Why ‘American Idol’ is beating the Olympics

Why is American Idol taking the gold and leaving NBC with a 600 million dollar silver?

The answer is surprisingly simple.  The Idol folks are beating the likes of NBC and perhaps the IOC at their own game.  Don’t believe me?  How can a bunch of amateur singers compare to Olympians?  Let’s look at the reality TV formula:

• Put a group of previously average people together under unusual conditions.
• Force them to engage in grueling and occasionally strange competitions.
• Do this over multiple weeks and watch their personalities clash.
• To keep things fresh, thow in new twists.
• Eventually a few will rise to full celebrity status and become wealthy and famous.
• The others will go back to their average lives with some stories to tell.
• Televise a carefully edited version of the events and make millions.

Sound familiar?  If you listen to Johnny Weir, the Olympic dorms are just one step up from Survivor’s Exile Island.  Well, he’s not the best judge, but from what I’ve heard, they’re more like the Big Brother house than a five-star hotel.  And if you replace the Biathlon’s skis with a raft and its gun with a bow and arrow it becomes the Survivor immunity challenge.  You see, they’re not that different after all.

In the end, the producers win big, but the contestants can get some pretty big crumbs off of the table.  The rest, like most Olympians, go back to their lives richer in stories if not in cash.  Idol has just found a faster way to get the bobsled down the mountain, so to speak.

So put down the remote and enjoy.  Don’t hate Idol for pushing wobbly voices over wobbly skaters.  Just pick a reality show and enjoy.  If you can’t do that, don’t hate the players, hate the game.