The Sanjaya Paradox

For those of you who don't watch American Idol, there's this kid, Sanjaya Malakar, who's striking fear into the executives at FOX and the producers of the hit show. Basically, this kid stinks, but he keeps getting enough votes each week to move along in the show. He's not even getting into the "Bottom 3" of vote-getters. He's a rock in this thing. Meanwhile, singers with exponentially better voices are getting the boot. Some feel that his continued success is due to the website votefortheworst.com, while others blame Howard Stern's plea to his viewers to vote for Sanjaya. Whatever the reason, the kid's winning. (Of course, some people out there love him, as witnessed by that little girl who was crying in his presence a couple of weeks ago.)
I guess the big problem is that if this musically challenged kid wins American Idol this year, it basically destroys any credibility the show has developed for being an avenue to find truly talented people in America and turn them into recording artists. However, here's where the paradox lies: If Sanjaya wins, I think it's confirmation that anyone can make it if they try, and this should only encourage more people to audition for American Idol next time around. It would make more people want to be in the show and have a greater interest in the show. This, in turn, could lead to higher ratings and more money for FOX. So... it could very well make the thing more popular while simultaneously destroy all of its credibility (and lose Simon Cowell in the process, who has said if Sanjaya wins he's going to quit). Nice.
The other thing I find interesting about this whole mess is the way the judges (Randy, Simon and Paula) are dealing with it. Every week they have these flabbergasted looks on their faces after he performs and then look dumbfounded when he doesn't get voted off. However, what they never seem to want to remember is that they are the ones who put him in this situation in the first place. They love to remind everyone how it was "America" who voted off Jennifer Hudson and not them. They realized her talent and put her on the show. You don't see any of them taking responsibility for Sanjaya.
(Personally, I can't stand this kid anymore. I used to think he was a nice kid and I wanted him to do well because of that. However, I can't stand listening to him anymore. He's so freakin' bad.)
Go Sanjaya!

NP: The Inch Worm, John Coltrane