Go Sanjaya!

As reality and contest shows leave me cold, I haven't followed American Idol since the Kelly Clarkson season. But I have to comment on the hilarity of reading about Sanjaya Malakar continuing to thwart the judges, thanks in large part to the sarcastic support of Howard Stern and the Vote For The Worst website.

American Idol has always seemed to me to be a flat-out cruel show, particularly the early shows of every season, in which self-deluded (or clearly mentally ill) contestants are given airtime, solely for the purpose of ridicule. Therefore, it's rather delicious to see the show's voting system hacked by the vote-for-the-worst crowd. As Simon Cowell himself said Tuesday night after Sanjaya's "performance", "I doesn't think it matters anymore what we say."

The vote-for-the-worst phenomenon has been around for at least a few seasons, to my knowledge. But this recent hack-success has actually got me interested in the show for the first time since Ms. Clarkson. Go Sanjaya!

UPDATE: The Times Of London has a great analysis of why a win by Sanjaya may signal the beginning of the end of American Idol. (h/t- Moncrief.)
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