Very cool story of My American Idol Experience by someone over on the "I Am A" section on Reddit. An excerpt:

I was immediately ushered into a room and forced to sign the second contract of the process, which gave away most of my body and most of my soul to Fox.

[...]the producers were shameless in reminding us that American Idol is a television show first, and a talent competition second. If we wanted to be on TV, we'd have to tell a compelling story and do and say crazy shit.