In every good competition show, there are always key attention-grabbing moments that make you think, “Wow. How awful/awesome/cool that must be for him/her.”  In watching the Star premiere, I actually had this reaction to quite a few things, but one in particular surprised me. As I watched the Selection Committee tell Alexis why things just weren’t working … and explain to the other hanging-by-a-thread finalists why their outlook was not so good, either … I felt about as bad for the judges as I did for the competitors. Weird, right? But then it occurred to me: Despite the fact that the judges (obviously) know it’s a contest and are well aware there can be only one winner, they still have real hope for ALL of these guys. They spend lots of time around them off-camera and, you have to figure, they probably glimpse lots of potential that we never get to see. Check out what Bob says here about DAS, Doreen and Alexis:

And then to hear Susie describe her real-time reaction to Wolfgang's comments for Alexis had me totally tearing up ... Is this as heartbreaking for anyone else?? Or am I just overtired? (Entirely possible...)