Has American Idol Jumped the Shark?

As I was watching the American Idol auditions tonight, I couldn't help but wonder if the show is still about finding the most talented singers hiding amongst everyday ordinary Americans, or if it has simply become a stage for finding the biggest, fattest, saddest sob stories in America and then jamming them down our throats?

This over the top nauseating trend seemed to start last year with Danny Gokey. He was the borderline talented singer who's wife passed away just weeks before his Idol journey began. The Idol producers managed to parlay the "dead wife" angle into a third place finish for Gokey while his much more talented friend (Jamar Rogers) didn't even make it out of Hollywood and into the Top 36.

Now, I'm no expert on everything American Idol as I missed the first 6 seasons (I only started watching in Season 7 because I thought David Cook was cool, and I watched Season 8 because of my man-crush on Adam Lambert and my mad love for Megan Joy), but from the auditions I've seen so far, I'm struggling to find a reason to watch Season 9.

Seriously, who the hell is there to root for?? Some of the talent is ok - but it seems most were getting through to Hollywood as a result of their "hard luck" stories (surviving cancer, surviving prison, surviving the ghetto) as opposed to mad vocal skillz. Even when there wasn't really a hard luck story to be found the producers would just make one up! One young girl was still reeling from her parents divorce earlier this year (welcome to the other 50% of America darling), while another was there to escape her small town life.

*sigh*

Sadly, the best audition I've seen through the first 6 cities was General Larry Platt singing "Pants on the Ground".

The real unfortunate part is it looks like most of the really good talent didn't even get to audition for the judges. Check out this blog here and you will see tale after tale of Idol rejects who were told that they "weren't what Idol was looking for this year". And these weren't the regular retards rejects that we see during the audition process - some of these kids have some serious talent!

I suppose in hindsight they probably should have told the producers that they were gang-banging cancer survivors who's parents got divorced while they were in a small town prison. Oh well, guess they'll know better for next year.