Zoe Williams on Reality Tv

Another series of Pop Idol, another raft of accusations that reality TV exploits people in the service of cheap entertainment. Cometh the crap singers; cometh the man - Simon Cowell is at the centre of these, since he's the one who makes everyone cry. His one-liners are often quoted ("the bad news is, this is a singing contest") but more usually, it's just "no, no, no, you can't sing", head in hands, eyes on the 18-year-old whose hopes have just been dashed like babies' heads against the floor of his stony heart (sorry, I've come over all purple - I'm half-hoping he'll write in and say "no, no, no, you can't write").

The people who object to these shows are the ones who don't watch them, possibly lodging their objections by refusing to be part of the viewing figures, or possibly because they can't take all the tears and, without those, there is no reason to tune in. The upshot is, though, the criticisms merge all reality TV into one phenomenon, which is false. Big Brother, for instance, is not a talent contest, and yet its contestants think it is one, and that given enough exposure, the public will be clamouring for them on a daily basis. This isn't true; almost none of them has any charm, they're often selected for their obnoxiousness and life after the house usually consists of small-time appearances in shows where the joke is on them.

These people are being sold a pup. No one wants them to have a career afterwards. Sure, they're adults, and they can look after themselves, and once in a while, one of them will get through (Brian Dowling, mainly), but in the end, what they think they're letting themselves in for (fame, invasion of privacy, all that) is the opposite of what, in fact, they're letting themselves in for (has-been status, without ever having been a been).

Pop Idol is different in so far as it is a talent contest. The aim is to find talent, nurture it, put a lot of money behind it and use it to flog records. Sure, this doesn't make it any better for the failures, but at least the successes can legitimately expect success. Talent contests have a distinguished history - Judy Garland started life in one. So did the Andrews Sisters. There is nothing inherently exploitative about them. Naturally, this doesn't mean that everyone who's ever won a singing contest has had a happy life.

Hear'Say, winners of the first Popstars (not the same as Pop Idol, though easily mistaken, since it also features Pete Waterman), have split up, victim to internecine hatreds and a lukewarm public reception. Girls Aloud, joint winners of the second Popstars (The Rivals) have done badly, though not as badly as their male counterparts, One True Voice. There's been a press emphasis on their hit singles, but truthfully, having cancelled one tour due to poor sales, they are not long for this world. There are a number of reasons for this - bands stay together longer when their members carve a musical association out of friendship, rather than being shoehorned together because of their complementing hair colours. Plus, they're all execrable. This isn't the fault of talent contests per se, it's the fault of this particular talent contest.

Will Young and Gareth Gates give the flip-side. Winner and runner-up of the first Pop Idol, they've both sold a lot of records. Even if their careers peter out, as long as they're not really dumb, they will stay rich men. You would be hard-pushed to see them as victims. And this is because Pop Idol is run along the eternal lines of the proper talent show in which rubbish people are dispatched immediately, there is only one winner, and the winner can hold his or her own vocally.

Simon Cowell is mean, but because his motives dovetail with those of the contestants (large record sales) he is far less mean, or calculating or sentimental than the many TV wonks who earn a living by rooting out the talentless, overexposing them and then laughing at them.

Cowell is a weird man. I interviewed him the other day and he said: "One of the problems is, in America and over here, for the last few years, our governments have patronised us with spin, which is just a nice word to describe 'I'm lying to you.' And that seeps into real life, so if you can watch a show where someone can say what's on your mind, that's very refreshing."

I think you'd have a job finding within this show any viable way out of political disenchantment, however rude the guy is to a tone-deaf kid dressed in a bra and petticoat. But he is swimming against the prevailing cultural tide, which is self-esteem-centric, uncritical, everyone-can-be-what-they-want-to-be moonshine, cravenly denying that anyone need be screwed over, even as it screws them over. There is a kindness in Pop Idol's theatre of cruelty. Plus, it gives us all a laugh.