Rating: NNNNN
the judges have been picked, the first-round auditions are in the can and the first episode of Canadian Idol has been broadcast. Let the hysteria begin.As the insane, unavoidable success of American Idol recently showed, there’s nothing more entertaining than public humiliation and the promise of success.
Even people who proudly proclaim that they “don’t watch much television” were inevitably, inexorably pulled into water-cooler and lunchroom conversations about the peculiar twists and turns of this real-life made-for-TV soap opera.
Whether typically laid-back Canadians will get as wound up about amateur singers from here as they did about the Yankee version (seen best perhaps in the thousands of fan sites and online Idol chat groups) remains to be seen.
Can viewers stomach an entire summer of Ben Mulroney? Does anyone actually care what Sass Jordan has to say? Will Farley Flex and Jake Gold get into a brawl? All will be revealed.
For the uninitiated, here are some online pointers. Come on, you know you care.
http://idol.ctv.ca
The dry, uninspired official site, which inexplicably includes references to Lloyd Robertson.
www.canadianidol-eh.ca
This site has nothing to do with Canadian Idol, but if you didn’t get the nod at the recent cattle call (sorry, audition), try these folks.
Home of American Idol. In case you didn’t get enough the first time around, you can go here and check out replay performances by Ruben and marvel at the sheer number of product placements.
www.televisionwithoutpity.com/show.cgi?show=89
The home of snarky, TV-centric Web forums where fans bitch and moan about American Idol, its stars and the “worst singer on the planet.”
www.freewebs.com/americanidol1n2/index.htm
Something for Canadian Idol fans to strive toward. This site meticulously documents every twitch, turn and blown note on American Idol. Baffling.
www.nytimes.com/2003/06/08/arts/08RICH.html
An exploration of the remarkable phenomenon of “telephilia,” the longing of everyone, no matter how talented or talentless, just to be on television.
www.fadetoblack.com/hallofshame/
The Rock And Roll Hall Of Shame, a collection of some of the worst singers on the planet. Something to shoot for.
mattg@nowtoronto.com
