One thing that has kept us rather entertained and amused in the past week has been watching my cousin perform on an Arab reality TV show called Star Academy. The show initially started in France but this year marks the third season for the Arab version. The show is similar to American Idol in that they start out with a bunch of people at the beginning of the season, kickoff someone every week, and then one person at the end wins a record contract. Unlike American Idol, the contestants (referred to as “students” on Star Academy because they take lots of classes at the “Academy”) live together and a one-hour highlights show is broadcast every night (actually, there is one channel that we don’t have that broadcasts what they’re doing 24/7). Every Friday night, the students perform during a show similar to American Idol. Every week, the teachers at the Academy select three students whom they think have not been doing well. Similar to American Idol, the audience votes to save one of the students. The person with the most votes is saved. The other students on the show then publicly vote to determine who stays in the Academy that week. To top things off, every week the teachers select the top 5 students. The new season started a week ago and my cousin was selected the number one student for the first week.

This whole thing has been pretty surreal. I don’t really know him that well as an adult but we actually grew up together in Kuwait. I used to play with him and my other cousins every weekend.

So I guess he’s famous now! Crazy!