Dear Holden Caulfield

Dear Holden Caulfield,

One thing that I think you would hate about our world today is the show American Idol. Millions of people view this show every week, thus making it the #1 viewed show in the nation. I’m sure you don’t know this so the premise of this show is that three judges, Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson all go around the country and host a slew of open singing auditions. After choosing roughly the 20 best people in each city they all move on to later rounds of the competition. They slowly eliminate people until they have reached the final 24 contestants. After this each contestant sings a song each week and America votes on whom they think should stay. After a long process America chooses their winner. This person is named the American Idol and is usually adored by the entire nation. In addition to the record deals and the endorsements they will receive. However, many people suggest that this show is phony, which I know is something you hate. As I explained above the auditions are supposed to be open. This implies that anybody in the country can get a chance to sing in front of Randy Simon and Paula. However, websites such as Votefortheworst.com say that this is not true. In fact they say “During the auditions, the judges don’t show up until the last day or two, and only see about 100 people who have already been screened, first by producers (who see small groups and narrow the contestants to a few hundred) and then by the show’s executive producers”. This shows that the shows premise may be not to get the best singers, but the most entertaining ones, for good or bad reasons. A classing example of this comes with the girl named Crystal Parizanski according to her "The show was edited a lot… They portrayed me very stupid… With the show, they told me to put on more makeup. I’m like, “You’re trying to, you know, [exploit] me, you know saying, ‘put on more makeup. Simon will like that. You have to look prettier on the stage for the judges.’” And they came into the bathroom and filmed it too… They told me, “You know what? We like how you put on your mascara, you should put it on” and they filmed me putting it on just to make a mockery of me and I’m like, “That’s bogus.” But you have to learn the harsh realities of the world I guess and how reality TV is not that real." This phony show reminded me of the way that at Pencey you guys always had steak on Saturday nights so that if “everybody’s mother asked their darling boy what he had for dinner last night, and he’s say ‘steak’”. These two are similar because they are both people creating a myth to make other un-knowing people happy. The only difference is in your case it is the parents that are being tricked where as in my case it’s the whole country. Just though you’d like to know.

Sincerely,
Brian Elberg