Over 16,526,077 people are on fubar.
What are you waiting for?
Not by accident, let us guess, did Randy and Simon both practically pound their tables as they finished their final commentary on Jordin by saying this is a singing competition, doggone it.
Unfortunately, they could say that until Randy got Simon's accent and Simon got Randy's wardrobe and it wouldn't change the fact that the best singer was kicked off before the finals.
That makes it a little difficult to sell the show as primarily a singing competition. It's sort of like running a cooking competition and having the winner be the person who came up with the best place settings.
Now sure, elements of singing do matter. William Hung and Sanjaya did not win, though they stuck around way longer than reason or any shred of singing talent would dictate. But you can't rave about the performing skill of a relatively ordinary singer like Blake and then turn around and say you're running a singing competition.
Perhaps the most telling comment in this minidrama -- which isn't new this season, of course -- is Randy's declaration that this is the best singing competition in the history of television.
He may be right. Even if you don't define "best" as "most popular," he may be right. But that speaks way more to fact that television is a mediocre showcase for singing than it does to the excellence of "Idol." When we talk about great musical moments on television, they've almost all been pop culture events -- Elvis and the Beatles on Ed Sullivan; Live Aid. Television has never come close to recordings or live performance. That's not where the music that lasts comes from, the marketing success of videos notwithstanding.
If voters go on singing ability, Jordin should probably win. But if you go back to the first part of that sentence, the real second part is "Melinda should win."
That doesn't mean "Idol" isn't getting what it's after. It does mean that what it's after isn't the best singer.
