OK, I'm not proud to admit this, but I have been watching American Idol.

I'm not much into pop music, and I generally dislike the non-game show entries into the reality TV genre. So how is it that I'm watching this latest overnight programming sensation?

Well, Sarah was watching it.

Which is how I seem to get dragged into most of Fox's reality programming. Not that I watched copious amounts of Hardbody Atoll or Whores Ahoy!, and neither of us saw a second of Loose Women on the Last Frontier. But where I've seen bits and pieces that usually return me to my book, in this case I've actually decided to keep with the show.

Why? Well, here are some of the things that don't keep me tuning in every week:

1. The hosts Ostensibly, the show is hosted by two guys named Ryan Seacrest and Brian Dunkleman. If they don't sound familiar, that's OK. They shouldn't. Unless you have a memory for people who play characters like "waiter" or "customer." Seacrest apparently has hosting experience from a number of shows I've never heard of (The Click? Gladiators 2000?). This does give him an iota of presence, and I'm sure his Mark McGrath lite looks help with the target demographic. The less said about Dunkleman the better.

The co-host banter is weak, their interplay with the judges predictable, and the questions they pose to the contestants mostly obvious. The co-hosts mostly serve to link performances, judging, and the many, many commercials.

Speaking of which...

2. The ads American Idol is stuffed with ads. And I don't just mean the obvious ones. The show's two biggest sponsors are Coke and Ford (in their continuing quest to brand the Focus to Gen Y types; sorry, Ford, but when I was in Maine last weekend I saw a Focus being driven by an elderly couple. Ha!). The Coke presence on the show is obvious. All the judges have Coke cups in front of them. There was a Coke machine in the green room in earlier shows. Contestants are shown holding Coke products. The co-hosts make an occasional heavy-handed reference to Coke.

Ford couldn't be so sneaky. So they went the complete opposite direction. Each show contains the "Focus on the contestants" section, where the kids get to play around a car or two, or pretend to drive one while musing on their performance. The spots are lame, but are at least in the open.

The ultimate problem regarding advertising is that the show doesn't have enough material to fill its time slot. This is especially true for the half-hour selection shows, which may feature more ad time per minute than anything this side of QVC. Clorette DePasto didn't use so much padding when she scored with Larry "Pinto" Kroger in Animal House.

3. The "conflict" Most of the show's current buzz centers around judge Simon Cowell, whose tart-tongued dismissal of contestants who don't perform to his standard raises hackles with fans, contestants, the idiot co-hosts, and fellow judges Randy Jackson and Paula Abdul (I won't even go into the problem with having Abdul serve as a judge).

This boiled over a few weeks ago, to the point where Jackson got up and looked like he wanted to fight Simon over comments made to a contestant. This then turned into an "us versus them" thing, where the nasty Brit was taking on America, where everyone deserves praise!

Except that they don't.

Now Simon is some sort of Snidley Whiplash sort of character, a mock villain who is roundly booed by the audience and dissed by judges and the occasional contestant. Simon takes it in good fun for the most part, but does get serious when defending his outlook: they're there to judge who's got the most superstar potential, and those who don't have it need to leave.

Could Simon be less confrontational? Probably. But he also knows what he's talking about. The two contestants he pegged losers were the least successful performers this week, clearly. And if the one who managed to get through does win, it would be a failure. Just one of those failures that don't really impact the public at large, like New Coke or adopting the metric system.

And didn't Anne Robinson teach us anything? Or at least soften us up for acid-tongued Brits dressed in black?

Most of the confrontation between Simon and the judges, hosts, and audience feels fake. I know, something related to the music industry that's fake. Who'd have thought?

So why do I keep watching? I don't know. I certainly don't fall into that 13-24 demographic that the producers covet, and I obviously think that there's an overall lack of quality with the show. I suppose what I do like it that the show is, to some extent, merit-based. It's not about forming alliances, screwing someone over, or having the mediocre gang up on the talented. The public does vote on winners, but in large part they vote for the better performers.

Except in the case of A. J. Gil, whose continued presence on the show is a mystery. My guess is that he's got a relative working for the phone company.

In the end, for all the furor over the show now, I can't see American Idol making a lasting impression on the American entertainment landscape. Whoever wins this show will probably be the 21st century equivalent of Sam Harris. The show may come back for a future run, but the fickle, what's new attitude of the show's primary demographic- teens- will most likely be its undoing.

So watch it while you can. Or don't.