On American Idol, calling a performance "bad karaoke" is the worst insult the judges can hurl. It is also the greatest compliment they can bestow. Idol viewers, after all, have made the caterwauling audition episodes the highest-rated, except for the finale. In their eyes, karaoke is the Mae West of entertainment: when it's bad, it's better.
It was only a matter of time until some attentive reality producer figured out a way to remove all the bothersome competence from Idol and isolate an extract of 99.44% pure bad karaoke. Enter The Singing Bee on NBC and Fox's knockoff, Don't Forget the...