some articles in today's LIFE.....
Idol pursuit
American Idol is talon time more than Talentime and gives couch potatoes the chance to root for someone
By Tay Yek Keak
I HEARD it through the grapevine. American Idol 2 was some sort of glorified karaoke contest which I did not follow until some friends asked me who I thought would win.
People were arguing whether it would be Ruben, Clay, Joshua or Kimberley (see sidebar).
The show, a hugely successful talentime contest that grips millions of viewers in the United States, has, after 14 episodes, narrowed its popstar wannabes to just four with three more episodes to go.
I expected it to be cheesier than a French bakery and I was right.
It is as cheesy as a slugfest can be with big, strong voices belting out pop standards, ballads and schmaltzy bathroom-friendly songs.
The show searches for a performer, not a genius. So, nobody commits suicide by doing hip-hop, rap, heavy metal, new age chants, or goes weird by waving her arms as the next Stevie Nicks.
But, boy, is it entertaining.
Because of its pizzazz, because of its bigness, because of its tackiness, I thought it had been born in the USA until somebody told me that it is cloned from a Brit prototype called Pop Idol.
American Idol 2 is so popular that it is in the top five of the US ratings almost weekly.
In Singapore, its viewership has gained an average of 266,000 for viewers aged four and above. It peaked at 316,000 viewers last week.
The first instalment of American Idol was crowned the highest rated TV programme in the US last year, with 22.8 million viewers tuning in for the finals in September.
In this second season, it makes competitors weep more by splitting the shows into two parts on consecutive nights - Tuesday for the song segment and Wednesday for the results portion.
Here in Singapore, the two parts are combined into one show, which is shown a few hours behind the Wednesday episode in the US.
And, man, can those people sing. If they were taking part in a Singapore Talentime, they would be judging, not competing.
FAT MAN, STICK MAN
YOU get goosebumps, I tell you, listening to fat man Ruben Studdard, stick man Clay Aiken, and songbird Kimberley Locke, who handled Billy Joel's New York State Of Mind like a pro.
Now, to understand this pop phenomenon, you have to understand the American state of mind. It is a mentality that celebrates celebrity so much, it is surpassed only by one thing - the opportunity to create one.
If you give Americans a target, chances are they would either shoot it or root for it.
In American Idol 2, the ultimate star-making process of putting somebody out there to root for hits a perfect note.
Viewers vote by phone to push their favourites through every week until only one is left holding a million-dollar recording contract.
This thus confers absolute power in the talent quest to potatoes at home talented mostly in yodelling under their showers.
That number, as revealed in one episode by the show's host, Ryan Seacrest, adds up to about 18 million people.
The fundamental flaw in this awesome display of democracy is, of course, the wrong person could get elected.
Everyone, from the judges to the audience to even a tone-deaf guy like me, was stunned, I am sure, to see what happened in last week's episode.
The singing Marine Joshua Gracin - a contestant best described as a 'nice-looking guy, singing in tune, so what?' - is still in the running when better ones have gone missing in action.
SINGING PATRIOTS
THERE can be only one reason for this: The American patriot beats the American partridge.
Now, with this anomaly, one basic ingredient of entertainment - controversy - is satisfied in this show.
American Idol 2, if you notice, is a series that has it all. It has drama, disputes, humour, humiliation, Oprah-style openness, and most significantly, an opera-class bad guy.
One finalist, Corey Clark, was dropped from the show after it was revealed that he faces trial on charges that he assaulted his sister.
In the US, every nook, every cranny, every person from a granny to a referee, can be milked for all their 15 minutes of fame. Better still, infamy.
So, the show's three judges do not just assess the entertainers; they are also the entertainers.
The fat one, Randy Jackson, a record producer, is described as a guy who has 'produced eight No. 1's'.
Pop star Paula Abdul is introduced as someone who has 'released six No 1's'.
And the man whom everybody loves to hate but longs to hear, caustic Brit record exec Simon Cowell, the ugly coyote feared by the Coyote Ugly aspirants, is a chap who 'just thinks he's No. 1'.
His talon time, in this talentime, of brutally frank but perversely funny comments is a crucial element in shows about real people today.
Viewers, I bet you, tune in just for his jibes. I do.
When Cowell says, 'If I were your mother, I'd tell you to shut up', he is fulfilling a key component of reality shows - the art of the insult to get the result.
Cruelty is a big draw these days and his acerbic I-say-it-as-I-hear-it remarks provide the topic at the water cooler the next day.
From Survivor to The Amazing Race to The Bachelor, viewers expect the confrontation as an exertion of the harsh truth. In other words, it is not real until it gets real mean.
Bad jibes caused by disputes with notorious morbid record executive Simon Cowell had not dampened the show.
To a point, of course. The venom spouted in American Idol 2 does not last.
It is dissipated within seconds by a great voice, a good song, a nice smile, and a happy assertion of fun as a family event.
Last year's winner Kelly Clarkson, for instance, shot to stardom precisely because she has everyone's support. Her first single, A Moment Like This, taken off her debut album Thankful, set records by jumping from No. 52 to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
There is even a new American Idol movie called From Justin To Kelly, which co-stars Clarkson and the first runner-up Justin Guarini.
To be released on June 13 in the US, it features the two who play themselves and who fall in love in a romantic comedy that mixes real-life adventures with scripted hijinks.
Clearly, the American Idol phenomenon is made for the young but from the way it seeks out the little old women among its studio audience, it engages grandma too.
There is something to be said about a show choreographed to such an overwhelmingly popular extent.
What it comes down to is this: It is basically about one uncontested mainstay of showbiz - Everybody loves a song contest.
American Idol 2 airs on Thursdays on Channel 5 at 8 pm.
