American Idol has been an interesting spectacle in recent weeks. It's evolved into a battle of wills between the judges and "the enemy", including Howard Stern and VoteForTheWorst.com. Paula, Randy, and Simon have been fairly explicit in telling Idol hopeful Sanjaya that he isn't good enough to be on their stage, while Howard and VFTW.com have urged their audiences to vote for the lovable loser in an effort to expose the fundamental hypocrisy of the show (in VFTW's words), or just to screw with it (à la Howard). Their campaign has proved successful enough to get Sanjaya into the top 7, while the judges have struggled to avoid calling the American voting public stupid. Paula and Randy instead have doted on Sanjaya's crazy dos, and Simon has taken to finding ambiguous ways to evaluate his performances, such as saying simply "incredible". It became a game of chicken in recent weeks ... would the judges crack and lambast the viewing public for their lack of taste, or would Howard and VFTW.com's ability to garner enough votes for Sanjaya falter? Although the latter did finally occur this week, it was amusing as Simon finally unloaded on Sanjaya for wasting his time. Reminiscent of Len's exasperation at Master P on Dancing with the Stars a while back. The AI judges in general have a nice hiding place, because they have no direct control over the outcome. It's when the public keeps around performers that they don't consider worthwhile that they get aggravated. Delightful. Tonight's departure of Sanjaya however unfortunately proves that the mischief-makers are still vastly outnumbered by those nuts who actually take Idol voting seriously. And now there is nothing remaining this season in which i am remotely interested.

This doesn't even merit discussion, but i'm sitting in front of the television watching Sarah and No Name's new TV show. Visually documenting their morning radio show. Now when Howard did this, he had all kinds of crazy crap going on in the studio. This is footage of three people sitting in a fairly lackluster room wearing headphones and speaking into microphones. With ultra-cheap graphics and flourishes popping up every few minutes. I thought this show had shed all semblance of appeal when i tuned in and heard them comparing candy bars: "Clark bars are good .......... yeah. 100 Grand too .......... what happened to Zagnut?". I didn't think there was a way to make this show less interesting, but they've found it. It almost makes me want to listen to Live 105's Woody Tony and Ravy. Hrm. No, never mind ... Sarah and No Name are just boring. WTR have their heads firmly up their asses and are each convinced that they are god's gift to mankind.