Help me through American Idol

I'm watching the American Idol finale by myself, I need a place to get the myraid of emotions I'm experiencing out, so here we are.

When we lived in Prague we, unfortunately, watched a lot of ridiculously bad Czech variety shows. There were performances by Czech pop stars, celebrity visits and painfully bad skits. I would mercilessly mock these shows when they were on. I could tell, even through my limited Czech, that the humour was lame and every performance was lip synched. And these bad variety shows are not limited to the Czech Republic. Every European nation I have been to has their own version of it. You know it when you see it. A 20-year-old mostly plastic female host and a 60-year-old patriarch male host, lots of sequins and group numbers.

Watching the American Idol finale I am having oh so many bad variety show flashbacks.

I know that it is an inheriently cheese show, but in the last few seasons it has steadily moved from reaily-TV type competition to totally overblown variety show. The stunts and personalities get more wrong with every show, but, at least, the singing (from the contestants) is live. There's something I guess. And here I am still watching.

HRH

Update: Okay Sanjaya and Joe Perry of Aerosmith was really strange (and of course the crying girl), but now Greenday... on American Idol... performing "Working Class Hero"... Say What?