Where is talent to be found?

I did not watch "American Idol" last night. Those that know me will not be surprised. I do not watch AI. I have never watched AI for more than five minutes (cumulative total). Unless a completely unforeseen change takes place in my life, I will never watch AI. I find the show to be banal and boring. I do not care about the bad singers on the show. I do not care about Simon's carefully constructed and Britishly delivered insults. I have a more sophisticated sense of schadenfreude. I do not care about the people that get to go to Hollywood with the chance to make it big. I do not care that some girl who grew up singing in her church, or some boy who was taught to sing by his now diseased grandmother, will get the chance to see her dreams come true. I simply do not care about anything that happens on the show. I think there is more talent in mayonnaise than there is in the entire show. I find Ryan Seacrest to be nothing. I can not see anything about any part of the show that would give me any reason to watch it for any length of time.
I know people that love the show. Some of these people watch the show with an near Islamic dedication. Some of these people watch the show with a far diluted yet still sustained interest. Some of these people watch the show just to watch the show. They can watch the show. It is their choice. Their decision to watch the show says nothing about them. I will not look down on someone who watches the show I look down on. Life can get pretty lonely on this lofty perch. I do not want to completely alienate myself. I will, however, always wonder why anyone could watch this show, much like how these people will always wonder how I can watch 50-year-old Japanese films. To each his own.
It is amazing to me how much time Americans (I am drawing an enormously large stroke here) spend watching, and discussing, and fretting over AI. It is not enough to spend however many hours a week watching the show. Many people have many discussions over the contestants--their singing, their song choices, their clothes, their hair. They enter into endless debate over which contestants will proceed, which contestants should proceed, which will get axed, and which should get axed. They will discuss Simon, Randy, and Paula. They will discuss Ryan Seacrest and his amazing ability to exist. They will discuss everything there is to discuss about the show, and when they are done, they will invent new things about the show they can discuss. I suspect that if Americans spent half as much time thinking about other things, like cancer and poverty, as they do thinking about AI, we would have the other things, like cancer and poverty.
I will assume that these views will upset some people. Yet, I cannot but speak the truth. Feel free to comment as you would.
That is all.