Is it just me, or is the elimination portion of the reality show competition "Grease: You’re The One That I Want" just plain cruel?

When they weeded down the attendees from Grease Academy to the final twelve, how did they do it?  They had all the contestents — several dozen — stand in an empty gymnasium and sing "Tears On My Pillow" while the producer walked around and tapped the "losers" on the shoulder.

Understand something: they didn’t just sing "Tears On My Pillow" once; they sang it over and over and over and over.  Even now, I can’t get the phrase "love is not a gadget" out of my head.

In any event, the whole process was humilitating.

And now that they’re in the "live" portion of the series, how do they send off the losers?  They have to sing an embarrassing stage number.

But it’s not like American Idol where they get to pick the song which shows their talent and essentially allows them to go off in their own idiom …hell, no.  With the Grease competition, they have to be humilitated.

The losing male, for instance, has to sing "Sandy", with the whiny line "Love has gone; all alone, I sit I wonder why-I-I-I, oh why…." while the other contestents — you know, the ones not sucky enough to be voted off — do back up vocals and make obviously pre-choreographed fakie hugs (yeah, like they really are going to miss you, dude).

Jeff Aguiar tells me that the show has been optioned for another season, except, of course, the Broadway show that people will be trying out for will not be "Grease".  That’s good.  As long as it’s not "Grease".