One way to watch American Idol

I have hated American Idol almost since the first time I saw it.  My sister loved it, and as has often happened, it prompted me to feel the opposite (which is why I began liking North Caroliona basketball...she thought Christian Laettner was awesome and we see how that worked out).  My feelings on the show are confirmed and reinforced with every airing of it (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday every week).  They reward screaming, shameless self-promotion and the winner is never the best singer, just the one with the most votes from his loser-fanbase (see: Hicks, Taylor)

Nevertheless, people watch every week despite all the things that turn me off about it.  Dana likes it.  And rather than excuse myself all 4 nights a week that they show it on Fox, I decided to try and stomach it.  Funny thing happened, I still hated it.  But I hate it with an opinion about almost all the contestants, but more importantly the judges (Randy-clown; Paula-loveably dumb but nice, Simon - awesome, Kara-should be electro-shocked every time she opens her mouth).  I've been sucked in...and yes that's the right verb relative to the show's producers.

But to ease the annoyance each week, Dana and I are drafting the final 12 tonight onto two respective teams.  We devised a scoring system and everything.  What about the 13th person?  We decided to collectively hate on Adam Lambert for the entirety of the season and keep him from figuring into the scoring at all.

I'll let you know how it goes after tonight, but if you need help making it through this show like I do, maybe this will help.  I'm actually excited about it.  It almost helps me forget that they cut Normund Gentle who would have gotten me to watch without any game attached.