Keepin’ it real ... odd

“Rock Star: INXS,” premiering tonight on CBS, is a kind of skanky “American Idol” -- I mean that in the nicest way -- squeezed into one of those fantasy camp reality shows in which a host of (usually young) adults bunk together in some exotic location while they compete for a dream job and/or a pot of money. The place this time is a mansion in the Hollywood Hills, and the job is that of lead singer for an Australian pop group.

INXS, a little research reminds one, really was huge for a while, and its particular portion of the 1980s is in regular rotation on nostalgia radio. By the time of lead singer Michael Hutchence’s suicide, however, eight years ago at age 37, it had long since peaked. And while it is not particularly “rock” to collude with the producer of “Survivor” and “The Apprentice” in a TV talent show, it does demonstrate good business sense: It gets a summer of free publicity and a built-in hook when it comes time to sell the album the band will record with its new frontperson, chosen from the 15 finalists we meet tonight.

They are not particularly green; most have had practical experience in music, and some have had success -- major label deals, roles in Broadway or West End musicals -- though not so much success that they’ve passed up this chance, possibly a last chance. (Indeed, while they are years younger than their potential employers, most are hovering around 30, a little long in the tooth by rock standards.)

Yet even as the creme of a reported 7,000 applicants, they display a range of ability and musical intelligence, of pitch control and physical grace, of ease or artifice. Pulling songs from their parents’ record collections, they don’t always seem to have an idea what they’re singing, or why, but this doesn’t always matter: Jordis Unga (the youngest contestant, at 22, the first to perform tonight, and a former “Star Search” finalist), may have not attempted a close reading of the lyrics to “Baba O’Riley,” or ever wondered why it was called that, but she has her way with it (and my vote, were I to cast one).

In an optimistic allotment of its prime time real estate, CBS will air the show thrice weekly for the next three months, each night of the week having its own character and focus: Monday is for the dormitory stuff and rock training; Tuesday is for the “Idol”-style competition, with the home audience voting by Internet or cellphone; and Wednesday is for the ritual culling of the herd (or the heard), when the three contestants with the fewest votes will have to sing an INXS song to prove their worthiness. It wants to be all reality shows to all people.

That this contest does not seem stranger than it does -- generationally speaking, it’s like kids in 1969 competing to sing with the Benny Goodman band -- has much to do with the persistence of the baby boomers and their unkillable, omnipresent classic rock. Like “American Idol” -- which last season fielded its own first classic-rock kid in the form of Bo Bice -- this is a show for a generation raised on karaoke, and on pop stardom as a career choice, rather than merely the byproduct of an inconvenient desire to make music. Like all reality television, it is essentially inauthentic, which pulls against the presumed authenticity of the world it represents: Rock is supposed to be nothing if not real, even when it isn’t. But there’s nothing unreal about a moment onstage.

The show is co-hosted by E! Entertainment Television personage and video game star Brooke Burke, and Jane’s Addiction/Red Hot Chili Peppers alumnus Dave Navarro, of whom it might be said, to paraphrase Jim Morrison’s beloved Nietzsche, that “the road of excess leads to the palace of television.” Navarro turns up on the tube with surprising frequency, co-hosting a Grammys pre-show, competing in “Celebrity Poker Showdown,” and appearing as the subject of MTV’s reality series, “Til Death Do Us Part: Carmen & Dave,” Carmen being Elektra, and for an ex-junkie who seems composed of equal parts tattoos and beauty products, he’s pretty cuddly. As to INXS, with the members’ adorable Australian accents and grown-up attitudes, they seem like the friendliest band in the world, and perhaps they are, if you don’t count the Wiggles.

In fact, nearly everyone here seems darn nice -- mutually supportive, ready to give their competitors their due. Many if not most display that particular mix of insecurity and sociability common to musicians, which makes a refreshing change from the cocksure solipsism more natural to those competing to be the next Donald Trump or the last person on a desert island.

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‘Rockstar: INXS’

Where: CBS

When: 9 tonight

Ratings: Not rated

Dave Navarro...Host

Brooke Burke...Host

Executive producer Mark Burnett