental tone.