American Idol, Judgement Day

North America's favorite show American Idol has been getting some bad feedback lately. As we all well know the admitting process is a difficult one and often times can be hard to swallow for those going through it.

American Idol; for those that don't keep up with it, is a television show of finding the next idol who can sing exceptionally well. They are looking for the diamond in the rough but of course with finding any diamond we must go through a few coals first.

For the first few weeks of the shoe are introduced to the whole process of weeding out the singers who can really sing from the ones that perhaps aren't quite singers. There are three judges Simon Cowell who is one of the shows creators from Britain as he brought the idea for this show from the show in Britain. Randy Jackson who was for a time the bass player for Journey as well as producer for major artists, and Paula Abdul who of course is the legendary singer choreographer from the eighties.

These judges have to travel from town to town throughout the USA and decide who gets to make it to the next round in Hollywood. They are seated in a room and people come in one by one and audition for them and if they are good enough to their standards they are let through to the next round if not they are told no.

Of course part of American idol's charm is the fiery Simon Cowell who is known to speak his mind and in doing so offend all those he regents. He has been known to comment not only on their appalling singing but their weight, physical features and clothing styles. He has very high standards for who should be let through to the next round and not.

The big debate is whether American Idol is going to far in its "judging" process. Simon on a recent episode not only made known his distaste for this person's singing ability but also commented rudely on how this person looked. He made perfectly clear on national television that this person was unattractive. Paula seemed to be a little nicer in telling Simon he was out of line and offering some sweet words to the obviously embarrassed contestant however, as soon as this person stepped out of the room she joined in the extream laughter at this person's expense right on national television.

Rosie O'Donall now on ABC's The View, didn't hesitate to make known her opinion on what the American population now views as entertainment, however, with her argument going on with Donald Trump she must have felt empowered to slip in a derogatory innuendo that one of the American Idol judges was probably intoxicated.

Is Rosie right? Did the judges go to far? Is this the wrong kind of entertainment for the population? Does making fun of people in this way turn the green light on for our children to take it to the playgrounds and just as easily make negative comments to other children?

Although I believe that American Idol should take a little more social responsibility towards what they say to contestants, I do see how if they were to only show the good singers the viewer ratings would drop. There are people who will only watch American idol for the first few weeks to see the auditions after that of course they are all fairly good singers. It's the cruelty of Simon and the obviously horrible singers believing they can truly sing that brings the masses to their televisions week after week. However, how far is to far? I believe the line should be drawn at attacking someone personally. This is an audition to judge whether the person can sing, if they can't that's one thing to comment on but commenting on someone's physical appearance should not be tolerated.

Still when you really think about it the more controversial the show the more viewers they'll get. This incident alone will jack up the viewer ratings. People want to see other people fail it's our human nature to enjoy other's pain in a sense. I know for me although I can't condone this last incident of making fun of someone's physical appearance, but I too grab my popcorn and turn on American idol with the intense pleasure of watching those the think they can sing but can't get told just that by Simon Cowell.

So is Rosie right? Would the American population tune in even if all they showed were the auditions of the really good singers? I doubt it, I know i wouldn't.