On wednesday night during LOST commercials I would change the channel over to FOX to see who won in American Idol. At this point it feels like the show has gone too far. Now when 
Taylor Hicks won it felt like a moment that centuries later would be described as the creation of some religious icon people created to worship. “Because this is what people did at the turn of the 21st century” some old grandfather would be telling his great grand kids, “they would use these devices called the telephone to decide every year on the person they wanted to worship most”.
When Ryan Seacrest told America “your new American Idol is…” everyone screamed and stood up applausing, and for a moment I thought everyone was going to get down on their knees and do the whole “we’re not worthy” wave. The camera shot over to David Hasselhoff who was literally in tears as if he had just witnessed a miracle.
But more importantly…
The most popular talent contest in America, if not the world, has crowned its latest victor after polling a record 63.4 million votes.
The host of American Idol, Ryan Seacrest, announced in considerable excitement that the figure was “more than any president in the history of our country has received”. [source]
Is that something people should say out loud, and proudly? Never mind that normally when you vote for a president you don’t call a toll free number or send an SMS, over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over…again. But the last 2004 U.S. elections, which I believe had the highest voter turnout in American history, saw 122,293,720 votes compared to American Idol’s 63.4 million. I don’t know if that’s accurate though, so someone correct me if I’m wrong. But hey, even Condoleezza Rice put the Middle East aside for a moment to tune in. Talk about soul patrol.
The movie “American Dreamz” that came out last month had commercials saying “imagine a country where more people vote for a pop idol than their next president”. Is that something which is supposed to be great? That more people are interested in voting for someone they’ll forget about in a few years as opposed to the “leader of the free world”? I think Bush gets more press coverage than all the American Idols put together.
Anyways, they should stop saying it. It’s one of those things a people should be embarrassed about. At least I would. But hey, that’s just me.
“Is that something people should say out loud, and proudly?”
Nope. In fact, the words “American Idol” and “pride” should never occur the the same statement.
You’re right, I totally agree with you
The whole notion is seriously ridiculous and degrading to humans!
What sea-crest said is flat out incorrect, why? (You mentioned it above)
But it’s an important issue that you touch upon … According to Conan O’Brien, When Hilary Clinton heard that news, She bought a Karaoke machine 😉
As for American DreamZ, look where “Dirty whore” got her, anything for fame.
Dude, do the math: 122,293,720*0.51 = 62,369,797 votes for Mr. Bush, the rest for Kerry. So yes, Hicks could beat the last vote count for Bush, though I’m not sure about the other presidents.
Fellow Jordanian, actually I think that’s wrong. The total number of votes in the US elections was 122,293,720 and the total number of votes (bush and kerry combined)..bush got the majority with 62,041,268..
the total number of votes for American Idol was 63 million (for both contestents combined)…of which Hick won the majority of.
Yes, Naseem it is rediculous, sadly we’ve caught the same infection in the arab world also, with shows like super star and star academy, i mean i know these shows are originaly arab created by the rediculousness of devouting our time to watching and concerning outselves with who won and who got eleminated and all that crap… its sad really…