Nerve Endings Firing Away

It is time again for our mandatory Sanjaya post and although I was simply going to post couple of pictures I found circulating over the web, I read an awesome dissection of the Malakar phenomenon in today’s Houston Chronicle. The article rightly goes beyond Sanjaya and attributes his success on the television’s most popular show to America’s disgruntled public. Just before this season started, American Idol was gloating from the success of Carrie Underwood’s win at the Grammy’s and Jennifer Hudson’s almost-certain win at the Oscars. An article in the NY Times even suggested that Idol was different from all reality TV shows due to the high success rates of its contestants post-season. If you looked at the past year, you also might be inclined to believe so but we forget the failed singing careers of Ruben Studdard, Fantasia Burrino, and last-year’s winner, Taylor Hicks, who probably was a better version of Sanjaya (according to the Chron).

I always believed that American Idol was reality television at its pompous best (or worst). The show’s producers arrogantly suggested that it was probably the only way America was going to discover talent. The Chron article puts it better:

Malakar has become the most concrete example that Americans have come to understand the joke and American Idol’s bubble is deflating. Until Malakar came around, voters have faithfully given the talented, most marketable singers their support, and most importantly, they’ve played by judges’ and producers’ rules. American Idol has existed in an alternate universe, one that demands a 24-like suspension of disbelief.For six seasons, viewers have taken advice from the strangest arbiters of good talent: Randy Jackson, who touts his stint with Journey far more than his stint with Aretha Franklin, and Paula Abdul, a long-forgotten ’80s singer who danced with an animated cat in her best-known hit, Opposites Attract. And viewers have let themselves sink into a world where real-life lounge singers such as Celine Dion become luminaries.

The number of people that believe that Sanjaya Malakar is squashing the dreams of many talented singers is astounding. They forget that it is the American public that keeps voting him in and the only way to counter that is to vote in larger numbers for others. The cell phone company (AT&/ Cingular) and the show wins either ways, thanks to the ‘standard text messaging charges apply.’

The Chron article then hammers the final nail in American Idol coffin:

It all flies in the face of what has made AI a success — the idea that the American public can use its free will. So when the winners aren’t really winning and producers fill casts with the same types of people — row after row of attractive girls who can wail like Mariah Carey — viewers feel manipulated, and that’s when the likes of Malakar become the perfect revenge.

However, American Idol will still continue to attract viewers albeit in declining numbers until it loses its base to the next stupid reality show. Anyway, since most of the visitors to this blog aren’t interested in any cultural or social dissection of a television show and come down here only for Sanjaya’s pictures, I cannot help but oblige [from People]. Here enjoy: