Country Idol

My current living arrangements (I was about to say "new" living arrangements when I realised that they've been my living arrangements for ten whole months now) mean that I have been exposed to a hell of a lot more telly in recent months than what has been "usual". I have gone from being a FOUR channel terrestrial television household, stuck in an area with no digital reception whatsoever, to a house in the countryside with Sky+, a hyperfast broadband connection and about a million US shows ready to stream through the wonders of our two, yes TWO, AppleTV boxes.

Most of the time, this has been awesome. Step up "Breaking Bad", "Castle" and "The Killing", not to mention watching duff documentaries about time travel and alien invasions on National Geographic channel (amazing). Now and again, I am subjected to "Stargate Universe" and "Fringe" (unamazing), but for the most part I am now fully immersed in watching some brilliant TV shows as and when they're actually aired - and usually months before they hit UK television screens, thanks to something very naughty which I won't admit to on here - and all of this is more than a bit cool.

One of the shows I have been introduced to - and I have to admit, been getting increasingly engrossed in - since my reintroduction to satellite TV is... American Idol.

I really know very little about American Idol history, to be honest. I know Kelly Clarkson won it. I found out that Jordin Sparks won it about three years after she actually won it. My boyfriend, on the other hand, can rhyme off the winners from the last decade in perfect season order, knows the words to every Carrie Underwood song she's ever sung and could tell me that Kara Dioguardi has a perfect singing voice and therefore can credibly critique all and sundry for their "pitch issues" if she so wants. [This was in stark contrast to me, who would jump up and down, enraged at her criticism usually making no sense whatsoever - that and her looking down her nose at Ellen Degeneres every week.]

Anyway, I was a bit concerned this year that, with the departure of Cowell, Degeneres *and* Dioguardi, the show would be rubbish. I wasn't exactly enthused about the addition of Jennifer Lopez to the judging panel and the addition of Steven Tyler just seemed so random to me that I was convinced the show would fail. Not so. This year, American Idol was AMAZING. Steven Tyler was AMAZING. Jennifer Lopez was *quite* AMAZING. Even Randy was less annoying than usual this year. His promotion to Simon Cowell's seat has certainly done him good.

This year, however, the actual talent on stage was less abundant than usual. Not that it made the show any less watchable. This year we had a very cute bloke, whose features were spoiled by some seriously wonky dance moves and a voice like how Rod Stewart's would sound if he inhaled a helium balloon the size of New York. We also had a female who looked like she moonlighted as a member of an Amazulu (ropey pop band from the 80s) tribute act. We had a fellow who looked and sounded like Gladys Knight. A dude who resembled the cookie monster from Sesame Street and who actually growled when he sang. A heavy metal rocker guy with the absolute WORST ears I have ever seen (I know I am being mean, but it has to be said.) There was also a posh bird who thought she was the next Celine Dion crossed with Mariah Carey, plus there was a Matthew Broderick lookalike who never got tired of making my blood boil by consistently escaping the boot until the quarter finals.

With rock chick and perpetual glum-glum gal Haley getting the boot right before the final, that left two of the show's strongest country singers to battle it out. On one hand we had Lauren Alaina (16yo) and on the other hand we had Scotty McCreery (17yo). Given the fact that I had already christened him as Scotty McDreary about six weeks before the final, thanks to his ridiculous mic holding shenanigans and him sounding *exactly the same* on every song he sung (regardless of what genre it was supposed to be) you know I was rooting for Alaina all the way. I even took to Twitter on the day of the final, posting "witty" slogans like "Scotty smells like Flaming Hot Cheetos" and "Scotty sings out of his botty" but, alas, it was all in vain. Lauren was well and truly robbed with this one.

I hear that the ratings for American Idol season 10 were significantly immense as usual, but it'll be interesting to see whether the US has the appetite for two huge talent shows every year, after the X-Factor USA launches in "the fall". My thoughts on the matter? Well, after my claims that Idol Season 10 would be the last ever were completely thrown on the trash heap, I think I'll be keeping schtum on the matter.