Oh, this morning, there s been a lot (you know how L.A. is) of hoopla about last night s results on American Idol. The three most talented singers, all black women, received the least votes.

The shock and awe has been on the faces of thirty and forty year olds. After going to a taping of American Idol I can tell you that s not the show s audience.

Everyone I ve talked to has been surprised when I mentioned who was in the audience. Ten to twelve year old girls. You may be familiar with them. They re the advertising demographics called tweens. The kids who play hundreds of variations of patty cake and who ve made the Olsen Twins millionaires with a straight-to-video empire. These are the kids of those minivan driving soccer moms we ve heard so much about.

At the taping, I hadn t seen so many white suburban girls, flipping and twirling their hair since I moved to Connecticut in the early 1980s. Who did people think were making all the signs the AI directors cut away to? I can t exactly see my professional friends coming home and getting out their markers and poster board.

I think people forget that American Idol is no more than the best marketing experiment ever devised. It s sold as a talent show a shot at the American dream. What it is, though, it a marketing scheme. The audience picks the singer they want the producers sell the pre-sold audience CDs, movies, DVDs, whatever.

The producers make money selling advertising time. Coca Cola makes money. Ford Makes money. No where in those sentences did I see the words talent or meritocracy.

Sure, it s fun to see small town folks getting a chance in the limelight. It s one fantasy many American s dream of. But remember, the show is called .

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