You’re an aspiring singer and you think that the world needs to sit up and take notice of you. So you enter American Idol. The only problem is that you’re a rock singer. At your audition, Randy Jackson babbles incoherently about dogs, Paula Abdul keeps looking at you and licking her lips and Simon Cowell dismisses you for being the wrong sort of singer.

So what do you do now? Luckily for you, a new reality TV show has just started in America – Rock Star: INXS, featuring the band looking for a new singer.

Rock Star: INXS, on CBS, is being touted as a credible
alternative to the plastic smiles and pantomime of American Idol. For a
start, the auditions aren’t shown on the programme. This means that we
don’t have to sit through the endless procession of wannabes,
deliberately bad singers and general gits that American Idol foists
upon us at the beginning of each season.

Instead, the show kicks off having found the final 15 contestants
who each perform a song every episode backed by a vaguely anonymous LA
backing band as the remaining members of INXS look on.

INXS (CDs) were undoubtedly most famous for their flamboyant lead singer
Michael Hutchence, a man who stole Bob Geldof’s wife and then died in a
bizarre wanking accident. As far as their songs went, INXS were pretty
much uninspired workhorses, so it’s important for the band to find a
charismatic replacement, or at least one that can survive a half-decent session of
hotel door autoerotic asphyxiation.

Unlike American Idol, the viewers have no say whatsoever on the
outcome of the competition. The band make all the decisions. Whether a
show like this can sustain itself without any audience participation
remains to be seen, as does the success of INXS with their new singer
after the series ends.

Rock Star: INXS airs three times a week on CBS.

[story by Stuart Heritage]