American Idol - What a waste it has become

[The Poet]

Originally Posted by neoflex

I'm just amazed that you guys can even stomach that show. I would rather poke my eyeballs out with a dull and rusty knife.

There it is, and so it goes for all this "reality" garbage. But to my mind the mentality of those who watch is not the worst of the problem; rather, it is the participants who are hoping to get something for nothing, without working for it. In the case of Idol specifically, these kids (and not always kids either) want to go from unknown to famous in 6 weeks. Time was that an artist, in music or whatever, had to toil for years to hone the craft and establish a reputation and a following. Now they expect to "win" a contract based as much on a personality contest as for any ability they may have.

This whole "reality" fad is nought but a scam run upon a guileless populace for the sole purpose of saving the networks money. The studios do not need to pay actors or writers, and production costs are much less than that of a scripted show.

It has been nearly 50 years since Newton Minow declared TV was a "vast wasteland", and even longer since Frank Lloyd Wright called it "chewing gum for the eyes". I wonder what they'd say today.

[mithrilG60]

Originally Posted by The Poet

There it is, and so it goes for all this "reality" garbage. But to my mind the mentality of those who watch is not the worst of the problem; rather, it is the participants who are hoping to get something for nothing, without working for it. In the case of Idol specifically, these kids (and not always kids either) want to go from unknown to famous in 6 weeks. Time was that an artist, in music or whatever, had to toil for years to hone the craft and establish a reputation and a following. Now they expect to "win" a contract based as much on a personality contest as for any ability they may have.

Thing is, in almost every case they get what they paid for. Most of the Idol winners and about 99% of the other contestants are effectively career dead by the time the closing credits on rolling over the winner's celebration. What is it, 2 or 3 people that have actually fashioned successful careers out of their time on the show? For those people Idol was a great boost, but they had the talent and work ethic to make it on their own anyways.

I'd agree that reality TV is one of the worst things to have happened, and not just to the US, in a very long time. It takes a lot of work to completely dumb down something called an idiot box, but reality tv's managed to do it. But hey, if keeping the drooling masses on their sofa's and glued to the screen is what makes the studio's money you can bet they'll do it!