Great Moments In Synergy: Or, Why Winning On TV May Not Equal Winning In Real Life

Those of you who had your Friday nights open last fall, or who delighted in watching as I squirmed my way through televised music competitions featuring not-so-great “talent,” may remember The Next Great American Band, the “American Idol for bands” that aired to middling numbers and no chance in hell of being brought back for a second season. An even smaller number of you may remember that the “winners” of the competition were the Clark Brothers, a trio of related, finger-picking hotties who counted among their ranks a member of Carrie Underwood’s backing band. They haven’t done much since then, but tonight a different member of the band will make his triumphant return to the small screen… as the dobro player in an as-yet-unnamed Idol hopeful’s backing band. Why do I have a feeling that his connection to 19 Entertainment’s utter failure of a franchise-expansion won’t be mentioned at all by Ryan Seacrest? [rickey.org]