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.

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.