Am I the only one

Who has ABSOLUTELY NO INTEREST in American Idol? In. The. Least. It seems the hype and people taking about it just haven't got to me, even as Paula Abdul seems to top herself with more and more bizarre (dare I say drugged-out) interviews. Is it just me?

This from someone who's played and a lot of music in my day (piano as a kid, flute and voice as well for good measure). I am likely one of the most dedicated shower singers, hummers, and feet tappers out there. I sing all the time, and am rather shameless about it. I sing when I'm cooking, I sing when I'm out running errands, I sing when I'm cleaning. It's so bad I have to explain to people in my car that if you don't like me singing the only cure is to turn the radio up loud enough so that you can't hear me. I have no delusions about being a good singer, but I do it anyway. It's an ingrained habit I can't seem to shake. I love music.

But back to the show - people who can't sing being humiliated or humiliating themselves on (inter)national television doesn't hold any appeal to me. So much of the show seems about humiliating others.

I have no doubt many of them bring it on themselves - they'd have to be what we lawyers call willfully blind to think they could be some hit recording artist, but trotting them out for ratings to be made fun of (and deservedly so in some cases), seems exploitative to me. They seem to prey on the awkward, the ones you can tell from the start that are doomed to failure. The girl in the too-tight (and accordingly unflattering) dress with the distinctive mustache, the awkward woman showing up with her mum, the ones you know they only filmed to showcase as "losers" later filmed sobbing or clutching to their delusions of brilliance. I don't feel any need to watch people doing that to themselves.

To say nothing of the showcase of screeching, off-key and bizarre vibrato voices butchering "classics" like "Don't Cha" by the Pussycat Dolls.

It's so bad I'm off to clean the house (now that's desperation).