Do We Need American Idol Anymore?

Lee DeWyze has won American Idol and Richard Rushfield points out that he is the third “low-key cute white male rocker” in a row to win. Uh, why do we even need this show?

At this point, we pretty much we know who 11-year-old girls like to text-vote for.

Once, it seemed like the point of Idol was to find the best unsigned singer. Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Ruben Studdard, Fantasia and Jennifer Hudson had great chops — and were a diverse bunch. But something’s changed. Three’s a trend, and David Cook, Kris Allen and now Lee cement the white rocker-ish direction the show’s turned toward. The judges keep talking about finding an “artist,” and Ryan Seacrest himself noted that the “history” the show made this season was with “Pants On The Ground.” Not with DeWyze or Crystal Bowersox. With Pants. On the ground.

Meanwhile, Greyson Chance has a scored record deal thanks to this thing called YouTube. So who needs Randy, Kara or the poor soul they’ll hire to be Simon’s replacement?