America has its 'Idol': Kelly Clarkson
Robert Bianco
USA Today, September
5, 2002
There can be no greater proof of the idolatrous power of TV than Kelly Clarkson.
Why, after all, should any rational person care that a girl none of us had ever
heard of three months ago won some game-show title over an equally unknown boy
named Justin Guarini?
Yet millions of us did care -- so much so that we were willing to sit through
two of the emptiest hours of television ever foisted on the American Idol-loving
public, just to hear the results. We put doubts aside and succumbed to a show
that took two moribund genres, talent and variety shows, spiced them up with a
bit of viewer democracy and a judiciously applied, Simonized touch of snarkiness,
and came up with something almost totally winning. It was simply fun, in a
summer that needed some simple pleasures.
But goodness, seldom has a show's finale gone to greater lengths to test our
devotion. Until the contestants showed up in the second hour, the only
interesting aspect of the torturously padded affair was comparing the singers'
early hairdos to their polished later look. Non-singers may apply to American
Idol 2 just for the makeover.
Yet as usual, Idol succeeded despite the obstacles it placed in its own
way. Over the summer, the show overcame the inept corporate-sponsored pretaped
materials, the generic, soon-to-be-released singles, and the finale's Brady
Bunch Hour-style medley. And don't forget the talent-free hosts, though one
wishes the producers would.
To be sure, the series was not to everyone's musical taste. In the bombastic
nature of its competitive singing, the show was a testament to the evil effects
of Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey, as singer after singer shouted through
phrases and tortured notes.
In the end, though, Idol did what it set out to do. Against all odds,
this harmless summer diversion found at least three people (Kelly, Justin and
Tamyra Gray) with obvious talent, and another, Nikki McKibbin, with enough
presence to be a TV personality. It left us with bragging rights over the
Brits, whose winner, Will Young, sounded like Peter Noone on helium.
Whether Kelly has the savvy to support a career is open to question, but she has
earned a chance to try. Like an athlete, she marshaled her talents and performed
under incredible pressure. Compare that to the dullards on Big Brother,
who hope to become TV stars by complaining about each other's hygiene.
So a vote of thanks to Kelly and her other Idols. TV's summer would have
been a much duller place without them.