So the world has gone crazy over Susan Boyle, the singing sensation from Britain’s Got Talent.  She who came on to clear mockery and sang her audience into oblivion.  She who actually made Simon seem nice.

The real story is not that this ordinary looking 47 year old cat woman from Glasgow can sing.  She can.

It is not that she now faces her “chance” to achieve her dream.  She can.

The real story is not even how we love the underdog, how even in our skepticism we wanted her to sing like an angel.  And yes, we did.

The real story is that we are suckers for a well crafted story, and the producers of these shows love to exploit it.

While I too got teary at her success story, and was moved by her music, the fact is that we were set up yet again by TV producers, and every time they do this we beg for more.

Seems as the story has unfolded she is not the unknown we thought.  Those that know her knew she could sing form Karaoke and church.  She even sang a song on benefit CD years ago, so her talent was an open secret.

She didn’t just appear out of nowhere, she was asked to appear.  The producers found her, not she them.

So they knew that the dumpy frumpy woman that walked out with poise to sing could in fact sing.  The only ones who did not were the judges and the audience, happily kept in bliss.

The three judges smiles, eyebrows and dropping jaws were unrehearsed.  The audiences nervous laughter turned to standing ovation were clearly spontaneous reactions.  Even the hosts seemed sincere as they crowed that we didn’t see that coming.

And our love of the youtube clip was certainly real.

But isn’t it odd that the clip was such a well crafted and produced story?  That her intro was so well designed to make us afraid she would bomb and hope she would rock?

Like all reality shows, we were suckered in and the producers knew exactly which buttons to push to make us doubt her and then faced with her success feel ashamed of our doubt?

Aren’t we all rediscovering the noble concepts of not judging the exterior again?  We have reembraced the age old idiom about judging a book by its cover.  We feel chagrined and humbled.

And we have a new unlikely hero, who may or may not realize how she and her considerable talent are being used to propel the show to new ratings highs.

And it works so good, that even knowing this, we will still tune into the show.  We may tune in to be proven right, that she is as gifted as we think.  Some may tune in to see if the first time was a fluke, and to watch her fail.

But the producers are sure of one thing.  We will tune in.

Does this say something good about us?  Or something bad?

You can decide for yourself.

Meanwhile I need to set my DVR, or I might miss it…

Trackposted to Nuke’s, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, Rosemary’s Thoughts, Allie is Wired, Political Byline, third world county, Woman Honor Thyself, The Beauty Stop, The World According to Carl, The Right Nation, The Pink Flamingo, and Right Voices, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.