Confession

It happens every time. I see all the hype, the advertising bullshit and controversial lead-up to Australian Idol and I think... What a crock. Not watching it this year. It's commercialised crap.

Take the judges. Not that I expect they perform a real function - they are just figureheads to buff out the program content. To make it appear legitimate, which underneath it all I don't think it is.

Who do we have on the panel? Let's see...

Judge #1 - Mark Holden, who apparently "enjoyed massive popularity with monster hits I Wanna Make You My Lady, Last Romance and Never Gonna Fall In Love Again", but appears to enjoy more notoriety as the man who declares a "TOUCHDOWN!" performance. It even has an action associated with it.
Hasbeen.
Judge #2 - Marcia Hines. The nurturer. This woman actually gives advice that is worthwhile - on occasion. But in the same show, any respect she gains from exhibiting this side is negated by the use of "You go, girlfriend" and the usual feigned indignance at the comments from the other judges.
Judge #3 - Kyle Sandilands has been described as a poor man's Howard Stern. He's a radio shock jock who has been cast as the asshole judge. The man who tears everyone down and leers at the women. I have to hand it to him - he plays the role of asshole well. I find myself feeling intense dislike toward him without a hint of respect.
Judge #4 - Ian 'Dicko' Dickson. This is an interesting one. This man played the asshole judge before, left the series for another network entirely and appears to have fallen flat on his arse at that. So now he's back.

Also, any show that has a voting poll via SMS just gives me the shits. Who does most of the voting? Kids who don't know any better. And what does that mean? Musically they don't really know any better either. It's all dreamy cute guys and whoever sang the song that is currently popular.

Really, I should be boycotting the show entirely - except I have two weaknesses:
Weakness #1 - The cover version with a difference. Occasionally - rarely, though - a really inventive version of a popular song will crop up. I am a sucker to hear a clever version of anything.
Weakness #2 - The loungeroom judging panel. Don't we all just turn into experts in our own loungeroom? From the safety of being on the recieving end of a one-way transmission we can tear those average performers apart. Suddenly we become experts on movement, intonation, song choice and costume. And I love it.