Reality Bites Back

By Barbara Kiviat

More proof that the people who made America were smarter than the people who made American Idol: the Founding Fathers had the foresight to create institutions to keep voters in check. Reality-TV connoisseurs were abuzz last week when the show's dial-in audience voted to boot JENNIFER HUDSON, a looker with a great voice, over candidates much less favored by the judges. Two other black singers wound up in the bottom three, and theories for the upset ran the gamut from racism to a power outage in the Midwest, Hudson's home. (Our theory: blame Florida.) After he announced the results, Ryan Seacrest looked into the camera and implored the audience to vote for the talent. Right. The American Idol folks are shocked that people would rather see Simon Cowell go to work on some undertalented human target than listen to another slow ballad for Paula Abdul to fawn over. Don't they watch reality TV?