He Was Robbed!

I know I have said I don't watch reality TV - and I don't, really - but once again, amid the late summer dearth of quality programming, I tuned in to a reality show. This time, it was "Celebrity Duets," a show I was actually hoping might hold some promise since a) I liked some of the celebrities, and b) I know some of them actually can sing.

Let's set aside for the moment that the format was terrible - unlike other shows, this was all about the love the celebrity judges have for their fellow celebrities. Boy, did I miss Simon Cowell for the first time in my life. But moving on, even Wayne Brady, whom I generally LOVE, sucked. He was stuck with unnatural, lovefest-style material that just showed absolutely none of what makes Wayne Brady great. But that wasn't the real disappointment.

Having tuned out for most of the show because, frankly, even the good singers were underwhelming (and I'm sorry David Foster, "Time, Love, and Tenderness" was a terrible duet for Lucy Lawless and Michael Bolton, even though I think the woman can sing), I showed up at the end to see how it all came out. Now, if you caught even just the highlights, you could see one thing, very clearly: Carly Patterson is not a very good singer. Sweet girl, Olympic gold medalist, cute as a button, but cannot carry a tune in a bucket. Okay, that's not entirely true. She can carry a tune, she just has a serious pitch problem, no doubt exacerbated by nerves and by two choices of songs that were beyond her capability. Granted, we knew it would be difficult for the judges to tell her so, because after all, who (besides Simon Cowell) wants to burst the bubble of America's sweetheart? But I was absolutely gobsmacked (and I am not even British!) that Chris Jericho, who actually ROCKED, lost to this poor, misguided girl.

The irony of all this is that I am the first one to say that these shows are generally unnecessarily cruel, and that I hate watching bad performers get told that they're bad. But this is one time where I honestly thought they were doing no favors to Carly Patterson by giving her hope, and worse, they let go someone who actually was better than some of the OTHER celebrity singers who stayed. Chris Jericho, you were robbed.