On Thu, Mar 26, 2009 at 12:27 PM, Pollak, Melissa F. <[email protected]> wrote: As I've said before, Idol is not about finding the best singer or > recording artist in America. It's about putting on a good TV show -- > which means casting. A few weeks ago, Simon even mentioned the word > "casting" on air. The fact that a few Idol graduates have become > successful either as recording artists or in other parts of the > entertainment industry is just gravy; it's not what the show is about > (except for the fact that those few successes help feed the ratings, > too).
To the extent you are right is I guess the extent to which I am not very interested in this show - and I guess that is why this is classified as a "Reality Show". If they just put and keep the blind guy on because he is blind and it adds viewer interest, even though he has clearly not been one of the 10 best singers or performers since they took the show to Hollywood, then the singing contest part of the show is undermined. This is what pissed me off about the show so much the first time I watched it. What has given me hope is that they are not looking so much for the best singer or performer, but the more the contestant with the most commercial potential. If they think the blind guy will sell a lot of songs/tickets even if he is a mediocre singer/performer, then I can accept him being kept this long (and if votes to AI have some significant correlation with later song/ticket sales, then the voting aspect makes some sense too). I guess the Reality Show aspect explains the Gokey factor (I think he is the guy whose wife died recently), and why a couple of the contestants talk a lot about missing their kids or other hardships. I don't care about that so much (I should say that, of course I care about the guy's wife dying and the pain of being separated from young children. But I just don't care about that in the context of this show). Now, if Simon is making a calculation that the Indian guy has the potential to ride some kind of Slumdog wave to commercial viability, then making the effort to keep him on the show even though he was not one of the best singers (though very likable, and he has sung well lately) makes sense, and is even interesting. Who is more commercial right now, the blind guy, the gay guy, they Indian guy, the black woman, the tatooed woman? Somehow those demographics interact with their singing and performing ability to attract votes in a way that presumably would also influence song and ticket sales, so okay, I can buy into that even if most of them are not my cup of tea. But for them to be on just for human interest or soap opera plot lines makes me loath the show and and myself for the time I must spend watching it. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ TV or Not TV .... Smart (TV) People on Ice! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
