Last night I joined millions of entertainment-hungry consumers to engage in a tradition known as the season premiere of American Idol. Fox’s hit primetime program is a well-oiled entertainment machine with the ability to dispense thrills, talent, comedy, and cliffhangers like an ATM machine.

Strip away all these things and you’ll get to the bare purpose of the show: A.I. praises those who are successful, those people who seem to have it all together (the beautiful, the talented, the charming) while making fun of those who don’t (the awkward, the struggling, the unaware the socially inept, the ugly).  

Back up a minute though. Is this mere television? Haven’t we seen this format somewhere before? Let’s take the “tv” out of the phrase. This is "reality."

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