What American idol?

I’m starting to get sick of hearing about “American Idol”. I’ve never seen it, but it has been mentioned on just about every blog I read, and by most of my friends, and now it’s starting to come up in the online comics a little too much, too. I don’t know what day or even what channel this strange program comes on, but just from the implication of what other people have said about it, most of them assuming I’m watching it as rabidly as they all are, I guess its like some sort of cross between Star Search and Survivor, with a little Pop Stars mixed in. Whatever.

I certainly don’t mind that everyone is enjoying the program. More power to them. I simply wish I didn’t have to hear about it from all sides. When I received last week’s Entertainment Weekly and had no idea who the three people on the cover were, I felt it was approaching “way too much”. If Jon Stewart had mentioned it last night on the news (Yes, The Daily Show is my news program of choice), I don’t know what I’d have done. Perhaps by now the exploded remnants of my skull would be drying into a crusty shell on my sheets at home by now, for surely my cranium would have exploded last night in my sleep.

I think perhaps the only redeeming thing about this series is that its makers were dead-on with its title; this show and the people on it have been idolized by Americans. Literally, it is an example of idolatry. When they select their winner and give him/her a recording contract, America will continue to worship at their altar by buying CDs and concert tickets. Not I. Of course, I’ve never been a big fan of any of these reality/game shows.