Tuesdays and Wednesday nights are now Taken!

I joined the 3. whatever million viewers this week, once again vacuumed up into the talent show called American Idol. Even though the show is in its FIFTH season, it appears to be the biggest season premier audience in the shows history.

I was first introduced into the phenomenon on an evening when there did not seem tobe anything on the tube, and I had just received news of my grandmother's death. I needed something to just escape into for a little while, and while checking out the FOX network, I came across season one of American Idol. The rest is history. My life is now going tobe taken over on Tuesday and Wednesday nights as I track the new batch of contestants and get into their stories, sucked into their hopes and dreams until I find The One to really root for...

To date my absolute favorite contestant, hands down is A.I. 4 runner-up Bo Bice. I will be a life long fan of this man, even though past winners and runners up, I read stories about them that I run across in the paper, but I do not follow them to the degree I follow Bice.

I love this part of the competition, the 'getting to know you' aspect. Some of the wanna-be idols get special film clips where we get an 'inside view' to their current life and get to hear something of their dreams. There is one girl from North Carolina with long blonde hair and an uncanny resemblance to last season's winner, Carrie Underwood. She has a hardluck story that immediately sucked me in; father in and out of prison, mother left her as a toddler. Currently she is being raised by her grandfather. I have seen A.I. flash her story a few times now and she has been given vignettes in several A.I. ads. I predict this girl will go far.

So far I haven't found another guy contestant to rival Bo Bice or even Constantine Maroulis, another favorite of mine, soon to star in his own TV sitcom on ABC. I will stay tuned. This time last year I had not heard of them either; in fact Bo Bice did not even get much in the way of pre-show air-time.

Lots of folks think the A.I. show to be a lot of hookum, but check the music charts, the top selling singles and albums currently on the charts belong to A.I. alum. Carrie Underwood currently has the number one Country Album and her song, "Jesus Take the Wheel" is riding the tops of pop and country charts.

Regardless of what anyone else says or thinks, I will be watching again this season as the hopes and dreams of the new hopefuls take to the stage.

Rock on.