I want to write about how much I despise American Idol and all reality television in general, but somehow I am unable to put my feelings into words that I would not be ashamed of, or at least ashamed to have my children read. However, I must say a few things about reality television and I will try to do so in a calm and dispassionate manner. Just know that underneath is a much darker undercurrent! To be fair, Kelly Clarkson can sing and some of her songs were catchy, and Carrie Underwood (despite the fact I don't like country music) is talented. Who was the guy who beat the ridiculously talented Adam Lambert....exactly! In the real world Adam Lambert would have kicked the other guys butt all over the stage (which come to think of it he did, he just didn't win). But for the most part, we watched American Idol for the first three or four rounds where the really really bad, sad, desperate, inept, and hopeless got to have their dreams dashed, their egos completely crushed, and their self-delusions of grandeur made the butt of some international joke. I stopped watching after the first season and have not watched a single episode since...ever. The only reason I know who Adam Lambert or Carrie Underwood are is because their music is on MTV and the radio constantly and they have become authentic music stars. Where are the rest of the winners? How real is a reality show called American Idol where most of the winners are has-beens before they even leave the show. Hardly creating "America's next idols".
The fact that I don't watch reality television doesn't make me more perfect or holy or upstanding than anyone else. I just don't like being lied to. Lets face it and be honest, reality television is not real in any sense of the word. Putting twelve people into a house and subjecting them to stupid competitions and filming all their stupid conversations and cat fights and hook ups is not the real world. Taking a bunch of contestants to exotic locations and making them do basically the same thing is not the real world. Following a bunch of bitchy, lipo-suctioned, women around their hopelessly make-believe lives in Orange County or New York or Atlanta or wherever they will go next, is not reality television. Whenever anybody sticks twenty cameras in your face 24/7 and then edits all of it into a 1/2 hour or 1 hour program complete with the characters providing commentary is not real life. Put all these "real" scenarios together and you get three or four characters in every show yelling, screaming, saying stupid stuff, creating "drama", all in the desperate attempt to snag more airtime than their fellow "competitors". It may entertain people, a lot of people, but don't insult my intelligence by telling me this is "reality". Call it something else. Call it "television to make you feel better about your own life" or "here at the network we got tired of hiring actors so we just follow people around with cameras and pretty soon they start "acting" like what they are doing is real life and we don't pay them much and you all like it". I hear that at least one of Tiger Wood's mistresses is getting a "reality" show. Wow, we are going to follow her around the kitchen where she waitresses and wait for her to hop into bed with another married athlete? That would be a true reality show about her life. That is what she did. But no, she'll have really "deep" conversations with people about how to attract a good man and how to try and avoid all the craziness of fame and how much she hates all the attention that her "mistake" with Tiger has caused her. All with cameras in her face that she agreed to.
I fear for our planet people! I fear that soon everyone watching these shows will begin to think that what they are watching IS reality and that they need to behave like their favourite reality stars in order to have a real life. I believe that would signal the end of civilization and the need for an apocalypse.
In the mean time, I'm going to get ready to watch some REAL reality television. The NFL starts in less than a month.
