The eighth season of American Idol kicked off with the first two-hour night of a two-night, four-hour premier last night and, I have to admit, I missed the first hour because I was watching NCIS.
Don’t misunderstand: I do love American Idol. I just love Tony DiNozzo more.
Anyway, it’s no surprise that American Idol blog posts, articles and message boards are hot with various bits of news, speculations and opinions. They love Idol. They hate Idol. They want to strangle and/or marry Simon Cowell and they’re not quite sure how they feel about the new girl in town, Kara DioGuardi.
One article that held my attention, though, was “I Hate You, ‘American Idol’! You’ve Ruined Everything!”, Simon Dumenco’s piece at Advertising Age that was written a day before the premier and offers 10 reasons to - you guessed it - hate American Idol.
Way up near the top of the list?
Because the producers relish baiting not just the talentless and the tone-deaf, but the mentally ill.
Obviously (because Dumenco goes on to explain), this is a reference to the tragic suicide of Paula Abdul’s long-time stalker, Paula Goodspeed. Dumenco makes a good point, too: Despite the fact that Abdul informed Idol execs that Goodspeed had been stalking her for 18 years, that she’d received “disturbing letters” from Goodspeed, and that she’d taken out multiple restraining orders on the woman, they still allowed Goodspeed to show up for auditions.
According to Dumenco’s article, Abdul chalked it up to the producers finding it fun to cause her stress, but I suspect it had a bit more to do with ratings than anything else.
Still, does American Idol actually “bait” the mentally ill?
As far as the Goodspeed incident is concerned, perhaps they did. I don’t think their intents were actually malicious, but, really - if one of your judge’s is telling you not to allow someone on set because that someone has been stalking her for 18 years, you should take heed. Let’s hope they’ve learned their lesson.
What do you think about the Paula Abdul/Paula Goodspeed situation, and the role American Idol may have played in amplifying it?
Think on it, and in the meantime check out some happy music news at today’s Midweek Mental Greening post, Mind The Music.
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From Psych Central's Alicia Sparks:
» Stalker Victim Paula Abdul Needs More Time To Heal - Celebrity Psychings (February 2, 2009)
The produces ought to be fired. Paula Abdoul didn’t sey “someone is giving me the creeps” Hello people, this was serious for both victims. I think they were jerks and as far as exploiting others on the show, you betcha, I wonder if people will really watch that garbage? yeah, they do in a big way. Humans! hmph.
look at the typos, you can tell I got a little excited! he he..
LOL, don’t worry, I do the same thing 
I don’t know if Idol producers “bait” individuals with mental illness, but it’s pretty clear the producers exploit them when they do show up to audition. As a psychologist, I’m not really supposed to diagnose ppl on tv from my couch, but it’s pretty clear to anyone when a person with mental illness is crying, screaming, or more, and it’s not acting. The Idol staff is clearly off-camera, goading these individuals in order to get more drama on the show. Well, I guess it is baiting, then, isn’t it. It’s cruel, unethical and in poor taste, but what else is new in reality tv?
It’s not just American Idol. “Reality” TV has been sliding down a steep slope for a number of years. “Charm School” anyone? Or “Bad Girls Club”? Dr Drew Pinsky was on Conan O’Brien recently and commented on the current state of reality TV. (Granted, he’s part of that machine, regardless of some differences in his approach to his own show.)
To paraphrase his comments: reality shows cast people with “major personality disorders”, then get the production staff to provoke them and ply them with alcohol,then film the results. It’s no different than what PT Barnum did in his day using people with physical abnormalities as a freak show. Today, the “freaks” are psychological ones.
These shows are putting people with some form of mental illness on display - rather than screening them out - because it makes for better television ratings.
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