The Thursday Report… No More!!

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I’ve never been a big fan of the audition phase of the show. I actually find it to be the worst part of the show. The problem is that they tend to show more of the people that can’t sing or have an attitude rather than people who can sing and make it through to the next round. I guess they do that so that Simon has people to insult or something, but I’ve noticed that ‘Canadian Idol’ doesn’t go this route as much, and they STILL get good ratings for this portion of the show. So why continue with this charade of letting people think they’ve got a shot at making it to center stage?

I don’t think that there is one definitive answer here. Obviously, showing a bunch of people that sing well (but perhaps not well enough) might get repetitive and boring. But by going the opposite route, showing people that CAN’T sing gets repetitive and boring. But maybe this is some story of sly strategy. By showing so little of the good contestants, it makes those auditions sound THAT much better.

Then again, maybe the idea is so that people know what to do and what NOT to do when they audition. But it’s hard to believe that when they show what might as well be the same people every year, complaining about the same things. Besides, you’d think that given the 5 year run of this show (not to mention other shows like ‘Popstars’ and ‘Making the Band’) that people would realize what the judges are looking for in a singer.

So just let me know when the audience participation portion of the show starts, because if ratings are any indication, that’s REALLY what people are here to see.

Linkage
Scott Keith reviews ‘Lois and Clark’ season two.

Mike Sage takes a look at the IQ of the Losties.

Josh Clinton gets him some Snatch. And a dealer chip.

Mike Kaye used to have a shitload of Transformers. Now, he has an even bigger shitload of Transformers.

Reverend Sick talks about the UFC.

What I Watched:
Thursday:
‘My Name is Earl’ (NBC, Global) – So nice to see “the Gang” (plus Darnell) back together. My favourite part of this? Darnell with the office cart, of course.
‘The Office’ (NBC, Global) – I think everyone has a Dwight in the office. There’s always a worker who is always trying to suck up to the boss, and is pretty much oblivious to everything outside of office life. And then, Michael shows his

Friday:
‘Rick Mercer Report’ (CBC)
‘This Hour Has 22 Minutes’ (CBC)

Saturday:
Well, to tell you the truth, I didn’t watch anything. The wife and I went to Niagara Falls, where I had an up-and-down night at the blackjack tables and the wife blew a lot of money at the Canada One factory outlet stores. This was the first time I’ve experienced the “King” shuffler system, and while I’m kind of fascinated by the technology, it’s not all that good if you’re trying to use a progressive betting system like I do. But if anyone knows of a decent system to counter the “King” shuffler, I’d like to hear from you.

Sunday:
‘Cold Case’ (CBS, CTV) – Kind of a switch to have a cold case from 2 years ago. But after the Springsteen episode, I guess they had to save some money by using the same actors instead of trying to match young/old actors together.

‘Grey’s Anatomy’ (ABC, CTV)

Monday:
‘Rick Mercer Report’ (CBC) – My favourite
‘This Hour Has 22 Minutes’ (CBC)
’24’ (Fox) – Well, Spencer’s lucky that he’s just an ambitious Internal Affairs pencil pusher. Or maybe the only reason he’s not unconscious is that Jack needed the info from him. Either way, the lesson remains the same – don’t f*ck with Jack Bauer.

‘CSI: Miami’ (CBS) – It’s a weird world, where Horatio Caine dates the muy caliente sister of his employee, my wife hates Calleigh Duquesne, and I still think of Laura Leighton as Sydney from ‘Melrose Place’.

‘UFC Unleashed’ (Spike)
‘TNA Impact’ (Spike) – I still can’t get over how fake (by which I mean “requires a lot of cooperation from the opponent”), yet sick-looking the Canadian Destroyer is.

Tuesday:
‘Rachael Ray’s Tasty Travels’ (Food Network Canada)
‘American Idol’ (Fox, CTV) – see above
‘King of Vegas’ (Spike)

Wednesday:
‘Lost’ (ABC, CTV) – I don’t know if the idea behind tonight’s show was to show Locke being an ass, but that’s how he came off to me. In essence, Charlie was right – everyone on the island is supposed to make choices, but he just up and made Charlie’s for him. And then he went and punched the crap out of the little Hobbit. Nice guy, that Locke. Mind you, Charlie could’ve helped his cause by giving a straight, honest answer now and then, but I doubt that he’s capable of it.

‘CSI: New York’ (CBS, CTV)

Bits and Pieces
For the three people that read my column, you may have panicked when you saw the column heading. But don’t worry – it’s not something similar to this:

It’s more like a name change. The story goes like this – When Murtz first asked me to do a column, I of course had no idea what to call it. As you might imagine, riffing on my name wasn’t all that appealing. When the deadline came, I basically adopted the name of a CBC news program – Saturday Report. Of course, given that the column is generally a series of random thoughts and analyses of reality shows, using “report” doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. And now, with me coming up with a sort of “mission statement” about the column, it makes even less sense. So say goodbye to “The Thursday Report”, and say hello to… “In Hindsight”

That’s it for this week.

Kevin has been an Insider since 2003, writing on a variety of topics ranging from The Amazing Race to Mixed Martial Arts. His current hobbies include Fantasy Football, Sporcle, travelling, making liberal use of his DVR and wondering what the heck he's gonna do when his two daughters are old enough to date. You can follow Kevin on Twitter (@starvenger).