By now you’ve probably heard of Susan Boyle and her remarkable performance on the show Britain’s Got Talent, and how she stunned the live audience and the judges and, subsequently, millions of others via YouTube. You’ve likely seen and heard her rendition of “I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Miserables. It is fashionable to make fun of shows like American Idol, for their crassness, for the no-talent throngs trying out each year, for being glorified karaoke, for whatever they reveal about human beings and their thirst for fame and their capacity for self-delusion.

I don’t know what Jennifer Hudson would be doing with her life were it not for American Idol, but probably not winning Academy Awards. And without a similar show, Susan Boyle would never have had the chance to be heard, not knowing who to go to, how to be heard. Would anyone have given her an audition if she’d showed up at a talent agency? Would anyone have listened to recorded samples if she’d sent them in, if she even knew how to record herself? Millions of people who are happy to have heard her sing, would never have heard her.

I don’t watch American Idol. I have seen it in the past but not this year — Paula Abdul is too painful to listen to for even a second and Ryan Seacrest is a tool and, besides, I don’t have the time. Watching amateurs sing mostly like amateurs isn’t my idea of entertainment. But there are plenty of bad shows on television, sitcoms that aren’t funny and shows that substitute melodrama for drama. At least Idol and the like, besides entertaining huge audiences, occasionally change the lives of a Jennifer Hudson or Susan Boyle and let the rest of us experience a remarkable moment or two. What more can you ask of a silly singing contest?

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