American Idle?

So once again I have been sucked into the cultural train-wreck that is American Idol. Although I have many cultural "vices", (aspects of my tastes that in certain circles, I may not admit to) my predilection for this show is probably one of the more embarrassing. I watch with the anticipation of opening a birthday present. I am introduced to each contestant, and my interest is piqued as they get to that moment of truth where they actually sing, and I find out whether my investment of time and attention will be paid off, or will the joke be on me once again as they assault my eardrums.
This season sees the three gate-keepers / star-makers seemingly raise their standards, and get uniformly "brutal" in assessing the entrants. For instance, the Washington DC group, numbering more than 20,000, resulted in only 20 or so going forward to the next round.
Let's repeat: 20 out of 20,000.
20,000 people showed up and waited for days, herded like cattle, for the chance to get on TV and become famous.
As I went over this figure, some theories sprung to mind.
1. The process has become a joke.
A certain percentage of that crowd are no-goodniks who want to "sabotage the experiment" by getting in front of Simon and company and sing terribly, the worse the better, in an effort to get attention and poke fun at the other contestants. Although the show is indeed ridiculous, I don't ever look at those entrants and say, "Man, that guy is cool. He really stuck it to the man that time."
2. There are a surprising number of insane people in the United States.
Another portion of the crowd are delusional, some tragically so. These are the truly exploited, as the producers advance them through to get shot down by the judges, just for the laughs it will generate. I blame the producers, the media in general, and the entrants' families for allowing such insanity to enter my life, (but it is funny).
3. The "cult of personality" in the West has taken over.
This show (and reality TV in general) points out the new mind-set of the modern American, which can be summed up as, "my self-worth is proportionate with my level of fame". Several phenomena have contributed to this belief. Here's just a couple:

My neighbour is on TV. Why aren't I? So many non-celebrities are on TV these days, your family has to have it's own sit-com, just to keep up with the Jones'.

The celebrities on TV are just like me. Go back in time to pre-1970's society and see how much the average guy on the street knows about, say, Fred Astaire. To many, Fred Astaire might as well come from Mars. His image set himself apart from the common person. Not so today. Between the internet and television, there is a such a glut of content that the fan can have access to every iota of information about a celebrity, including a camera-phone pic of when they spilled spaghetti on themselves, or where they go to get their bikini-wax and Botox treatments. So celebrities have been taken off their pedestal to such an extent that these regular folks feel like they can stand toe-to-toe with them if they win American Idol

Regardless of how they come to be there, or who finally wins, it is still a very entertaining social experiment to put the call out for potential fame, and see who shows up. Perhaps more entertaining is to see how many of us line up at the record store to consume that newly reborn star that, in the end, is famous for not being special, but for being one of us.

Please to be discussing.