On the Negativity...

I've gotten a couple of notes asking me the same question. "J.D., you said you'd go easier on the Idols this year. You said you wouldn't make fun of people. What happened to what you said about Kellie Pickler and Mikalah, and everyone else?"

Here's the short answer: wait.

The long answer is this. Kellie and I did have a rough go of it last year. I still feel badly about it to this day, especially since she was so sweet in responding to me last year, and particularly as I watch her do charity work, hold cancer-stricken kids in her lap, and basically give her last ounce of energy to help others out. I haven't spoken to Mikalah in a while, but I do treasure the friendship that I have with this young woman and her mother. It's a friendship that I never would have previously thought possible, because of the way that I regarded her during her stint on American Idol. I sincerely regret my words that I said about these two in particular.

HOWEVER... I refuse to suffer the fools that A.I. parades in front of us during the audition weeks. I've read post upon post on other boards that lament how Idol exploits the mentally unstable, etc. et al. First of all, "mentally unstable" my rosy red fanny. Not one of those psychos that you will see on these audition shows are genuinely mentally incapacitated. If anything, they're attention seekers, and fully cognizant of what they're doing. Half of them are actors trying to get screen time. The other half are just goofs who will watch the shows at home with their equally goofy friends just so they can laugh at how moronic they looked on TV. It's a very simple formula. It's the same reason people walk up behind the on-scene reporters during the news and make ugly faces. The problem with most of their "comedy" is that it's poorly executed, so it just comes off being rather sad.

Second, they all signed the extensive waivers, and humiliation is highlighted mightily in there. So if you go in with the intention of making a jerk out of yourself, don't get hurt if you get treated like one. These people put themselves willingly up for ridicule, and I'm all too willing to give it to them. I promise to be fair to the actually talented, but I still may turn a phrase or two. I'm certainly aware that the biggest attraction to this show is the human need to make fun of and humiliate others, but I'm going to try to rise above that this year.

Long story short, I'm going to try to be nice and yet still have you guys enjoy it.