'American Idol' is old-fashioned fun with cutting commentary
Mike Suchcicki, Staff
Pensacola News Journal (Pensacola, FL) July 19, 2002

If you haven't yet heard the name Justin Guarini, soon you will. A lot.

It's my prediction that Guarini, 23, will be the overall winner of the TV competition "American Idol: The Search for a Superstar,'' now airing weekly on Fox. And if the path of the winner of the American show follows that of his or her counterpart on its British precursor, "Pop Idol,'' then Guarini will become a chart-topping household name. That's what happened to Will Young, "Pop Idol'' winner.

Of course, if you have watched "American Idol,'' then perhaps you agree with me that my prediction is a no-brainer. Guarini is easily the best of the show's 10 finalists. The show began with 10,000 contestants, eventually trimmed to 30 semi-finalists. Over the course of four weeks, the 30 were whittled to 10. This week, audiences made it eight, with the removal of Ejay Day and Jim Verraros.

Oh, and by the way: If you think this is another example of my TV dorkiness (I'm the Food Network Dork, remember?), then you're right. I'm hooked on this show. Ordinarily I hate the so-called "reality'' shows. I've only watched one episode each of "Survivor'' and "Fear Factor'' and only five minutes of the latest version of "Big Brother,'' which were five of the most revolting minutes I have ever seen on TV - and I used to watch Lorenzo Lamas in "Renegade!''

But "American Idol'' has proven addictive. It's a good, old-fashioned talent show and a lot of fun.

This is the show with "that nasty guy Simon,'' as one co-worker described him. He's Simon Cowell, British music company executive, the judge who's making headlines with his to-the-point critiques and withering comments about some of the contestants. It was Simon who said to contestant Jim Verraros, "If you win this competition, then this show will have failed.''

Setting off the now-infamous on-the-air row with fellow judges, singer/choreographer Paula Abdul and producer Randy Jackson, Cowell said, "In the last two episodes, two losers have been voted through for one reason and one reason only. It was the sympathy vote and has nothing to do with talent.''

At our house (this is a show the whole family's gotten into), we love Simon. We haven't disagreed with anything he's said yet. Our common verdict is that we're going to miss Ejay, but we're glad to see Jim go. (We've decided, however, that Ejay, A.J., R.J. and Jim should get together - A.J. and R.J. will get booted off soon - and form a boy band called The Js.)

If you're a fan of the show and want some extra fun, check out the Web site at idolonfox.msn.com. There you'll find video clips from the early auditions, including the rejected contestant who tells Jackson, "Listen, sweetheart, I don't really care what you think. I'm 22, I'm beautiful and I can sing. You've got my number, so if you change your mind, call me. Ciao."