You know what I hate even more than the misconception that Lance Armstrong is a hero? American Idol. So I'm sitting here, being forced to watch the catastrophe that is the finale. And I find it stunningly embarassing that 54 million people actually bothered to vote for something that is more even more fixed than professional wrestling. The only votes that mattered were the ones done by Fox shareholders last week, and every "surprise" was preplanned to rally sponsors, or increase voting.
Let's look critically at that bald guy with the hurricane wanring sideburns getting the boot a few weeks ago. Now, everyone predicted him to win, and he had oodles of little girl fans everywhere. Of course, nobody expected him to lose, and no less, in the finals. And what does Fox say was what caused it? A LACK OF HIS FANS VOTING. Soon after a wild number of fans complain about not being able to get through to the 1-800 numbers, necessitating lots of the fans to vote via text messaging. Needless to say, Fox gets a percent of the millions of votes that they get, and even a minute percentage guarantees a garbage truck of money getting unloaded on Rupert Murdock's front lawn.
I sincerely doubt this is the first time this has happened. In all likelihood, Fox selects their winners when there are 5 or 6 people left, and the sudden "judge/celebrity song selection" is undoubtedly manipulated into making the people sound bad for one night, making fans just say "yeah, s/he sucked that night." And the fact that Fox gets a cut from every album sold by the winners gives them even more incentive to pick out people who they think won't just come out with a fleetingly popular single shortly after winning, only to disappear and end up making short cameos on the opening minutes of various primetime specials on ABC and CBS as they desperately scramble to get any gig they can.
Not to mention how for every three minute song is quickly followed by four minutes of commercials grows tiresome quickly.
So yeah, it's fixed and stupid.
And the years haven't been kind to Meatloaf...
Let's look critically at that bald guy with the hurricane wanring sideburns getting the boot a few weeks ago. Now, everyone predicted him to win, and he had oodles of little girl fans everywhere. Of course, nobody expected him to lose, and no less, in the finals. And what does Fox say was what caused it? A LACK OF HIS FANS VOTING. Soon after a wild number of fans complain about not being able to get through to the 1-800 numbers, necessitating lots of the fans to vote via text messaging. Needless to say, Fox gets a percent of the millions of votes that they get, and even a minute percentage guarantees a garbage truck of money getting unloaded on Rupert Murdock's front lawn.
I sincerely doubt this is the first time this has happened. In all likelihood, Fox selects their winners when there are 5 or 6 people left, and the sudden "judge/celebrity song selection" is undoubtedly manipulated into making the people sound bad for one night, making fans just say "yeah, s/he sucked that night." And the fact that Fox gets a cut from every album sold by the winners gives them even more incentive to pick out people who they think won't just come out with a fleetingly popular single shortly after winning, only to disappear and end up making short cameos on the opening minutes of various primetime specials on ABC and CBS as they desperately scramble to get any gig they can.
Not to mention how for every three minute song is quickly followed by four minutes of commercials grows tiresome quickly.
So yeah, it's fixed and stupid.
And the years haven't been kind to Meatloaf...