I allowed my nine year old daughter stay up with me to watch American Idol this year for the first time. I’d never watched it before and we enjoyed it. She was rooting for Allison and it was nice spending time with her every night. She always had a big smile on her face because she didn’t have to go to bed with her sisters and brother on the night Idol was on.
But last night, when first they had “Bikini girl” come out to sing Ryan, Simon, and Randy acted like fourteen year old boys I was questioning if this was appropriate for my nine year old. That was ridiculous. But then to have Kara Dioguardi sing a song and then flash the crowd to show, I guess, that she, at 38, has a good body.
Look, I couldn’t care less if Kara wants to pole dance but women ripping their clothes off is not what I want my children exposed to.
My daughter was confused by it and honestly I didn’t even know what to say about it. She asked me why Kara did that. I said I had no idea and then added after a few seconds, “But it was bad.”
Not the greatest response, I know, but I didn’t see it coming at all.
And Ryan Seacrest feebly tried to make it better by saying that her taking off her clothes would send a lot of money to a charity of her choice. So if hookers gave a percentage of money to charity it would all be cool then?
American Idol is a fun show. It’s just not a show that my kids will be watching any time soon.
May 21, 2009 at 9:31 pm
Yeah, it as weird. I am a faithful AI fan (one of only three TV indulgences) and I sometimes let my daughter (10) watch it. Fortunately I didn’t last night. I was really disappointed that “bikini girl” was even on the finale and then to have Kara “match” her was disgusting. I was embarrassed.
May 21, 2009 at 10:31 pm
We watched the finale as a family (we watch the show as a family but the girls are not that into it). The whole bikini girl thing was appalling; however we view it as a chance to express our values on modesty (our middle school daughters were disgusted by bikini girl – but we remembered her from the auditions). We recognize that girls need to be prepared to accept that we are different because we are Catholic. They’re going to be in the world sometime – better to be exposed and prepared. That said, we mostly watch sports, HGTV, and Disney and Nickelodeon – not network TV. Don’t want to overexpose!
May 21, 2009 at 10:42 pm
Being 112 weeks' pregnant, I got to stay home from my son's baseball game (Great excuse, huh? It was 80 degrees out!) and watched the AI finale with my three daughters, ages 8, 6 & 4.
We, too, remembered "Immodest Girl" from the auditions and froze the screen when she came on. We unpaused the picture at the tail-end of the Kara/black bikini bit–not the best timing, but better than it could have been.
Kara looked pretty embarrassed, didn't she? She didn't have to do that.
In any case, we've gotten used to pausing the show throughout the season. We paused it during Lady Gaga's performance way back when, and again during what's her face last week (Katie Perry?), and AGAIN during Fergie & her Black Eyed Peas. We talk about how my personal favorite, Megan Joy, changed from a sweetie to a sell-out, and how pretty she looked in that number with Steve Martin.
We're in the world, not of it. What can we do but keep talking our way through this stuff as a family?
Still, I'm glad my boys were at that baseball game. 😉
May 22, 2009 at 1:58 am
If you watch it taped instead of live you can avoid stuff like this. Of course, that contradicts your tivo policy …
May 23, 2009 at 2:32 am
I wonder if this is part of the reason that the finale had the lowest ratings since 2006? I don’t recall any of the previous years having raunchy people in the final rounds.
May 23, 2009 at 4:22 am
Really, your post title sounds like a joke! What could you possibly have expected? How can you let your kids watch this trash?