‘Glee’ makes millions not watch

While driving to class, I was listening to my recently downloaded copy of “Doo-wops & Hooligans” by Bruno Mars. The only song I knew before then was his chart-topping hit “Grenade” because I was too slow to catch on during the fame of “Just the Way You Are.”

At least, that’s what I thought.

A few tracks in, I heard a familiar beat and began to know some of the words to a song called “Marry You.” I don’t listen to the radio, and I’ve never heard this album before, so I started scanning my brain for the origin.

I began to think, “Wow, this is a lot better than I remember it,” and it hit me: They covered this song on Glee.

Monday afternoon, AP released a brief story simply stating that in the past 18 months since appearing on the Billboard Hot 100 list, the cast of Glee has achieved an unprecedented 113 songs on the chart.

The importance of this: Elvis only had 108.

The biggest problem with this scenario is that not a single song that has made the charts thanks to these sub-par young adults pretending to be teenagers has been an original work from anyone.

Yes, they may have created a couple of mash-ups and stripped some bolder songs down to the bare acoustics, but they haven’t written a word.

While the popularity of the cover might bring popularity to the original, chances are the Glee fanatics aren’t interested in finding out who originally performed any of them.

They want their overworked and ruthlessly auto-tuned versions, and that’s the end of that.

Since the beginning of the series in 2009, there has been constant media frenzy surrounding the show thanks to the “wonderful musical entertainment” and “groundbreaking plot.”

The songs were not always the best quality since most of the actors were chosen on looks and not talent, but originally, the plot was actually enticing. Sadly, by the end of season one, the plot took a back seat once the producers realized the only thing most of their viewers cared about were the big, flashy, emotional musical numbers.

Glee was given the coveted post-Super Bowl slot this year, which only meant more bad music after a night of musical mishaps. The episode only pulled in 26 million viewers, which is a low number considering it’s annually one of the most coveted spots in primetime television.

The slot is not only meant to bring in millions of viewers that night, but also to get new viewers hooked. However, their ratings stood at a solid 11 million the following Tuesday, which is no increase from previous weeks.

This number sounds large, but in comparison to American Idol and its 22 million views, it’s just a fading blip on the radar.

While the show isn’t managing to attract any new viewers, the current Gleeks are holding on strong.

Right now, the Glee cast has 10 singles on the iTunes top 200, outnumbered only by Justin Bieber with 13. No one else even comes close.

The show is only a season and a half into its run (with season three already set for Fox), and they have maxed out its potential.

As much as I hate to admit it, I have more friends than necessary who are head-over-heels obsessed with the show, so I’ve seen more than enough to know the plot is nonexistent, the musical numbers are cheesy and the actors can’t sing.

Lea Michelle has some above-average musical theater songs and Jane Lynch never fails to entertain, but that’s about all the show has going for it right now.

Thankfully, they lost regionals at the end of season one, so they still have that goal to keep the show plowing forward.

Slowly but surely, more people are beginning to see the flaws in Glee’s basic structure and are getting annoyed with the weekly morality lesson thanks to Mr. Schuster, peppered with the six songs allotted each episode.

If the Glee producers want to keep their viewers and even bring in new ones, they need to understand how predictable their show has become and how bored America is getting, no matter how many times Katie Couric guest stars.

The Glee covers aren’t better than any of the originals. Many of them don’t even sound much different except for the flat notes.

Without the music, Glee would be a thing of the past, yet the music is the majority of the problem.

Until someone can actually write and perform an original song, I can’t honor them as the superb artists they should be with 113 hits.

Or, you know, when they can sing without being electronically corrected.