Colton-mania, without the cable and popcorn

Talk about being left out of the watercooler conversations. Try working at a newspaper in Staunton these days and NOT watching "American Idol."

Young talent Colton Berry has made the coveted Top 24. Anyone who has followed his career (spanning two-thirds of his 18 years) is not surprised. But I don't watch television, much less "AI." Primarily because I don't have cable, partly because I have an aversion to reality TV, but mostly because it seems like an addiction.

I hear it all the time: "I've got to get home before 8 o'clock; 'Idol' is on tonight.'"

What? The closest I've had to a television addiction was "ER" in its earliest seasons before it turned into a huge soap opera with sirens, and my schedule changed to working nights again. In fact, during that sad time I fell (on ice) and ended up in a real emergency room. When I tried to make a joke that I was missing "ER," a very sweet nurse checked to let me know it was a re-run that night anyway.

Life got in the way and broke my addiction, thank heavens. People in every walk of life, however, are heavily into this show. It's like the networks finally figured out how to keep people coming back. When boxed DVD sets hit the store shelves so people could skip an entire season of "Lost" and just pick up the collection at Christmas, the powers-that-be ramped up reality TV and added "authentic" drama.

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