Over at Popmatters, Roger Holland has written an excellent article on American Idol 5.

19 [Group, the company that owns American Idol] and its founder, Simon Fuller, have succeeded beyond most people’s wildest dreams with American Idol. The company is paid lavishly per episode by Fox, harvests additional money from the telephone-voting system and various sponsorship deals, and then cashes in on the contestants’ popularity across a variety of media. Essentially, they’re being paid, and paid handsomely, to benefit from one of the single most effective marketing campaigns in history.

Boiled down points of the article:

• There are two pre-audition selection rounds before contestants are allowed to meet the judges.
• American Idol finalists sign a “cruel and unusually restrictive contract with 19 Group”. This contract [reportedly] forces contestants to relinquish ownership of their names, likenesses, voices, and personal histories “in or in connection with” the show in perpetuity. Further, they are unable to reveal anything about said contract without incurring damages in excess of $5 million per infringement.
• Connections: the horrid (IMDB user rating of 1.8/10) movie From Justin to Kelly, starred Kelly Clarkson and Justin Guarini (another finalist) was written by Kim Fuller, brother of Simon.
• Kelly Clarkson’s first single was co-written by Cathy Dennis, who is managed by Simon Fuller.

The main point of the article is to show that the truly horrid performers who meet Simon and and the gang are hand picked. Thus, there very public failure is planned well ahead of time by the producers of the show. Essentially, Simon et al get to see the best and the worst only, and none of the middle ground unless they have some crazy quality that will help sell the show and get more TV ratings (William Hung?).