The WB's Superstar USA

As another season of "American Idol" closes, performance gameshows are at an all-time high. Reality shows in general have overshadowed sitcoms and have overtaken a generous percentage of the broadcast channel market.

Those fed up with this phenomenon will love "Superstar USA." It's everything you've heard (the "Anti-American Idol, etc.) plus much more, and it all makes for excellent television. Of course, it IS a reality show, so I guess that makes the entire idea hypocritical to the idea that reality shows should be downplayed. Regardless, it's tremendously addictive entertainment.

The central idea of "Superstar USA" - and I must deviate from the flow of the review here to explain the premise a bit - is that the show attempts to find the worst singer in the US. They do this by gradually putting the better singers on the cutting room floor, and they mask the ruse/trick of the show by staging the performances in a "solo" fashion. The contestants don't mingle and can't see the other performances, so as far as they know, they are up against the best vocalists our great country has to offer. At the end of the season, they reveal the joke. Yes, it's that evil.

The comments are oftentimes better than all other performance gameshows. When you hear stuff coming from the judges like, "I have to be honest with you. If I wasn't, I'd be dishonest," or "You slithered on that stage like a sexy snake," you can't help but admire this show's wit and charm.

Yes, this show is cruel. Yes, the winner and contestants will be heart-broken when the revelation is made prima facie. Yes, this all makes for spectacular entertainment value.

REVIEW: 9/10

I loved this show. Take it any day over American Idol. Unforgettable!! Too bad it was around for one season

In an elaborate hoax, The WB's Superstar USA held auditions and only accepted the worse of the worse to compete in this bizarre joke of a competition. The show's panelists, Tone-Loc, Vitamin C and television producer Briggs judge have the toughest job of lying about each contestant's singing voice and react seriously.

12 Unsuspecting contestants are accepted into the competition and given makeovers to compete to be the WB's Superstar USA. Unable to hear each others voices, the dozen believe they're skillfull, but how will the final two react to each other's "special" singing?

The heat's on in the WB's Superstar USA.

This is sad. How did this happen? I thought this was gonna be quirky, but this is genuinely upsetting and sad.

This is a cruel show that deliberately found bad singers, encouraged them to sing louder/act sexier, and humiliated then with backhanded comments.

In the end, they didn't even have the guys to come clean about how they were the victims of a cruel joke, instead hiding behind the disingenuous excuse of "sure, we chose you because you're a bad singer - but also a confident, super sexy dreamer who can still make your dreams come true!"

The winner - who was also constantly mocked for her large busy size - got a $50k record deal, which is not even a cash prize but a promise of compensation for continuing to humiliate herself. Second and third place got $10k and $5k, and everyone below that got nothing as payment for being made laughingstocks in front of a global tv audience.

It's disgraceful and the network and producers hopefully paid a price professionally for this inexcusably cruel trainwreck.