I’ve never taken the initiative to watch this series; somehow I get hauled into it by one of my kids. This go-around it’s Ariel who wanted to watch it and I’m keeping her company.
I’m telling you, I don’t understand the bad rap Simon gets. All the guy is is honest. He obviously lives by the philosophy of Miss Cordelia Chase: “Tact is just not saying true stuff.” In the segments I’ve seen thus far, I have yet to see him dismiss anyone of indisputable quality, and when someone good wanders in, he seems *happy* about it. My understanding is that he’s said this is his last year. If that’s true, maybe they want to replace him with the woman from “Weakest Link.” “You *are* the weakest singer. Good-bye.”
But, man, some jerk in Houston snapped and threw a cup of water on him? I think Simon is getting out at the right time; what’s to stop some loon from sneaking a gun in and blowing a hole in him? (Unless they make them go through metal detectors.) What I don’t comprehend is, ostensibly there’s a screening process. Some of these people, the moment they open their mouth, it’s clear they don’t know an E flat from a Salt Flat. Why then in God’s name would the producers send them up the line? Only one answer comes to mind: Knowing these people are horrendous, they send them before the three judges and the TV camera specifically so they can humiliate themselves on national TV. I’m not sure why I never realized that before, but that has to be the case. ‘Wow, this guy is so awful, we’ve got to share him with America.” Seems kind of–oh, what’s the word–cruel.
Granted, you’d think the would-be singers should know better, but it’s pretty evident by now that they don’t. I know they’re signing themselves up to be exploited, but boy, it just all comes across as pretty mean insofar as the producers are obviously setting them up to be seen as schmucks. Kind of a waste of one’s fifteen minutes.
PAD
• 
I don’t watch IDOL much. I produce a lot of theatre and sit through a lot of auditions, and that’s pretty much what IDOL is (And, you’re right…Simon is just saying what every producer says or thinks at every audition).
And it’s pretty clear that the really bad ones are put in there for humiliation (it’s also pretty boring….at least the bad in an interesting way are entertaining…)
No, according to someone who posted on the Worst Forum Ever (one of the Warren Ellis Forum satellites) on Delphi they see everyone.
Here’s the quote: “A friend of the family went to the NYC auditions this year. According to her, everyone does indeed sing for the judges. She said most people get cut off after about 10-15 seconds, but the judges are there for DAYS. Which explains both why they get crankier as the process continues, and why they added in a Honolulu session at the very end. A little reward for the judges. :)”
Joe
I don’t know a large nimber of people, but I bet I know 5-10 people who could sing better than most of the contestants. They put the bad ones on the air just to act as easy targets.
As to the possibility of gunplay, I heard a sports news story today where a soccer player in Chile shot an opposing player in the shoulder after the other player scored a last-minute goal. I guess the obvious question would be as to where he hid the gun during the game.
No, according to someone who posted on the Worst Forum Ever (one of the Warren Ellis Forum satellites) on Delphi they see everyone.
From what I saw this evening, that someone was wrong. They very clearly showed the following process on the show tonight:
1) About 10,000 people showed up at the Houston site.
2) Split into a number of groups and lined up three across in each one, the first cut consisted of auditioning for “the producers” (the show’s own words.)
3) The three main judges didn’t show up until the next day.
They then sifted through those who had made that first cut from the 10,000.
So whoever said that the three main judges saw everyone was misinformed.
PAD
Ah, Peter, obviously you’ve been too busy to see the ads for the other reality shows which humilate the participants.
Thank the gods for having worked second shift jobs for the past 7 years or so. I’ve never seen *any* episodes of American Idol. I’ve only seen one episode of Survivor, and I’ve never seen any of the episodes of any of the shows listed in the “Cowboy Peter’s TV Roundup.” (Wait, I have seen the first season of 24, but that was because I borrowed the DVDs from a friend.) And I can’t say I miss any of them either. Soooo, hurray for missing Hollywood!
I think it was the second American Idol that there was a news report that FOX hired some actors to go in there and be totally bad, just to have some interesting footage. The judges don’t know who they are, to keep the process ‘honest.’
So yeah, the people that control the editing process, they want the cruelty and humiliation in this stage of the game.
I’m surprised that anyone should be surprised to realise that reality TV is about humiliating people.
Of course deliberately humiliating “singers” on television is cruel. But isn’t that the secret reason everyone loves these reality shows? We like to watch people suffer.
There’s a flipside to the producers’ “cruelty,” though. I can’t believe that the worst of these contestants, especially assuming they’ve seen American Idol, really believe they’re all that good.
So my guess is that they still go on the show, knowing how terrible they are, because they know that the worse they are, the better their chances of “Ooh! Ooh! Lookit! I’m on TEEVEE!!”
I do watch the audition episodes, just to marvel at the degree of self-delusion on display, and yes, I agree that there is nothing particularly cruel about Simon. (Once the really bad singers go away, I stop watching. The rest of the winnowing process is dull to me.)
I do find it necessary if cruel to show some of the bad singers.
I remember watching one audition from a prior season. A woman came up and was asked the standard question about why she was here. She was quite honest: “I am an awful, awful singer, but I enjoy the show and I wanted to do this just once in my life.” All three judges smiled and said go ahead. She sang terribly, though not as badly as some of the folks who showed they had gotten their hearts set on superstardom. The judges listened, and smiled, and Simon said, “Do you sing in the shower?” She said yes. He said, “Well, you are bad, but at least you enjoy yourself.”
The behavior of the wannabes is a ramped-up version of what we see among hopeless writer wannabes at convention workshops: they believe they are ENTITLED to fame, whether they’re good or not. It’s a fascinating, road-wreck phenomenon.
You want to know the desperate thing? In the UK version, they got together a “worst of” clip selection to fill out the time in the grand (ha!) final.
Then (HaHa) they’d got the worst of them back to do a shared verse or two of god knows what in a pop-video stylee, HaHaHa.
And I’m thinking, are they game for a laugh, don’t know they’re awful, or desparate to be on the box? Because this is a gimp act by any name.
And then (HaHaHaHa), they get three of them live in the studio (HaHaHaHaHa) for the studio audience to vote on which one gets to sing (HaHaHaHaHaHa).
Now, by this time it’s plainly obvious that we’ve got A) fairly brainless, talentless girl with large, animated breasts, B) A small, unnatractive man (I’d rate him as unnatractive as myself, and I’m no Brad Pitt), who sings through his nose badly, and looks like he thought it would be a laugh but now feels like a circus seal, and C) A guy who, with help and encouragement, would make a fine addition to the staff of the local convenience store, but never left on his own. And he’s wearing a gold lame suit, a hairstyle that was made illegal in 1987, and we’ve already seen him shouting “tainted love” on the video clip.
And he won the vote, and we were back in Bethlehem Hospital, 1852-ish, laughing at the crazy people.
Simon Cowell… I’ve no time for the sort of music he produces, but he know his markets, he knows how to get “artists” for moving along that production line, and knows you can’t polish a turd and pass it off as a diamond.
BTW: Anne Robinson, weakest link. Talentless, stupid, lucky to be where she is, thinks it’s through talent, oh how wrong can one woman be. According to friends who’ve worked with her in the past, the clever bit about her persona on the weakest link is the hint that she’s putting it on. She isn’t. And she has the difficult words on the questions spelt fo-net-ic-al-ee.
Apparently, I’m informed that we were watching Pop Idol to see if the fat girl won (she did). Sadly, the market for singles (12-16 year old, mostly female) in the UK is vastly different from the voting population on these shows (12 – 65 year old, erm, mostly female, but not overwhelmingly…).
So the lucky winner gets her first record to number one…. and then? Famously, the boy band formed in the second pop-stars series disappeared without trace. The first band from Pop Stars broke up after a few months.
The real popular vote amongst people who matter in these things happens at the record shop tills…
It’d be like, I dunno, putting up a TV competition on one of the big networks for the next writer of a new X-comic. If non-comics buyers would watch it, that is.
I know a radio station put one of their interns up to doing an audition and she was on TV and she was one of the ones they spotlighted as particularly horrible. So it brings to light the fact that there are all sorts of groups who are doing this and some of whom might be able to fake a decent enough act in the first round to get to the judges in hopes of getting on TV.
Which isn’t to say that everyone there was just there to get TV time. Obviously some of them really think they can sing. If they do turn away people before they get to the “celebrity” (at least for the remainder of their 15 minutes, which Paula has far exceeded) judges, then the pre-round judges are probably not making enough money to get into arguments. I’m sure they give some people “passes” because they don’t want a confrontation and hope that Randy, Paula, and Simon can talk some sense into them, possibly for millions of people to see.
Which brings me to the first shown contestant on Wednesday night, Marquies. How this guy got through the pre-round judges and waited for however long to see Paula, Randy, and Simon just to tell them he doesn’t care about the competition is beyond me, unless it was a grab for attention in hopes of being on TV or another prank by a radio station or other media group. And then he had the audacity to be mad at the judges for dismissing him…? I think if it’s not a joke/prank/set-up that I lost a little bit more of my faith in the future of this country.
I’ve seen American Idol about three times. Simon is the one honest voice on the show and without him it would become just as idiotic and stupid as America’s Stupidest Most Talent Kids.
I don’t believe this is Simon’s last year. I could be wrong, but last summer I believe he signed a multi-year deal, which also involved him starting some other shows for Fox.
I don’t know how it works on AI but in the UK there’s a set of behind-the-scenes judges, music teachers, other music executives, TV producers who are the ones who see everyone, and feed a mixture of the likely to succeed and those who are guaranteed to be good television (ie. stonkingly bad) up to the official judges.
Simon behaves quite differently on the US show to the UK one, where he has a reputation for attempting to rig the PI competition and making ludicrous conclusions and setting them out as ‘it’s just me being nice and honest’ when in fact he’s trying to set up new trends for a quick buck, rather than trying honestly to find the best singer.
RE: What I don’t comprehend is, ostensibly there’s a screening process. Some of these people, the moment they open their mouth, it’s clear they don’t know an E flat from a Salt Flat. Why then in God’s name would the producers send them up the line?
Entertainment. I remember watching MTV when they were discussing the “Real World” in its various incarnations. The staff interviewed stated that when they discovered the effects of alcohol, confinement, and more…volatile…personalities on the selected roommates, the entertainment value (read: conflict) increased and so did the ratings.
I don’t watch AMERICAN IDOL, as 1) I’ve never seen any good “reality” TV (unless you count documentaries, which are apparently too intelligent to fall under that now-frightening genre); 2) the singers who have won are amazingly bland; hope they make all the money they can now, ‘cuz in 10 years they’ll be on light music stations and VH-1’s Where Are They Now; and 3) I don’t feel like watching hopeless singers humiliate themselves.
Of *course* the producers know how bad some of these people are. While the show (apparently) evolves into a tight race between audience favorites, initially peoople thrill to hear Simon Cowell lashing out at the awful singers. If they only auditioned the folks with good-to-great voices, what would he say?
Do these bad singers know? I’d say either no, they genuinely believe they’re talented, or yes, but it’s the only way they’ll ever get on TV. (The latter reminds me of some of the DAILY SHOW interviews, where some of the interviewees seem oblivious to how much they’re being mocked.)
I think the whole appeal of Simon is his ability to be absolutely blunt. Think of all the times during a week (day?) you’re confronted with something incredibly awful or stupid, and for whatever reasons — you’re at work, they’re a realtive, you want to make a good impression — instead of pointing out how talentless or ridiculous someone is, you politely offer incredibly light comments. Cowell gets to tell them off, mincing no words at all. How nice would that be!
Incidentally, I read that Cowell was against the American World Idol (or whatever it was called) because he felt by pitting all the winners against each other, it was forcing some of them into the position of losers. So it seems he’s not as vindictive as he sometimes appears.
I’m a big karaoke fan myself, and I’ve often wondered about some of the LOUSY singers I’ve heard: do they think they’re really good or just wanna sing? Or both? I dunno, but I recorded myself singing before I ever tried it live, so I had an idea if I’d embarrass myself or not. I was a weak, but decent singer when I first tried karaoke, but over the past couple of years my voice and performance skills have really matured. I now regularly get tons of compliments, and many times I’ve been asked if I was a professional singer or in a band. The point is – even tho’ I know I can sing, I wouldn’t try out for the AI show. Those that do – it’s either that they see it as their chance for stardom (Kelly Clarkson) or they just wanna be on TV, talented or not. Besides, they don’t let mature people (I’m 43) on the show 🙁
I can verify PAD’s description of the audition process. I have a cousin who tried out last year. The line was so long that by the time she was seen by “the producers,” they’d already picked as many people as they were going to put before the judges and were only looking for “outtakes” — those people that are so embarrasingly bad as to “deserve” humiliation on national television.
It’s a shame because my cousin actually does have a beautiful voice and could have a real shot at this kind of competition.
And also, about the only way I’d ever watch IDOL is if a family member was on — I’m pleased to say that the most I’ve ever seen of IDOL is the occasional glimpse of the last few minutes before 24 started.
Life was better in oh, so many ways, before “reality TV”.
Here’s a sad commentary for everyone. The “lunch posse” and I were out eating one day and it came up that someone announced that the NASA program costs each U.S. citizen something like $4.30 per month. It was apparently compared to the cost of Cable TV (not sure why as cable TV is much more costly). This was shocking to – let’s call him “Big John” because he’s such a big thinker – Big John because “C’mon! At least I GET something from Cable TV!”
Hmmm…exploring the unknown to (hopefully) the benefit of everyone on the planet…or cable TV…
wow.
As far as reality TV goes, I can’t stand the genre–but that said, I can only think of two shows I’ve watched that I guess have to placed under that umbrella. I’ve liked the few episodes of The Osbournes that I’ve seen, and I like Cops. Of course, those aren’t shows that are generally considered typical of the genre.
I think a lot of the “awful” people on this show really think they are talented. Or perhaps while they can’t sing, if the right person sees them on TV, they’ll be “discovered” and let into the secret world of The Famous that they have so deserved but have been denied their entire life. So many people think they should be famous, despite the lack of any sort of talent. I can’t tell you the number of people I’ve encounted, especially when I used to work in TV, that would tell me that whatever they were currently doing was only “temporary” until they got their “big break”. It’s sad, actually…
This show doesn’t interest me, mainly because I don’t listen to Top 40 radio. Now, if someone would put “Death Metal Idol” on the air, I’d tune in every week!
dt
Between the fact that this is FOX and that it’s “reality” television.
Well, nuff said.
Never saw this show. Just gotta comment about the title of the post, as for years I have jokingly offered…
“American Leaguer, get away from me!”
as my commentary on the DH. But that’s off-topic. 🙂
Slightly tangent to the topic..
There is ONE reality show I follow, tho I LOATHE the rest, and thats Amazing Race.
This is one of the few shows that maintains a consistent set of rules, doesn’t artificially induce conflict between participants, rewards planning, ingenuity and thought as well as physical prowess. (Survivor also hits ALMOST all of those, but loses on artificially induced conflict with the vote-off process and this year also had a ‘surprise’ rule change).
Anyone who thinks these reality shows have any other purpose than turning dehumanizing humiliation into entertainment is fooling themselves. Theater of humiliation, thats all these awful excuses for programing are. And they won’t go away as long as people watch them, even if most people try to insist they watch them ironically (suurrrrre).
I’ve always thought reality TV was a lame concept. To steal a line from Henry Rollins, true “reality” TV would be a show like “Your Shìŧŧÿ Job,” where we watch a guy in a factory stamp labels on aluminium cans for half an hour. TV’s current crop of ‘reality’ programming has a lot more to do with fantasy than reality.
On the other hand, I’ve always thought reality TV would be a lot better if they were like the TV shows in that ‘Wierd’ Al Yankovic movie “UHF”. My personal push would be a show called “Trial By DEATH!”, a combination of the court show genre and American Gladiators. You’d have to fight your way through a padded foam labyrinth, using a combination of stealth, guile, and physical strength. Tennis ball cannons, traps, and college football linebackers lie in wait to trip you up. And if you fight your way to the finish line, you then have to face off against Judge Greg Mathis by arguing a legal topic of his choice. If Judge Mathis doesn’t like your argument, he gets to beat the stuffing out of you with a baseball bat.
Now, while we can put a show like “The Chair” on the air, people still tell me that my ideas suck. What’s wrong with this world, I ask you? 🙂
That OTHER John Byrne
Really, with reality TV, we’re just trodding down the slope until stuff like Stephen King’s The Running Man and the video game Smash TV are reality, at which point irony will finally be pronounced dead.
As far as Simon goes, he’s the only part of American Idol that I can stand, precisely because of his honesty. I’ve never watched a full episode of the show (for the same reason I didn’t watch the full state of the union, I’m not a masochist), but I’ve seen promo clips, and hey, these people are horrible. I’ve also flipped through his book in the store, and it’s got pretty much the same attitude, which Peter accurately described with the Cordelia analogy. The whole of the pop music industry is fraudulent, so it’s refreshing to see someone with a sense of honesty, however cruel it may seem.
And on a tangent, everyone I’ve talked to agrees that Teen Idol was a waste of time precisely because there was no Simon. Not necessarily because they wanted to see him yelling at little kids, but more to see the self-important soccer moms pseudo-prostituting their kids for a chance to be on national TV get taken down a few pegs.
You’re right. The guy who threw a cup of water at this wanna-be comic book critic was a jerk. If he was serious about it, he would have thrown a cup of flaming napalm at the executive producer of the show. (That’s the guy who takes credit for the show, gets most of the money and does nearly no work.)
The whole concept of reviving Ted Mack’s Original Amateur Hour, and hiring a host as cruel as Edward G. Robinson’s mob boss torturing his mistress in “Key Largo,” indicates a person who needs a good spanking with an axe. This Simon guy isn’t the problem – he is what he is – but putting him on TV is the producer’s fault. Making fun of people who are at least trying to demonstrate a talent is encouraging people to be cruel and petty. Just what we Americans need to learn to get along in Bush’s America, right?
Er, Thomas E. Reed? Simon Cowell IS the creator and producer of the show. So it is still his fault.
i sing in a band – I may not be great, but I’d sing on American Idol just to be on TV (yes I am shameless) no matter how much Simon ripped on me.
Of course, I sing Irish Folk Tunes and AI seems to require knowledge of Pop tunes. There, I am sorely lacking.
I’m so sick of the hype that this show gets. Why do people fall for this scrap? Come PAD don’t tell me you’re another person who thinks this is really happening?? 90 percent of these wannabes are paid actors. It’s already proven. Simon is doing his bit. He’s getting the attention he wants. It’s rigged.
I wish TV went back to the way it used to be, real television shows, comedy & drama.
Enough of this Reality Crap.
These losers are screened before they even go on. They pick the worst ones so Simon can has his digs. It’s all a setup from the get go.
Cheap entertainment at it’s worst…
Blah
There’s no such thing as Reality TV. These shows are put together for the cheapest entertainment possible and people flock to their TV sets to watch. The ONLY reality show I used to enjoy was the Osbournes but EVEN that has become staged. Why does a Reality TV need writers????? Simon knows whats coming. Thats what he gets paid to do right??? He reads his lines like everyone else.
It’s staged. All of it and fake.
Howard Stern (forgive me I work in a Dilbert job and talk radio is an escape) had the judges (Simon, Paula, and the other guy(sorry don’t watch the show and don’t remember his name)) and ask them to evaluate a singer. They gave the singer lukewarm to negative reviews the Howard revealed that the singer was in a signed ban which had a hit (it might have the guy who does the Hero song from Spider-Man, I am not sure). They of course were all flustered. I did not take the show seriously since like realiry shows it seems artfical and negative. Howard’s demo showed the judges abilitiy to pick a talent is suspect.
Anne Robinson used to be a journalist on a local paper in England. She was sent out of the country on assignment, during which, Lord knows why, she had to buy a pair of jeans, the cost of which she claimed on expenses.
When she returned to the office, Robinson told a fellow female journalist about her new jeans, and how she decided they didn’t quite suit her. But she offered them to her colleague. When the colleague gratefully accepted the jeans, Robinson demanded payment.
True story.
PS And Simon Cowell doesn’t deserve to be soaked for being rude on TV. He deserves to be flayed alive for his part in unleashing Will Young and Gareth Gates (the UK winner and runner-up) on the British public. Tw*t.
Peter David: I’m telling you, I don’t understand the bad rap Simon gets. All the guy is is honest. He obviously lives by the philosophy of Miss Cordelia Chase: “Tact is just not saying true stuff.” In the segments I’ve seen thus far, I have yet to see him dismiss anyone of indisputable quality, and when someone good wanders in, he seems *happy* about it.
Luigi Novi: For the most part, I agree, but Simon does go over the line, and embellishes a bit too much with the insults. Calling someone a “loser,” simply because they’re not cut out to be singers, which he’s done on at least two occasions, may be why he has his reputation. Randy is able to be honest with someone without the smug, acerbic cruelty.
Peter David: But, man, some jerk in Houston snapped and threw a cup of water on him? I think Simon is getting out at the right time; what’s to stop some loon from sneaking a gun in and blowing a hole in him? (Unless they make them go through metal detectors.)
Luigi Novi: I doubt they don’t.
Peter David: Knowing these people are horrendous, they send them before the three judges and the TV camera specifically so they can humiliate themselves on national TV. I’m not sure why I never realized that before, but that has to be the case.
Luigi Novi: Of course it is. If it weren’t, they’d simply send in each person, then send them out without ONE WORD from the three judges, and then let them know outside the audition room (via a light or note or some other signal) whether they’re going to Hollywood. They instead embellish with the insults and metaphors precisely because they want to see Simon being a prìçk, and the singer having a meltdown wherein they start crying and curse out Simon.
Pete Darby: BTW: Anne Robinson, weakest link. Talentless, stupid, lucky to be where she is, thinks it’s through talent, oh how wrong can one woman be.
Luigi Novi: Where did she say she got where she is because of talent?
Julio Diaz: Er, Thomas E. Reed? Simon Cowell IS the creator and producer of the show. So it is still his fault.
Luigi Novi: Wrong. The creator of the show is Simon Fuller. Not Simon Cowell. Nor is Cowell a producer. The only show Cowell has ever produced is Cupid.
OK, I will confess: my wife got me hooked on AMAZING RACE.
That story about Anne Robinson trying to sell her “unsuitable” jeans sounds familiar; my family knew a (now-deceased) movie actor of some distinction who told a similar story about Cary Grant, who evidently liked to sell his fellow actors the suits he was given on various films.
Okay, I’ll bite:
Where’s this proof that the whole thing is staged?
Howard Stern (forgive me I work in a Dilbert job and talk radio is an escape) had the judges (Simon, Paula, and the other guy(sorry don’t watch the show and don’t remember his name)) and ask them to evaluate a singer. They gave the singer lukewarm to negative reviews the Howard revealed that the singer was in a signed ban which had a hit (it might have the guy who does the Hero song from Spider-Man, I am not sure).
Indeed. Josie Scott from Saliva, who at the time was part of the ensemble with the #1 song “Hero”.
Brak, I like your show idea. I can think of only one thing to make it better, and that would guarantee ratings. Make sure your contestants are lawyers. Who wouldn’t want to see a lawyer get beaten with a baseball bat?
“Reality TV”? Survivor, American Idol, The Amazing Race, The Bachelor and all the others are mistakenly called reality tv. They are actually game shows, the modern day version of Beat the Clock. (Or in American Idol’s case – the Gong Show.)
OMG. I can’t believe people actually fall for this crap Reality TV and believe it’s real. It’s staged cause they all know what happens going in. You’re not gonna tell me that these people don’t get screened or sign contracts before they audition do ya??? Be serious. Simon’s NOT coming up with his lines off the top of his head. Why does Reality TV need writers for eh??? If it was real and off the top of someone’s head they wouldn’t such a huge production company now would they???
I don’t watch American Idol, or any other reality television, but it DOES make me laugh.
I find the humiliation and degrading experiences the people on reality TV are forced to go through to be genuinely funny. Simon ripping into someone who thinks they can sing, a blonde gold-digging bimbo finding out the guy she’s been trying to bag ISN’T worth $1 million, and so on.
Especially when it comes to shows like Survivor *cough*rigged*cough*, Joe Millionare, and the like, the people who audition for shows such as these DESERVE to be humiliated. They DESERVE to be treated like dirt. They’re blemishes on this country – a filthy shame that makes us the laughing stock of the world.
Someone here mentioned The Running Man. Evil government and dark future aside, ever since reality shows started up, I’ve wished and waited for one where they kill the disqualified contestants. Alas, I doubt I’ll see anything of the like in my lifetime.
Simon’s an actor just like the rest of the wannabe’s that walk in off the street to audition.
Sheesh.
What pìššëš me off are those shows wherein the staging is so obvious. Case in point: My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance. The woman in question is told that the guy posing as her fianc
I finally watched an episode of AI on Monday due to being on my back with a broken foot and nothing else to watch on television. I have little respect for Simon and Randy for their attitude towards the kids that are coming out to sing for them. It’s one thing to give constructive criticism to them about their singing; it’s another to just be sitting there waiting to give your latest sound-bite and mug for the camera.
But that’s really who the stars are of this show: the judges. Or at least the judges think they are the stars.
And if these “lousy” singers are so bad, why did they make it past the first round to be seen by the three judges? Because they were terrible and this was someone’s idea of a funny joke for the judges and the audience at home. “Oh, she’s terrible! It will be so funny when Simon cuts into her.” Sheesh.
I actually do like some of the reality shows, when they are based around the concept of people actually working together to make something better. I don’t see it with AI. All I see is a low-talent producer being snotty to kids and breaking their hearts.
I feel that if someone want’s to be stupid and get up there on national TV and make a fool out of themself, get out of the way and let them go. It’s their chance for 15 seconds of “fame”. Are they being exploited? Yep. Are they being ridiculed? Yep. Do they know what they are getting into? Yep. Especially now that this is the third season of the show. I can see people on the first season not knowing what they were getting into, but not now.
I hate and despise all reality TV. Unfortunately, the gym I used to go to often had American Idiot on the TVs above the bikes, so I was exposed to it.
Yes, the show thrives on humiliation, as do all forms of “reality TV.” So yes, the producers let an equal number of bad singers to mix in with the good singers so that the viewers can watch Simon insult them. The show is also carefully edited to make sure that their best zingers are highlighted.
Simon is an honest prìçk who says exactly what he thinks. So what? He’s still a prìçk. What I want to see is Paula Abdul getting up there and have him critique her singing. What was the record producer who first told her she had talent smoking?
Do the bad singers think they have talent? Of course they do! Never underestimate the average carbon blob’s power of self-delusion! We live in a culture that worships fame, even if the fame comes from something we used to think was shameful (see: Heidi Fleiss, Monica Lewinski). This is why Al Franken, the guy who created The Coneheads, now thinks he’s a great political thinker or actors like Charlton Heston or Martin Sheen go on CNN and talk about politics. Hey, they’re famous, so they must be smarter than the rest of us, right?
The people who go on reality TV honestly believe that this will be their big break and some producer will see how telegenic they are and “discover” them and their 15 minutes will never come to an end.
The fact is, these shows get produced because they are dirt cheap to produce. Why hire a big writing staff or Jerry Seinfeld for $100 million a season when all you need is to offer some yahoo $1,000 if he eats a plate of maggots? Ever since the writer’s strike, Hollyweird has been trying to figure our how to cut the actors and writers out of TV production. They’ve nearly succeeded with Reality TV.
Yeah, 90% of it is staged and contrived, but so long as the couch potatoes tune in with sufficient numbers to meet the advertiser’s quota, who cares? These shows don’t even need to pull down Seinfeld numbers to turn a profit.
Bread and Circuses, people.
Some of you guys slay me. You’re “intelligence snobs”. “I don’t watch reality tv”, yet you know how bad it ALL is. You remind me of the people who don’t consider comic books as either art or literature.
Yes, I watch and actually ENJOY some reality tv. To be honest , it’s no better or worse than anything else on tv. I don’t like The West Wing. I consider The Gilmore Girls as crap. I USED to like Charmed, although I think it’s time they put it out of it’s misery (or at least mine). And Angel still manages to surprise me from time to time.
But I find Reality TV fascinating. It’s kind of like watching Wild Kingdom, or Crocodile Hunter.
Human behaviour is just so …intriguing, even if in some cases it’s being manipulated.
Think of Simon Cowell as Steve Irwin and you can hear him say. “Watch now while I jam me thumb up this here guy’s bûŧŧhølë! He’s likely to try and take a swing at me, but remember, I’m a trained professional, so don’t try this at home!”