American Song Contest takes away all the fun of Eurovision

The Daily Beast

The Eurovision Song Contest, says Kevin Fallon, is "a feast of outrageous entertainment: an annual, global delirium of joy. So leave it to America to take away all the fun. American Song Contest, NBC’s much-promoted, historic U.S. version of the competition, premiered Monday night, and was a fascinating thing to judge—though not in ways you would think if you read that first paragraph. (Where! Were! The! Turkey! Puppets!?) It’s a reality music competition that does fix what have grown to be the genre’s most exhausting problems as each network desperately attempts to recreate the magic the original run of American Idol had. Yet, with two glaring exceptions—one in the form of Kelly Clarkson, the other a sure-to-be viral hit of lunacy called 'New Boot Goofin’'—the whole endeavor was egregiously bland for something so ambitious, let alone with such cheeky, anything-goes roots." ALSO: American Song Contest is a chaotic and haphazard copycat.