American Idle

Anytime someone starts off by saying "I'm going to do a song by Whitney Houston..." always ends badly. Why do people never learn this?

Poor American Idol, the pop culture juggernaut is showing signs of slowing down going into it's 7th season. Last year's winner, Jordan Sparks, had the lowest selling debut record for an Idol winner ever. Former winners Ruben Studdard and Taylor Hicks were both dropped by their record labels, as well as former runner up Katherine McPhee. While Kelly Clarkson became a pop sensation for a few years, her recent effort My December was met with record label resistance and audience indifference. While Jennifer Hudson's Oscar win, Carrie Underwood's ascension and Chris Daughtry's chart dominance are a feather in Idol's cap, it's not enough to fight a slight feeling of ennui going into Season 7.

Still, I get a kick out of watching America's biggest talent show and this season is no different. There is a conscious effort to get back to basics following last season where Sanjaya Malakar dominated the show. This year there is a focus on spotlighting contestants human interest stories amid the bizzaro world that is the audition process. Less focus on product tie ins and special guest judges so far. It is nice to see these profiles of the contestants to build some interest in their actual audition.

Yet the audition process has somewhat of a "been there, done that" feel. It doesn't help that judges Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson seem jaded and bored this season. Cowell's still brutally honest but seems less interested this year. Meanwhile, Abdul and Jackson seem to go out of their way to encourage the bad auditioners in an effort to stay awake.

Thankfully, there's still no shortage of delusional nutjobs and melismatic wailers to entertain me. American Idol is a fun tradition my wife and I have and I'm still happy to sit down in front of the TV to see the lastest flake bomb an audition or the next wanna be Soul singer warble "A Change Is Gonna Come". Hopefully the talent pool will be stronger than last year and once again, when we get to the final group I'll make my horribly wrong predictions. So I'll see you...after the break.