The Uncharted Zone

American Idol premiered tonight which meant that my wife and I parted ways at 8:00.  It's not that I'm above watching American Idol, sociologically it's probably the only interesting reality show left on the air, but I don't watch much TV that's not animated and I have an over developed sense of empathy that makes it very uncomfortable for me to watch people publicly humiliate themselves and if by some chance you haven't seen the show, that's it in a nutshell.  

Any who, as usual when left to my own devices I eventually got around to You Tube and discovered The Uncharted Zone.  It is, by all accounts, both "The Most Important Music Television Show Along The Gulf Coast" and "The Gulf Coast Leader In Music Video Production," offering such services as:

Can follow a story line with actors and/or the artist playing parts.
Can be cool scenes inserted around the song
Can be models looking good throughout the Music Video
Can be different angles of the artist performing

The proof, as they say, is in the pudding and they have quite a feast on their You Tube channel, but might I suggest this sampler counting down their top ten videos of 2008: 

All of this raises three mildly serious questions in my mind.  Are all public access television shows doing this kind of internet crossover?  Isn't You Tube just public access television writ large?  How many American Idol contestants will we see on future UZ top tens?