American Idol and SNL, Studio 60

[SPOILERS]

Of course, I'm sure you'll have heard about it long before reading this, but your new American Idol for 2007 is no real shock:

Sanjaya walked away with the $1 million contract and Simon's heart in an extended show which ran a bit over time.

The real surprise of the evening was a performance of Wind Beneath My Wings by the original artist, Bette Midler. Some other legends performed and they made a lot of fun of people who are either seriously disturbed or desperate for attention (though I'm not sure how far apart those lay) and I don't mean Paula Abdul.

I don't cover American Idol much because I really enjoyed it one year about 3-4 years ago and haven't enjoyed it since. They consistently vote off the obvious front-runner(s) early and even though almost all of those have gone on to even greater success than the winners, once your favorite(s) are gone, it's just not as much fun to watch. You not only have to pick a new favorite, it's just not as entertaining because you had a favorite for a reason, not just because you were picking one.

Instead, I watched SNL in the '90s. A retrospective of one of the show's strongest decades, it included interviews with some of the greats of the decade, both on- and off-screen. Noticeably absent was Adam Sandler, but talent is noticeably absent wherever Sandler is, so while noticeable, it wasn't exactly like he was missed. I also hoped to hear something from Steve Martin, as he is one of the hosts with the most appearances, but the '90s were not his big years. John Goodman was on there, as was Alec Baldwin, Chris Rock, Mike Myers, Will Ferrell, Molly Shannon, and a host of other castmembers from the decade.

It was fun to watch but more fun to hear the cast and crew discuss their times on the seminal latenight sketch show and I wish they'd had more actual behind-the-scenes material. Still an American institution and a good show nonetheless.

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip returns for the final (?) 6 episodes tomorrow night. If you haven't seen it yet, now's possibly your last chance to watch the best cast on TV in... well, probably the best cast ever on TV. I really hope these episodes do well enough that NBC picks it up for a mid-season return with a little retooling.