I don’t think it’s a secret: I downright hate FOX’s American Idol, as well as other reality/competition series that plague primetime TV. I watch about 40 shows, and only about 4 of them are considered non-scripted: Ghost Hunters, Ghost Hunters: International (though those can be argued at times, seriously, do they have to re-enact the call Jay and Grant get when they are on a plumbing job, or are we seriously supposed to believe a camera crew follows them everywhere), Destination Truth (all those are SCI-FI Channel), and Mythbusters (Discovery).

What makes my unscripted shows better, they pertain the network they are on. SCI-FI Channel is all things science fiction/paranormal, which is the discussion and main points to those shows, and Discovery is supposed to be unscripted, and also educational (eww, yeah, I used the bad word, but there are some very interesting things to be learned from many of Discovery Channel’s series). I also, from time to time, watch a few other Discovery shows, such as Time Warp (which is very cool) and Dirty Jobs. There’s also another Discovery Channel network called the Science Channel, which I watch almost every Sunday night for some real informative documentaries. But you see, these are documentaries, and serve their purposes on these networks.

With American Idol, Survivor, Hell’s Kitchen, The Bachelor, etc…, these are on broadcast channels in primetime. They tend to be cheaper to make (at least initially, I’m sure Idol costs more to make now, but it’s also the highest rated crap on TV now. Because of this, FOX mostly, favors them more, since they make up costs. And even if a scripted series at least broke even, or had a slight profit, they can still get canned just because they barely make Top 50.

Another thing that pisses me off about FOX and its dimwitted Idol, they shuffle their schedule around to cater to it. Bones got delayed and did this weird on-off-on-off-off thing every week because of FOX’s dimwitted scheduling for it. To make up for it, at least, as long as FOX sticks by their word, Bones will have 11 new episodes, starting this Thursday, uninterrupted. This brings me to another reason I hate Idol: Does it have to be on 2-3 times a week? Seriously?

It’s bad enough it hogs Tuesday night, and then takes some of Wednesday with it, but does it need to take a few Thursdays as well. Here’s an idea, and I think I mentioned it somewhere before, if Idol does so well, why not have it on for 2Hrs on Friday nights, and leave the rest alone. That why, House can be where it belongs (Tuesday), Terminator Sarah Connor Chronicles and Dollhouse wouldn’t have to suffer so much, and Bones wouldn’t have had such a floppy schedule. BTW, Dollhouse was originally set for Monday before 24, although I think its pairing with Terminator makes sense, but it and Fringe could’ve worked well, think about it, a night with two shows that FOX does this whole limited commericals experiment with (which I love, BTW, though it can make it hard to get a chance to pee). And, I absolutely loved the former pairing of House and Bones, I don’t care if they said they had issues with finding a good pair with Bones, I thought House was it.

Anyway, I’m going off topic again, okay. Back to the stupidity of Idol. Now we’re hitting the show itself. Okay, so there have been how many winners, and how many of those actually made something of themselves. Who won last year? Year before? I don’t watch the show or follow it, so I could be wrong, but is Kelly Clarkson the only winner who actually has a career? Maybe there was one other. And, I believe for the most part, the runner-ups have a better chance of staying around (or at least make gay or not headlines). Next, I firmly believe that musicians should earn their spots, not be voted to the top. It undermines those who work hard to be thrown aside because this guy or girl from this show have the looks and people seem to like them. But do they have talent? Do they have the real raw need to perform? More importantly, are they just a pretty face that can sing?

Don’t get me started on these judges. From one that hates everybody, to the drunk, to some dude that, um, I’m sure he serves some purpose. And, I heard there’s a 4th judge, no idea who, but apparently, nobody cares anyway. But the REAL thing that burns me up. The people who humiliate themselves in the preliminaries. Do they really think that they can sing? It’s absurd, and people get a kick out of seeing people humiliate themselves, and probably not knowing it. Here’s the truth, if you tried out, and didn’t make it, take it as advice to not sing ever again, chances are, you suck.

See, I know I can’t sing, therefore, I’m not even gonna try and sing in front of people, in any manner. It’s a waste of time and resources, and absolutely pointless.

As for the others, let’s see, Hell’s Kitchen, which is also on FOX, is about a chef guy who, sure, can cook, probably is one of the greatest, but the whole thing with this series looks to be nothing more than the guy cussing up a storm and yelling at everybody. That’s entertainment? Seriously?

And Survivor, we all know you guys go to fast food joints when the camera’s aren’t rolling. It’s just the same crap, over and over, bunch of strangers on an island (or secluded beach of some kind) having to deal with eachother’s crap, so it’s Real World/Big Brother, but on an island, with certain competitions or something and voting off people. Really, this is entertaining?

What was the other, oh, might as well talk off the first major one of these, MTV’s Real World, absolutely horrible to be on a supposed Music channel, w/o the music (hey, maybe that would’ve been a better place for American Idol). And Big Brother, is that similar to Real World, but on CBS and they are locked in a house and vote people out? Is that right? Oh, and ABC’s Bachelor, I really don’t care about some dude finding love. It’s really stupid and lame, so go away. Oh, and those Wife Swaps and Supernanny crap. Need I say more?