You've seen or heard them-those courageous, hopeful, and often tone death individuals who think they're the next American Idol. They dress up in ridiculous costumes, sing ear piercing renditions of Whitney Houston and attempt to be Simon Cowell's next BFF. They air on the most watched parts of the most popular reality show on television, American Idol's audition week.
Many viewers attribute their love of American Idol to be largely due to the judge, Simon Cowell's horrendous criticisms of the auditioners. Kate Lovler, a fan, claims in a May 15, 2008 article of the New York Times that his comments are "fresh, original, and a huge part of the reason why Idol's such a success. I wouldn't watch if it wasn't for him."
However Simon as well as other judge's comments may be scripted. A March 2007 article published in The Independent, a British newspaper, offered a behind-the-scenes look at Idol, reporting that judges watch the television feeds of the dress rehearsal to "give themselves an idea of what comments they will make when the show goes live."
How does this evidence take away from the charm of the reality hit show, "American Idol"? It appears that viewers are deeply romanticizing the clever, witty comments of Simon Cowell for they are far from original. Seems like a funny thing to romanticize, since Cowell's trade mark comment, "I hate to be rude but that was TERRIBLE" is far from romantic.
2 comments:
Your blog provides a very accurate description of some of the common misconceptions of TV. So much of reality TV is scripted, I think it is ironic to even call it "reality tv." I found an interesting editorial which argues how scripted and fake the show "Survivor" really is:
http://media.www.duclarion.com/media/storage/paper481/news/2005/10/18/Editorials/Reality.Tv.Is.As.Fake.As.It.Gets-1023647.shtml
The author, Schulz writes, "When you are stuck on an island, it is doubtful you'll find time to race canoes back and forth to collect "tribal treasures" in order to avoid being voted off the island by other "survivors." Wouldn't you spend all your time gathering food, building a shelter and figuring out a way to get rescued?" I think that survival by living off of the land is a very interesting topic, but this show is inaccurately portraying it as a competition of strength.
I completely agree. I've always wondered why everyone is always in awe of Simon's harsh commentary; people, it's scripted! I feel like enthusiasm for shows is really contagious- when one person says they like a show, everyone else hops on the band wagon, and suddenly, your average show is the most popular thing on TV.
Also, it was pretty funny when Paula gave her opinion on one of the contestant's songs before she had sung it. Script much, Paula? Busted!
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