American Idol Season 6: Round One

ONE DOWN AND TEN TO GO…THE REAL ELIMINATIONS BEGIN!

After enduring a less than memorable week of Diana Ross songs, America whittled the twelve finalists down to eleven.  Most viewers may have been wishing for Sanjaya Malakar’s exit; honestly, any of the bottom three contestants could have gone home without any objections from this observer.

Obviously, Sanjaya is horrible, just not horrible enough to get kicked off this early.  He looks like someone you would sponsor through Save The Children, not the next American Idol.  Any stage presence he may possess is glaringly absent whenever he performs.  Even the judges have a hard time justifying his place in the top twelve.  Randy can’t stop laughing about his hair; Paula struggles to slur even the slightest compliment; and Simon simply shakes his inflated head in disgust.  Hate him or despise him; Sanjaya’s perseverance can be credited to a couple of reasons.

American Idol’s audience consists of a lot of families.  With those families come young girls, who (predictably) fall for the pretty hair and puerile charms of someone like Sanjaya.  Good or bad, you cannot ignore that part of the audience and the power it welds.  It won’t be strong enough (god willing) to get him to the very end.  If previous seasons can be used as a gage, you can expect to see him around a lot longer than you probably want to.  I will choose to follow Randy Jackson’s lead and keep my expectations focused on Sanjaya’s hairstyle choices.