American Idol has been the top viewed show on US television for six years, but the NY Times points out, among other things, that the Emmy award for best reality-competition all of those 6 years has gone to The Amazing Race. That NYT article talks about some of the reasons why the industry (except Fox, of course) isn’t particularly fond of the show or unscripted/reality shows in general:
Many people in the television business feel little love for reality shows generally, which take work away from actors and writers and sometimes use nonunion production crews. [...]
Chris Coelen, the chief executive of RDF Media USA, which produces reality series including “Don’t Forget the Lyrics” for Fox and “Wife Swap” for ABC, said he believed that there remained some prejudice against reality series that voters might be taking out on “Idol.” “I think ‘American Idol’ is a great show,” Mr. Coelen said. “But it’s been portrayed as ‘the coming annihilation of the scripted television business.’ And people who work in the reality genre haven’t been fully accepted at the grown-ups’ table.”
That makes complete sense to me. Creative and business people involved in scripted television feel their livelihoods threatened, and they react negatively. The business people at other networks get tired of losing the public competition (and more importantly, the revenue one) with Idol year after year.
What has surprised me in the two years that we’ve been running the site is the volume of anti-Idol comments we’ve gotten in just our general daily or weekly ratings posts from (presumably) regular viewers, many sounding as threatened as you’d assume those TV industry people would be. Comments from people who have no financial stake in the success or failure of American Idol (or any other TV show). And we almost never do posts specifically about American Idol, these comments are in regular ratings posts.
It’s one thing not to like a show (full disclosure: I’ve never watched an entire American Idol episode), but another to feel threatened by it, or what it represents. Dateline NBC for example, sucks up a lot of NBC’s schedule time too, presumably at the expense of scripted shows, but nobody leaves general negative comments about it (or any, for that matter).
Is it that Idol represents the threat to scripted television and that people just react negatively in general to that perceived threat? Is it a general dislike of anything successful? the Fox broadcasting network? generic whack-a-mole commenting?
Update: I focused on American Idol partially because that was the subject of the NYT piece and partly because it’s the most watched US TV show, but the general negative comments about Dancing With the Stars, and simply reality/unscripted TV shows in general on our site are certainly of comparable volume.
Tall poppy syndrome. Simple as that. Although i can see where people are coming from where they feel threatened by the show, given that it has such a large audience at the expense of their favourite shows.
Because is less space for good shows
My reason for hating American Idol has nothing to do with ratings, or taking FOX’s schedule time. It’s because the “finalists” are cookie cutter singers with just as much talent as the homeless guy on my street corner. Beyond that, it’s also a pretty poor show overall.
All of the above. I’ve never watched the show and could never be persuaded to do so (well, unless Summer Glau was singing on it!) The entire premise of “talent contest” shows just bores me. I used to watch that one Ed McMahon used to run years ago, though. Once in a while I imagine they really do find someone talented – or at least good looking enough to SEEM talented.
But the fact that most of the country seems to like the idea of talent shows tends to rub people with brains the wrong way. Especially as the networks seem to feel they need to put up their best scripted shows against them, and when they get crushed (because it’s simply apples and oranges to compare a one hour scripted show to a reality show), to cancel them. Which makes no sense.
If the networks want to compete against reality shows, they should put up their OWN reality shows against the ones on the other networks. With enough copycats, the whole genre should get boring and go away like other TV fads.
It would also help if the networks could actually find some intelligent scripted shows to put on instead of endless police procedurals and lawyer and medical shows – while at the same time not probing the bottom of the barrel for weird concepts.
Generally, I like the Tall Poppy Syndrome theory reasoning! It is simple and gets to the heart of it.
But I think Bill is wrong to suggest Idol is in a class by itself when it comes to bashing in our comments. It’s anecdotal, but I’d say bashing of Dancing With the Stars is as frequent if not more so than Idol Bashing, despite Idol having the better ratings.
I find it interesting that for whatever reason, professional sports seemingly get a complete exemption from such bashing. Much of that is probably because relatively speaking little of it winds up airing in prime-time and eating into scripted shows. And perhaps it’s because single point data like a Sunday Night or Monday Night NFL contests actually don’t typically rate as high as Idol in the regular season. But the numbers across all the NFL 1pm and 4pm games are typically much, much larger than the individual games in prime-time, and it adds up to being much bigger than Idol (when you combine the FOX and CBS Sunday day game broadcasts).
The reasons people watch Idol, DWTS and NFL probably aren’t greatly different. It’s entertaining, it’s a contest/competition, and you can root for winners and against those you want to lose. Yet, I don’t really remember ever seeing any elitist style comments that people who watch the NFL are low-income idiots, and we see a lot of comments along those lines when it comes to Idol and DWTS.
As for comments like the one from “translucentfish” above, it is something that seems to exist a lot with TV fans on the Internet that I will perhaps never understand. I do understand not liking a show, not being interested in a show, and not wanting to watch a show, and not watching a show! However, I do not understand at all why people have any animosity whatsoever when it comes to shows they don’t want to watch.
Dateline at least can be claimed as news…ish most of the time.
American Idol represents the notion that the recording industry doesn’t care about music, only making money. When someone wins on American Idol, it is evident they will sing whatever lyrics are pushed into their hands thereby insuring they pop out only Big Music crap. And when they don’t do as commanded, they are tossed aside because they don’t have any clout or real celebrity power. Look at the list of top-selling AI alumni and see the inevitable truth: Imminent nosedive in sales with each record (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top-selling_American_Idol_alumni). Kelly Clarkson did make a good second album, but has since followed the gravity-wins-all trend.
I think a lot of the antagonism come from multiple sources: musicians who grumble at posers dodging the hard work, people who see the overt shallowness of the entire concept, and people like me who find every single person that’s ever appeared on the show to be extremely annoying and soul depleted.
As for the dominate ratings: AI has pretty people (good), pretty people singing (better), pretty people singing fantastically (better still), pretty people singing badly (best), Simon verbally bitch-slapping people (even better), people revolting against Simon (rousing), ugly people (fat woman at the state fair wtf), ugly people singing (state fair talent show wtf), ugly people singing well (touching), ugly people singing badly (sad, yet funny), and to top it all off, the common man gets the notion of control by text voting (democracy!). The average couch slug really can’t find that swatch of emotions in the course of a season in any other show. Even I watch the Worse Of episodes, those are hilarious.
Then again, they started ignoring the voting outcomes this year, so who knows if it’ll continue to dominate if the show keeps slapping the viewers in the face.
I’m suddenly taken by the notion that American Idol could be tremendously improved if John Stossel were to replace Kara DioGuardi.
I hate American Idol, and all other reality shows, for a lot of reasons. First, it is simply a series of glorified karaoke performances. Second, I hate the fact that it is a show that allows the network to save money by not paying talent such as writers, actors, and various other employees that are associated with an actual tv show. Third, those who benefit from the show being on the air are not particularly talented (aside from the winner of said karaoke contest). Fourth, it contributes to our society’s continued devaluing of the study of music as a craft. America as a whole has continually cast aside individuals who master musical instruments, music theory, and consciously work to make good music. Instead, we all crowd around the newest person who can sing to a generic pop tune or rhyme to a beat. Shows like American Idol and Survivor encourage execs to cancel or cut back on shows that require talent and actual creativity because the ratings show that the average American is no more disconcerting than a peeping tom and they can get away with airing the cheapest crap they can. Comparing reality tv to even the worst scripted shows is like comparing romance novels to Tolstoy.
Chris says:
“[T]he ratings show that the average American is no more disconcerting than a peeping tom….”
I nominate this for the first TVBTN T-shirt motto.
For me it’s about how the music suffers. AI provides the world with an idea that by following a few steps A-B-C-D you can be a star…There has been absolutly nobody to go through the process to have any original spark or individualism at the end. Such things are lost when contestants have someone to…
Tell them how to dress…
Tell them what to sing…
Tell them how to sing…
Tell them when they perform good…
Tell them when they perform bad…
Even someone to write a hit single and album worth of material in the event they win…or get close to winning…
The artist/singer songwritter side of the business has been completly left in the dust. As much as the show is meant to be about music & talent it’s about anything but…It’s about how well you can sell yourself or how well you let someone else sell you…
I find it all very sad.
I guess I’m someone who feels threatened by the success of American Idol (and other reality shows). While AI keeps on racking in the viewers I’ve seen many original and intelligent scripted shows struggle to find an audience, with most falling by the wayside. Meanwhile, the genre of contrived reality flourishes.
To be fair, even most of the scripted shows that succeed now are the most formulaic and derivative. “Hey CBS — how about another police procedural?!”
I guess American Idol is a convenient symbol to viewers like me of the ongoing dumbing down of network tv.
@RSH — Ed McMahon helmed Star Search, just FYI
By the way, I honestly don’t see a parallel between reality shows and live sports. I don’t think live sports are competing directly with scripted shows, while reality shows obviously are.
There was also a lot of hate for Survivor when it first came on the air.
The AI hate really picked-up around it’s 5th season because up untill then, scripted shows weren’t doing as bad as today. In the 2003/2004 and 2004/2005 seasons, Idol finished first because of CSI’s in-slot reruns that lowerd its average.
In my opinion, Idol hate has more to do with scripted shows not doing well as a whole.
Mike S. says:
“I guess American Idol is a convenient symbol to viewers like me of the ongoing dumbing down of network tv.”
But isn’t “the ongoing dumbing down of network tv” little but a convenient symbol itself? Where in the past is the fixed point at which network TV smartened up, and when was the inflection point at which things started to nosedive?
I wouldn’t have the slightest idea as to why people people react negatively for no reason at all !
American Idol sucks ass.
Robert: “Yet, I don’t really remember ever seeing any elitist style comments that people who watch the NFL are low-income idiots,”
That’s only because I haven’t bothered to post any comments on sports, BECAUSE I despise sports and because as you say, other than Monday Night Football and the big series games, sports rarely intrudes into prime time. (And of course, I don’t watch TV, I download, so sports is completely irrelevant to me now.)
However…
An acquaintance of mine back in college used to remark that if we nuked the college stadium during a football game, we’d get rid of most of the morons in town.
There’s nothing I like more than listening to the moans and groans on the radio when the home town team is CRUSHED mercilessly, especially if the entire previous week the radio hosts were touting how wonderful the team is and how they were gonna kick ass on the weekend. It’s music to my ears.
SW; Yeah, that was it, Star Search. I just looked it up on Wikipedia. They don’t seem able to name anybody that came off that show – even those they do name as having gotten recording contracts – who we still have any memory of today.
Which means the entire concept was and is bogus. Nobody with stand out talent is ever found on those shows.
Heh, RSH, in the Star Search wiki, if that is accurate, I recognize one name in the champion’s categories (an incomplete list from what I can tell, though). However, in the competitors list there are many names I recognize. Drew Carey, Ray Romano, Brad Garrett, LeAnn Rimes among many others. Interesting… these folks were contestants but did not win on Star Search. They didn’t do too bad for also-rans LOL
I thoroughly enjoy American Idol. I’ve watched the last two seasons and find that much of the vitriol directed its way is based in ignorance. The contestants who succeed are extremely talented. Good musicianship is rewarded. Both of the last two winners played instruments. All of the successful contestants are very good at arranging their songs with the band and adding unique flavor. It is not bad karaoke by pretty people as so many haters who obviously don’t watch the show contend.
There also seems to be this idea that if music is popular it sucks by default. People want to seem like they know something cool about music that most people don’t, and so they think that if music is popular it must suck because too many stupid people like it. So when Idol produces platinum selling artist after platinum selling artist (every previous winner in fact has at least one platinum selling record) people who have never watched AI bash on it because not doing so would damage their indie cred (sense of personal superiority). It’s mostly just wannabe hipster snark.
Rob, I guess what I meant was that American Idol produces something. It produces an “idol” that is apparently supposed to be great at making music. Narrative TV is not around solely to create a celebrity, whereas in Idol it is the show’s main goal.
Frankly, I could care less if Idol stays on the air. It’s not like I go around signing “Cancel American Idol” petitions. I will be honest and say I watched the first season, once it finished I haven’t watched an episode since so my point may be defunct now.
SW: Of the names you mention, Drew and LeAnn are the only two I recognize. And LeAnn is the only one I’d care to watch. The fact that they didn’t win, especially LeAnn, is interesting.
Because reality TV is the most useless shit on TV and it takes dollars and ratings away from real shows? How is this even a question?
Anyone who watches that shit is not just an inbred waste of flesh, they’re actually taking up space on our planet that could be used for more important things, like more parking spaces. That’s the real insult.
I don’t hate American Idol. I hate reality tv in general.
The thing with Idol is that it doesn’t just take up space on FOX, it takes up space on every network except CBS. With the exception of CBS, shows are killed by Idol regularly, or at least that’s the impression that everyone gets.
American Idol keeps inflicting wave after wave of overslick lounge-acts-of-the-future. Any resemble to actual rock & roll is purely coincidental.
I personally blame reality t.v for the continuing decline of intellect in this country, great quality shows are being cancelled all the time cause they don’t meet the ridiculous expectations of greedy and callous execs, as painfully obvious as it seems, networks don’t care what type of shows they put on as long as it gets profit, to them all that matters is money and if they can make millions by appealing to the kind of people who would rather watch an idiot sing a drap generic song that nobody cares about then to watch a show that would stimulate a single brain cell they would, hell if they could get 14-18 million viewers to watch a monkey get drunk and throw his crap at people they’d keep it until it’s momentum is gone or the monkey’s,
As for american idol it really isn’t about an american idol it’s about milking the cow dry, most of it’s wannabe singers are completely forgotten unless they make some kind of headline in the news that makes them seem desperate for more attention then they should get(apparently having talent is a thing of the past),
I know it’s competition and the stupit pauses that happen between major results that keep people tuned in, but seriously how much of the same thing can you watch before it gets old, most if not all reality show’s are to damn repetitive. but then again it all comes down to one thing “Money”.
Wow. Well, thanks to Quinn, at least. There’s a lot of hipster hating going on around here.
I’m not sure why you think that if there was no reality television, airtime would be full of “quality” TV and everyone would be watching Dollhouse. American Idol and especially DWTS have much more in common with The Sonny and Cher Variety Hour than with sports. Think back to what was on TV in the summer in the 70s and early 80s—it was all stuff like Pink Lady and Jeff. You didn’t watch the schlocky filler tv of the past, and of course it didn’t make syndication, but my god, there was SO MUCH OF IT.
(However, I would give a lot of money for them to bring back Battle of the Network Stars, because that was some amazing television.)
I haven’t seen sitcoms get a lot of love around here, either, but I’d say that sitcoms have been hurt much more by unscripted TV than dramas. ABC Tuesday night, gone; CBS Saturday night, gone. Remember TGIF? You may have liked Full House when you were eight but that doesn’t mean it was great television. (My favorite show when I was eight was Laverne & Shirley, equally silly.)
Also, Carrie Underwood was just named Entertainer of the Year by the ACM; Daughtry was the number one seller in 2007; Kelly’s career is still going strong and she has an armful of Grammys; and Jordin, David Cook and David Archuleta have all sold well. Yes, Idol is about finding a pop star, and maybe you hate pop music; Idol isn’t there to find the next TV on the Radio. And actually, while I really like TV on the Radio, the reason they aren’t megapopular isn’t because people are distracted by Britney; most people like simple innocuous music they can play in the background while they’re making dinner or cleaning the house. So making Idol the target of your hatred of pop music is … odd.
And why aren’t people screaming and yelling about the 25 varieties of Law & Order and CSI and their clones that are on the air, all of which mostly have plots about how if a woman has sex she will be murdered in some strange way by a serial killer (have there been that many serial killers in the history of the US? the world?)? Or maybe about how it’s really NBC that’s walking away from scripted television to a shocking extent, not just because of Leno, but because of Zucker’s decision three years ago to make the 8pm hour unscripted? At least Fox is using their Idol money to develop scripted shows; where is NBC spending its Biggest Loser money? And yes, why aren’t we bitching about Dateline, or better yet, 48 Hours Mystery or that the networks have completely given up on Friday and Saturdays, one of the big three has given up on the 10pm hour, and another is seriously thinking about it?
I’ve spent enough time in the business to know that this isn’t a zero-sum game nor is it a simple quality game. The money goes to what is popular. Most people don’t want to be challenged by the culture they consume, because they are challenged enough by their lives, and when they finally sit down in front of the TV they want to watch something interesting, but pleasant. That goes for movies and music as well. You can keep being angry about it, and keep fighting it, but it isn’t going to change. Instead, use that energy support the culture you like, with money, and hope it can stick around.
I’d say that AI takes some of the blame for reality TV in general. And I personally don’t see how sports can be compared to reality TV.
That said, I live in France, and what is imported to us basicly reflects what gets the better ratings in the US : Reality TV and procedurals. While I found procedurals/semi-procedurals (CSIs, no idea how many there are) fun for a couple episodes, it got tiring pretty fast. On the other hand, I just don’t like most of reality TV shows. (Yeah there’s also French shows but 99% of it is crap).
To find quality TV, I would have to look for it on cable, which is why I end up either watching shows online by paying, or torrenting them when I find no other way. Nowadays I (almost) only tune my TV on for news and sports. I’m 20 (would fit the demo if I were in the US I guess) but I’d say people in the US still have more choice than us.
The thing is that people should have the choice between Reality TV and scripted shows. And since ratings is obviously the only thing keeping shows alive, which are going down for most of scripted shows (no matter how good they are), it looks like the choice is gonna narrow down in the upcoming years, and potentially end up with only reality TV.
I think it has more to do with some people seeing their own favorite shows being canceled, and instead of accepting the possibility that the shows that they like may not be very good, they take it out on the big cash cow that is American Idol. That if some how American Idol didn’t take up so much air time and wasn’t so overexposed, that perhaps their favorite show would still be on the air.
I hate American Idol simply because its mindless and boring – like all such shows. Its cotton candy for the brain and a good example of the lower intelligence level of the general viewing public. Hopefully this will burn itself out soon. So called unscripted un-reality shows are 2nd on the Hate-O-Meter. I watch far less TV than I used to.
I no longer watch CSI and lawyer type show, but they at least require at least some brain power. With Idol, I picture the average viewing staring blankly at the screen drooling – “Ohhhhhhhh Isnt Adam cute! Too bad he is gay. I want to marry him”.
@RSH, regarding Star Search, the biggest name I recall who fist caught the public eye is Alanis Morrissette. Well, technically, I think she was on a Nickelodeon kids’ show before that, but her first “sining fame” came from Star Search. As she was a teased-hair teeny bopper princess in those days, I’d venture to say she prefers not to remember that phase of her career
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As for those who complain that AI viewers are of lower intelligence – unless you watch nothing but History and Discovery, ever, you have no justifcation for your elitism. Sci-Fi doesn’t automatically count as “intelligent.” Scripted TV, for that matter, doesn’t always count as “intelligent.” It’s all a matter of taste – heck, I’d say the most “intelligent” scripted series is South Park, but not everyone would agree with me
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Wow, I’ve never seen so much hate and disdain for a show that I bet most people have never seen or barely seen. Thank you Clio for being somewhat of a voice of reason. There are way too many variations of the police shows on TV and that takes away from newer quality shows just as much. It carries over into movies as well, showing that Hollywood in general is running out of ideas. Remakes and sequels are all that seem to be around anymore.
To Lowbrow Crap: insulting shows are one thing, insulting the people that watch them is completely ridiculous and if there was a way to ban people like you from posting on this site, I’d be the first to sign the petition. And RSH, no self-respecting man should ever admit to despising sports. I know you like to look at hot chicks a lot and there aren’t a lot of them in sports, but your manhood would be intact if you watched a football game or two.
By the way, Amazing Race shouldn’t be winning these emmy’s every year. I’m surprised Survivor, DWTS, and Idol haven’t won at least one each.
“singing fame” not “sining fame”
To add on to what I said, people who think Carrie Underwood, Kelly Clarkson, Daughtry and others aren’t talented are completely insane. Look at the album sales and awards. Obviously not all of them are good, some are just there for ratings. Wait until Adam Lambert takes over as the lead singer of Queen and they become relevant again. He, like many of the others, will be laughing all the way to the bank.
Partialy because its popularity represents a shift away from smartly-written (or even averagely-written) television shows to overly melodramatic, so-called “reality” shows. But it’s also because they mislabel themselves as reality, and therefore we feel our own reality (which is entirely unlike what is shown on TV) is threatened.
First, “reality shows” in general. The term is a joke, there is nothing “real” about any of them. Giving a stage to the unwashed masses and creating 5th rate “celebrities” purely by dint of them having graced a TV screen. There are plenty of idiots walking around the world everyday, I don’t need my TV filled with parades of the most extreme cases.
Second, talent shows. Except they’re not. They’re an excuse to watch the likes of Simon Cowel tear down average people with a lot of courage and huge dreams. OK, so they may not be that good, or even anywhere close to good, but it’s hardly their fault someone in the past has inflated their ego/confidence. Their humilliation on a national stage is just there to feed society’s “blood lust”.
I suppose you’re correct, about the general distain (in my case at least) that a lot of my ire comes from seeing no-nothing-no-talents receieve more attention and praise than those in the TV and music industries who I consider to have put the effort in. Rather than simply had the public take sympathy on them and hand them a record deal.
In conclusion, all these shows shouldn’t be called “reality” they should be called “humilliation”, from The Apprentice to Idol they all have putting people down as a common theme. Gone are the days where contestants were vetted to ensure they had some sort of skill, then allowing them to perform without having “industry professionals” rip into them. It’s a step backwards from unscripted shows of the ninties such as the UK’s Stars In Their Eyes.
When it comes to “reality” TV, I pretty much stick with Discovery and Food Network. I think AI is kind of silly and the find the fervor bewildering. Still, the only anger I have about AI (and most other “reality” shows) is from reports of how they treat their staff.
I think part of the angry reaction is for the same reasons people trot out that stupid “My favorite show is failing because people aren’t smart enough to get it” line or drone on about their hate for procedurals for wrapping things up in one episode. Instead of just accepting that people have different tastes and want different things out of their TV viewing, they feel the need to build themselves up by declaring their viewing choices as a sign that they are superior to “the masses”.
I also think the tendency to expand a single reality show to at least hours a week makes them seem like more of a threat to a favorite show (or possible future show) than any given scripted show. (AI, DWTS, Apprentice, Bachelor, etc.).
Networks are programming more “unscripted” TV each year as well. ABC will start the fall season with 12 hours of “unscripted” TV scheduled out of 22 hours of original programming (including 3 hours of football). With the Leno deal and football, NBC will start the fall with 11 out of 20 hours of original programing (2 hours of repeats). Fox’s fall is comparatively rather light with only 6 out of 15 hours being “unscripted”. CBS has the least with 4 out of 20 (plus 2 hours of repeats).
That growing ratio means that when a scripted show is canceled, unscripted shows get the blame, even when it’s not true. There is a perception, right or wrong, that reality TV is taking over and destroying scripted TV (i.e. making networks cancel *my* show). AI and DWTS are the highest rated reality shows, so they get most of the hate for it.
I’m in a hurry at work here so I’ll try to do the long thoughtful comments justice: (1) I think its a little more than Tall Poppy or Tall Tree syndrome. The reality show comments indicate that. I guess if I was a college student again I’d join the hue and cry, but a little reflection tells me, which came first? The dumbing down or the reality shows? And I read articles in the intellectual type media mags written by insiders who defend reality shows. I won’t go into detail, but they have their reasons. (2) Sports: I for one get a kick out of mocking ( around the right audience ) the pretensions of home-town sportscasters. ” No crying in baseball? There’s nothing BUT crying … St. Louis, Inc, and their company men who always have an excuse a seven year old kiod could see through.” Macho pretensions are always fun to rib. The same guys who ridicule soap operas can’t see a sports season is the same melodramatic soap opera with delusions of importance. And what about the mocking of baseball for its hypocrisy over steroids, NBA for the thuig mentality, Super Bowl for being nothing but a showcase for beer and cell phone ads? The truth is, though, even though its a meritocracy based on being popular in the 7th and 8th grade, ” a winner! ” when you examine it, once you get to the college level and above, professional IS a meritocracy. I think only the most diehard talent show fans would make the same claim about AI, DWTS, Bachelor etc.
I meant to say … professional sports IS a meritocracy …
American Idol’s a good scapegoat for what’s wrong with the industry, even though I don’t really think it’s actually doing anything wrong. It’s just a TV show about people singing. Despite what everyone thinks, it’s not causing the downfall of scripted TV or destroying the music industry or whatever. It’s just easy to blame American Idol (and reality TV in general) just because everyone else does it. It’s a way for people to feel better than “the idiots” they live among, nothing more than a form of elitism. How kind and understanding of you all.
Reality TV has entertainment to offer, or else nobody would be watching. Reality shows still have story arcs, character development, solid editing, conflict, drama, heroes and villains, and all that stuff you see in scripted TV. It’s just not scripted, and these aren’t actors. I don’t really see the difference between reality and scripted TV other than the cast and dialogue. In shows like Survivor and The Amazing Race, you get a much more realistic view of how people interact with each other and get sources of drama that no one would ever think to happen in scripted TV. There’s something redeeming about watching, say, a couch potato be proud of themselves on Survivor when they learn they can make fire on their own and survive without any help.
Reality TV has many of the same themes we see in scripted TV thanks to the powers of editing. Of course, some reality shows like anything Mark Burnett produces have amazing editing that does a great job establishing story arcs and characters, while some are limited due to the time constraints of being live (talent shows, Big Brother, etc). But I feel reality TV and scripted TV complement each other well, and they both bring their own individual spin in the mix. It’s fun watching something different unfold on reality TV, but it’s also nice to get the flow and timing of well-placed jokes on sitcoms. There’s something for everyone, and you can easily like both, like I do. It’s 2009, it’s not shameful to watch reality TV anymore.
So I don’t see the problem with reality TV.
I don’t see how one can make a comparison that American Idol dislike should extend to sports dislike. If I could call in a billion times to make my sports team win, I would. But I can’t, they actually have to be good, or lucky. Not all sports stay popular (arena football for example) so it’s not that you can just stick any sport on tv and expect it to survive.
I watch Canadian Idol, and used to watch American Idol, but I hated that sometimes the more talented or interesting singers wouldn’t get votes because it was all a popularity contest. On American Idol the contestants pander to the audience to win (including tv audience). In Sports it’s less about the audience (except to justify that the team still gets money to continue); it’s about beating the other team. I do like reality show competitions. I just don’t like the ones that are audience participation. Heck how many people here complain about polls online because people can cheat and vote multiple times. That’s exactly what American Idol is, except that since there’s no way to stop multiple votes, it becomes a neccesity for contestants to win. Voting becomes a test of fanatisism and is encouraged. Shows where the contestants can vote each other off (survivor), or are voted off by a small panel (ANTM) I find more satisfying because I know the results won’t be hijcked by 15 year olds with too much phone access. When you know the results of voting are going to have nothing to do with the show, or the performances but how cute someone is, one just loses interest. Add to that that it takes up so much freaking time and scripted shows are being cut because networks want another American Idol; no wonder people complain.
Anyway, I was surprised that one couldn’t see why Sports wouldn’t get the same flack that American Idol does.
Dislike for American Idol doesn’t not equate to dislike for Reality tv. I think it’s just as bad to think that people who like American Idol are idiots as to think people who don’t like American Idol are intellectual snobs.
I am still processing the fact that someone thinks I don’t have a brain because I watch sports and Idol, yet he has never heard of RAY ROMANO.
I’ll never understand the venom that gets spat at American Idol and reality television in general by far too many people.
The real problem I have with the notion that Idol and reality in general is killing off scripted television is that it isn’t true. The truth of the matter is that television networks have a finite amount of money to work with and they simply can’t afford to fill every slot on the schedule with original scripted content and that’s been true since day one because despite what some seem to think reality/unscripted television isn’t some new television fad its been around for decades in various forms and it isn’t going anywhere any time soon.
As it is though Idol isn’t ’stealing’ a slot that would otherwise go to a scripted show and Fox have been incredibly good at launching scripted content off the back of Idol. It was American Idol that allowed House to explode into the powerhouse it is now and this season they’ve used Idol to launch Fringe and Lie To Me. Next season Idol and So You Think You Can Dance will be used to launch Glee, Human Target and a third show the name of which escapes me right now. The same is true over at ABC with Dancing with the Stars, they’ve been very good at least attempting to use Dancing as a launch pad for new shows, whether it be sitcoms or Castle. NBC will be getting in on the act next year as well using Biggest Loser to launch a new sitcom on Tuesday night. And CBS would have been dead in the water without Survivor as a promotional platform a few years ago.
More importantly than all of that though its the money that a show like American Idol brings in that allows Fox and the other networks to keep making original scripted content. If Fox didn’t have American Idol making them a shed load of money every year then the landscape on Fox would be incredibly different and chances are you’d probably see far less scripted content than you do now.
What I find most irritating about the anti-reality movement though is the superiority complex those who dislike reality television have because apparently if a show isn’t scripted then its audience is stupid and too dumb to engage in a scripted show and by extension those who enjoy scripted shows are obviously incredibly clever. It just amazes me how utterly ridiculous that notion is because not only does it completely fail to acknowledge the failings of scripted television (and it is a failing of scripted television that it can’t compete with reality hits) it also fails to acknowledge the fact that reality television uses the exact same constructs as scripted television and often does it much better than the current batch of scripted shows.
I love American Idol. It doesn’t bother me if other people don’t (after all, I can’t stand CSI), but when they cross the line and make it personal, such as saying that AI fans are “stupid” for enjoying the show, that’s just rude and insulting. Dislike a TV show all you like, but don’t diss the viewers.
oops. Double negative. Sorry.
Mal writes: “I personally blame reality t.v for the continuing decline of intellect in this country”
Bit of a hijack here, but by what long-term measure is intellect declining in this country?
Over the long run, IQ scores are up, SAT scores are up, literacy rates are up, college graduation rates are up. What’s down?
As for the NY Times story itself, I don’t think it says anything particularly interesting that Amazing Race wins that Emmy every year. It’s an incredibly ambitious and complex production and it deserves to win.
I prefer format of Amazing Race. To win you have to be a strong competitor, with a little luck. It’s culturally interesting just for the travel alone. I think it the people who get kicked off each week were determined by fan phone campaigns it wouldn’t win that Emmy.
“Who’s clay bricks did you like best? It’s your turn to decide America. Call in now!”
_Dateline_’s ‘To Catch a Predator’ shows are totally obnoxious and are sensationalist trash television at its worse.
That said, _American Idol_’s success inspires networks to view scripted TV as 2nd tier properties, potentially to be replaced by lower cost and higher profit game based reality shows.
Because I *hate* hearing about American Idol singers on the news / radio. I just don’t care anymore. The show feels like it plants 3-4 people each year and they become the finalists and all become shot into the spotlight despite being mediocre/average singers, and it gives nothing to true artists with full bands.
i’m not a huge fan of american idol but i just think its funny how all of these artists complain that they just skipped all the hard work and got to be famous, when most of these people didn’t just come off the street one day. they had been trying to make it for years and also, most of the stars today that don’t like it only don’t like it because they aren’t talented enough to make it on the show.
It’s simple, any situation where the american public as a whole has impact is bound to turn out poorly because the american public, as a whole, has as much taste as a new born child…notice how most of the american idols have gone on to do nothing (aside from clarkson the most successful are the ones who don’t win) – you can’t have the american people judging who is talented – it’s like having my dog pick out my clothes – except my dog would have more color sense than the american public knows talent.
For the same reason hollywood just does reboots and remakes and re-imaginings and broadway is jampacked of revivials.
The primary reasons I dislike Idol are as follows:
1. They actually thrive on making fun of those without talent (especially in the try outs). It’s pathetic. The fact that those episodes are highly watched speaks loudly about are culture. Now just imagine the Amazing Race spending two episodes making fun of all the people who applied who make huge fools of themselves. Can’t picture it, well thats because the producers have a least some class.
2. Editing of the show (especially the results show, and this is also against many reality shows, and several of the competition shows). Why the hell is a results show an hour long? Its only an hour long to generate a large revenue, beyond that it has no real value. Tar and Survivor have it right, waste no more then 5 or ten minutes with that aspect.
3. The judges. AAARRRRRRGGGGHHHHH. I hate all of them.
4. The voting system. Excuse me why should one person get more then one vote?
And I don’t hate reality tv (though I do feel they pander even more so then scripted shows), as TAR is one of my favorite TV programs and a good model of how to do a show with at least some degree of class and solid production values.
The best reality show EVER was The Gong Show. Chuck Barris was ahead of his time.
Reality tv can be divided up into four groups: those based on merit(Amazing Race, get to the finish line first; Biggest Loser, lose as much weight as possible) How-to shows(What Not to Wear, “stop wearing hooker heals with acidwash everything”; Supernanny, “here let me show you how to raise your children”) humiliation(Wipeout, dumb pet-tricks for stupid people; Big Brother, watch as 10 morons let the biggest assh*le in the house screw them over)and good old fashion talent shows like Idol, DWTS.
I don’t watch the last three groups anymore because I CHOOSE not to. While I’d like to see more and BETTER scripted shows, I don’t begrudge others if they choose to watch reality tv. It’s tv people there are bigger things in the world to get pissed at. Two wars, crummy economy, smog, funny smelling water…
i enjoy american idol…and i find myself watching more “reality” shows than anything else now…all these haters….and i “hate” very few things…maybe i hate cancer and hitler and child abuse…i find it odd that so many profess to “hate” this show…me thknks they should take this energy and go make the world a better place..go volunteer today…but anyways….i am always looking for better shows to watch, when they air them, i will watch….i enjoy the fun of seeing someone try to make it and the steps they take, sure it is now all that real, but it is fun to watch….how can you say you hate the show when you havent watched? watch an entire seeaon and get back to me…if you hate it then, i will respect your opinion…lighten up…life is too short for sure….ps…Big Brother starts soon!!!!
I focused on American Idol in the post partly because that was the subject of the NYT piece and partly because it’s the most watched US TV show, but the general negative comments about Dancing With the Stars, and simply reality/unscripted TV shows in general on our site are certainly of comparable volume and intensity.
I don’t think it’s just unscripted that gets attacked. I think there are plenty of knocks against scripted shows as well. I think the more heated arguments are about scripted shows (Chuck, T:TSCC, Dollhouse, Ghost Whisperer, Friday Night Lights, Smallville etc.). Including attacks on the intelligence of those who either like or dislike those particular shows.
Because AI and music (or talent, originality, innovation) are like to paralel lines.
Essentially what Julia said:
I don’t hate Idol. I find it shallow and pointless, but so is nearly all reality TV.
What I do hate is Idol’s ratings. Not the ratings in and of themselves, but their after effects: ~30% of all network TV has to be scheduled around Idol, generally in the form of cheap, disposable, irrelevant shows.
Recall 09/10’s Double Tuesdays: Reality Dancing, Reality Weightloss, and then counter-programming- older-skewing NCISes and younger/female-skewing 90210/90211. As a youngish male, Tuesdays mean… whatever is up for deletion on the DVR.
Thanks AI.
I do not like the reality shows ( hate is too strong) just for one reason ( please do not blame as a moralist
) , when I was a kid when you were asking to a guy :what do you want to be when you will grow up ? The answers were …pilot, astronaut , scientist , physician and so on ..now the answer is singer, actor, dancer or …just famous ( even for 15 minutes ) regardless any talent or hard work ….I do not like this , I do not support this set of values and of course I do not consider the people watching AI a whole bunch of stupid ,,,just different values … ( please do not hit me too hard for this post 
)
The comment made in the final article for the renew cancel index might sum up why people get upset about reality tv in general:
“but some unscripted shows survived with very low numbers. My conclusion was that some unscripted shows must be so cheap that they are expected to do little more than fill air time and produce little in the way of viewership”
For me, I find the majority of reality shows to be completely lacking in creativity. There may be a few exceptions, but overall, reality shows are like coloring book pages hanging in a fine art museum. I know the goal of TV is to entertain, but the stream of reality TV seems like it’s overpowering the good, creative (and entertaining) shows. I feel like I’m back in high school where all attention was put on the lowest common denominator while the great (and even average) minds suffered…
I hate Idol because it demonstrates how gullible the American public has become. Look at what the show is: nothing but a singing contest with very poor singers, gaudy set designs and poor lighting. If viewership were based strictly on the quality of the show, they would have nothing.
People watch the show simply because everyone else is watching the show, much in the way they buy SUV’s because everyone else is, or buy a house they can’t afford because everyone else is, (keeping up with the Jones’s). They don’t want to feel left out of the big party. American’s have become followers and lost our ability to think for ourselves. We watch what we’re told to watch, buy what we’re told to buy, etc… We’re losing our individuality and that is a big problem for obvious reasons.
Every season brings a new publicity stunt, almost always involving the hosts sleeping together or bickering or what-have-you. These not so well disquised ploys always take place at just the right time to peak the viewers curiosity. Have we become stupid sheep? Apparently so.
I also have a problem with the idea of ridiculing the contestants, who are often very young people, for entertainments sake. It was a novelty when it began but quickly became a mainstay of the show. Lambasting a celebrity on SNL who deserves it for their weird or foolish behavior is one thing but making fun of kids for ratings gold is another thing altogether.
Idol is the poster child for the dumbing down of America. It represents fewer choices and fewer ideas because of it’s ratings dominance. It gives FOX too much power and we’ve seen what that’s done to the rest of their schedule over the last several years. FOX was once a showcase for new, fresh ideas, like The Simpsons and X-files. Now FOX and the other major networks are all working to put out the next ‘Idol’, and the television landscape is suffering greatly and so are the viewers, like myself who would enjoy something worth watching.
Speaking of Star Search, wasn’t Usher one of the contestants? I know he is not the greatest singer in the world, but he seems to do very well with his music, and his concerts seem to be soldout or close to sold out. I know most of his audience is women, but hasn’t he had a decent career?
I think The Amazing Race has won Emmys because of the logistics and production values as well as its story-telling. American Idol seems rather tame in comparison. Only Survivor comes close in quality of production. Being the most-watched show on television isn’t always a guarantee of awards, just as it is not for the Oscars.
One intereting side effect of unscripted series on network television has been the explosion of great scripted series on basic cable. I think you can see a direct link between the rise of unscripted fare and the success of shows such as Burn Notice, The Closer and all the other great stuff higher up on the dial.
For the “creative community” to say that unscripeted takes jobs away from actors is rather laughable – maybe it just changed the economics a bit, but there are a whole lot more talented people working on basic cable now than the summer of 2000 when Survivor and American Idol were breakthough hits.
Stop getting pissed-off about AI and the rest and look for stuff on cable. (The world isn’t just the networks.) I find plenty to watch there while still enjoying my guilty pleasures of Top Chef, Survivor & The Amazing Race. I even watch American Idol once in awhile.
I don’t care for American Idol and thus don’t watch it. Have never seen a full episode of it. However, I don’t really hate it. Maybe some of those that do hate it are like those low-esteem kids in high school that hate the popular kids simply because they’re popular.
For all those calling out the hate/anger/distaste as elitism. Congratulations it is, and I for one make no appologies for it. I call not deriving entertainment from watching other people being put down a good thing. A moral thing even. By extension then, clearly I am morally superior to all those millions of people that make time in their day to watch such tripe. It’s that simple.
Now you may well disagree, but based upon my own personal view of morality, there can be no argument that I am superior.
I’d also like to clarify that while I have no love for the contestants, I don’t consider them the problem. People seeking more attention is just people being people. If there is a bone to pick, it with all those that lend their support by watching the spectacle, and it is a spectacle. By design.
There seem to be a few distinct discourses happening here – shadenfreue driven accounts that celebrate the downfall of the masses and hate Idol; fan appropriation (being really generous here) discourses that see the results and productive possibilities of unscriptied narratives; and industrial discourses that compare the programs in terms of structure and finance.
One of the few shared assumptions between the kinds of talk is the existence of a central industry that makes decisions/operates irrationally or rationally depending on your discursive frame. Which explains to some degree the anxiety about Idol among folks who champion the downfall of mass culture because American Idol does one thing fairly well, it props up the mythic construction of the “industry.”
So the existence of idol means that there really is a “brainless” force out there that seeks to “dumb-down” the population. Don’t worry, the brain suckers aren’t coming for you, there are plenty of great historically similar complaints made about the Boston Globe in the 1890’s.
I think it is funny that people professed their hate so much towards Idol. People said that there’s a thin line between hate and love. If you hate something that much that means you care about them. And if people are hating idol so much, it gives more buzz towards Idol and more people would tune in to Idol just to see what’s the fuzz about.
I don’t like that you people connect Idol and reality show in general. Not all reality show sucks. Reality show like Survivor and TAR are actually well thought and well produced. They gave hundreds of people job and helped promoting foreign countries.
I mean, talent shows are cheap to make and brings a lot of money. Have you ever think what’s the implication to scripted show? With the money idol brings, Fox could license expensive but good show like Bones. Same thing with ABC, without the money that DWTS brought, would there be Lost, DH, Grey, etc? I doubt it.
So everything has its own advantages and disadvantages.
“That said, _American Idol_’s success inspires networks to view scripted TV as 2nd tier properties, potentially to be replaced by lower cost and higher profit game based reality shows.”
What exactly are you basing this idea on? How many new reality shows were announced for 2009/2010 schedule at this years up fronts and how many new scripted shows were announced? Scripted content still vastly outweighs the unscripted content across the major broadcast networks and that’s unlikely to ever really change.
Fox the home of American Idol also completely disprove the idea that the unscripted genre is king with their Friday night line-up for next season. It would have been incredibly easy for them to ditch Dollhouse on Friday nights after its ratings momentum and replace it with cheaper unscripted content like Don’t Forget The Lyrics etc. but they opted to stick with Dollhouse. The idea that the broadcast networks are shifting their focus primarily to unscripted is incredibly flawed.
“What I do hate is Idol’s ratings. Not the ratings in and of themselves, but their after effects: ~30% of all network TV has to be scheduled around Idol, generally in the form of cheap, disposable, irrelevant shows.”
Personally I think the idea that Idol crushes everything in its path has been dealt something of a blow this year.
NCIS and Biggest Loser both more than held their own against Idol itself on Tuesday night’s whilst The Mentalist and Biggest Loser both did very impressive numbers against the Idol assisted Fringe. The CW and ABC were both in trouble on Tuesday’s before Idol came back and would have been without Idol there anyway. On Wednesday Lost and Criminal Minds again both held their own against Idol and NBC’s Wednesday line-up was a mess before Idol came along and The CW hid from Idol on Wednesday nights. Idol does hit the shows it opposite that is undoubtedly true however I think the idea of it being the dark destroyer of all television shows has proven false this year. Too many shows held steady(ish) against Idol this year for it to be given the show killer title.
In reality I think House may have had a bigger impact on the Monday night line-up than Idol did on Tuesday or Wednesday.
@Alex,
Scripted content still vastly outweighs the unscripted content across the major broadcast networks and that’s unlikely to ever really change.
That’s not true. Half of ABC and NBC’s 22 hours of primetime are taken by “unscripted” shows (12 hours for ABC and 11 for NBC).
Why I hate American Idol
1. It makes fun of the horrendous during the “casting process”
2. People with natural talent are scutinized for not performing to standard, and yet without traing could they really be held to such a high degree?
3. The voting system is flawed
4. The show is popular among people who have no lfe outside of TV time. They rather live in the lives of some ‘normal folk’ plucked out of obscurity to sing and dace for millions.
5. It takes away from the who worked their lives to create good perfomances.
6. It ruins the lives of many of the performers
7.the performers make little money and do all the work, while producers and ‘judges’ make large fortunes.
8. Of all the American Idols only one has had any real success.
9. the made a horrible movie based on the winners of the first seaosn
10. Proves to me that people rather be entertained and not by something that makes them think
Survivor rox tho
Not to sidetrack the conversation but doesn’t anyone else feel shows like “The Amazing Race” & “Survivor” are not actually reality shows at all, but more BIG gameshows? Idol too I guess. All these shows have a contest aspect. Reality is more like “Hogan Knows Best” or “The Osbornes” where they follow people in their day to day thing….???
On another note, those who list Carrie Underwood as proof that Idol is a quality show….Sure, if you like your ears to bleed…Idol should not be praised for finding her. I suposse Clay Aiken was a good thing as well?
I can’t go on…
Heres the reason JEALOUSY….jealousy that so many people watch idol and not shitty shows like CHUCK or LIFE or PUSHING DAISIES that are canceled or often in danger of being.
chris … but I have the toy bigger then yooour nah nah naaaaaaa ah
To Some Guy Named John, who is the ONE Idol contestant that has been successful. Other than seasons 2 and 3, usually anywhere from 1-3 idol contestants have Platinum albums, which is considered a success.
To Monster Jaws, if Carrie Underwood makes your ears bleed, what is good music to you, death metal? Gangster Rap where every other word is N-word this or Bitch that? Or do you just listen to Kenny G and Yanni?
Most of these “Reality Shows” need to stop calling themselves “Reality” as these things rarely happen in Life except on these shows….and
AMERICAN IDOL
AMAZING RACE
SURVIVOR
BIG BROTHER
DANCING WITH THE STARS
SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE
5TH GRADER
LYRICS
WIPEOUT
LIE DETECTOR
are G—-A—-M—-E & T—-A—L—E—N—T shows ! That’s what they need to be called…
JUST LIKE “STAR SEARCH” & TRUTH OR CONSEQUNCES with Bob Barker & “Name That Tune”, “The Gong Show” when they were in prime time…they were Game Shows NOT reality shows!
All I can say is if 15-20 million folks want to watch a show give it to them. Personally AI is not something I watch, but I do watch Fringe and Dollhouse and Lie To Me and probably Fox might not gamble with them if not for AI. Intelligence does not matter just numbers matter and AI get the numbers.
I HAVE 225 CHANNELS and five DVRs to fill the air time these shows take up so I do not care that reality shows are on. My first love is SCIFI and I do wish a channel could exist with just my kind of shows, unfortunately for me I have made myself develop a interest in other k8nds of programs or my frustration would be like those that nickpick so many shows in comments sections at sites all over the web. My biggest gripe is the soon to be loss of the one channel most of my hope for scifi shows is moving away from providing them. HULU may become my main location for my ki9nd of shows in the future but blaming AI IS JUST NOT REALITY.
They’re terrible shows.
CP,
You know it is ok that you like Idol people and the music they release. We don’t have to agree on it. Please don’t get so angry. And just because I don’t like it doesn’t automatically make me some kind of music elitist who cannot understand what “good” music is. The fact that I do not like Idol music in general has little influence on if I might like death metal, gangster rap, Kenny G or Yanni as you have listed above. I don’t happen to actually. Please don’t be so fast to judge others based on one element of their musical taste.
But do you really think those are “unscripted” shows..
RSH
A lot of famous people were on Star search but did not win. In addition to the ones already mentioned we have Aaliyah, Christina Aguilera, Rosie O’Donnell, Ray Romano (Everybody Loves Raymond star), Tracy Ellis Ross (Girlfriends star), Britney Spears, Usher, Sharon Stone, and Justine Timberlake to name a few.
Interestingly enough Britney Spears and Usher competed against each other on Star search.
I think American Idol sucks because, even if you make it to the top ten your basically bound to have a record deal anyways, now if you win you really dont win anything. Where on the amazing race you win something that none of the other contestants win. Tha Amazing Race is unique, American Idol is just another talent show.
“That’s not true. Half of ABC and NBC’s 22 hours of primetime are taken by “unscripted” shows (12 hours for ABC and 11 for NBC).”
I detest that statistic because its mind boggling to me what you have to include to get those numbers.
For ABC for example you have to include the following
3 hours of Dancing with the Stars
1 hour of Shark Tank
1 hour of Supernanny
1 hour of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
1 hour of America’s Funniest Home Videos
1 hour of 20/20
2 hours of The Bachelor
I question including 20/20 and if I’m being completely honest America’s Funniest Home Videos in this category but I’ll go along with it. How it makes no sense to me that you’re essentially counting two-hours twice because the two hours of The Bachelor are the same two hours that make up the main Dancing with the Stars show. But even when you do all that we’re not at the claimed hours of unscripted content and to get there you have to include Saturday Night College Football and that makes absolutely no sense at all.
In reality ABC has 8 hours of unscripted scheduled for Fall and 7 hours of unscripted currently scheduled for Winter.
Things are slightly more complicated at NBC because of how their schedule changes midseason but in the Fall they have 8 hours of unscripted content if you include Dateline. To bump it up further you have to include Sunday Night Football. In the winter it does go up significantly though to 11.5 hours although that’s down to their decision to run with Leno at 10.
On a wider note if you total up the 91 hours of prime time between ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and The CW you’re looking at about 29 hours of unscripted content in Fall (and that includes a Top Model repeat) the rest is made up of 8 hours of sports and the rest is 54 hours of scripted content. So about 32% of the the prime time schedule is made up of reality about 9% sports and roughly 59% scripted those aren’t bad figures in my book.
Television is a business. Reality shows are profitable and most scripted shows aren’t. Why are we making this more complicated than this is? If the ratings are good, your show will survive (provided its cost doesn’t outweigh it’s revenue). The only ways a show gets canceled with good numbers is if it’s trending down (ratings wise or cost/revenue wise).
American Idol represents excesses and all that’s wrong with the American Culture. Dateline does not. To clarify this, Dateline does not air a series of episodes where the whole aspect of it is to laugh and ridicule people for not being able to sing. American Idol does that, which represents how barbaric our culture has turned to. Idol additionally offers nothing to improve the lives or intellect of the culture. Scripted television, at least makes people think a little, while Dateline obviously keeps the public inform. I recognize that American Idol does offer the very talented an opportunity to have a shot in the music industry, but in the process of doing so, they don’t have to insult the public. I would also like to add, that from my perspective the greater hate online is not directed to American Idol, but instead it’s directed towards Dancing with the Stars. With that show, it’s useless to watch a bunch of D-list “actors” dance. It’s simply on the air to profit off the tabloids generated by the D-listers.
Oops, I was one hour off, I forgot they moved Ugly Betty to Friday in place of WifeSwap, so, 11 hours.
Sunday: AFV, EM: HE =2 hours
Monday: DWTS =2 hours
Tuesday: Shark Tank, DWTS =2 hours
Wednesday: Nothing
Thursday: Nothing
Friday: Supernanny, 20/20 =2 hours
Saturday: Football =3 hours
For a grand total of 11 hours. If you don’t want to include Saturday (which I did for every other network), then it is 8 hours out of 19, so slightly less than half, but you’d still be wrong on the “vastly outweighs” bit.
How about it put it this way, less than half of the available hours on ABC and NBC are scripted shows. Better?
I object to the idea that Amazing Race has won so many consecutive Emmys because people are punishing American Idol (or Survivor, or anything else). Amazing Race deserves everything it has won–it is simply better than those other shows. Not to criticize them, either; Amazing Race has all the suspense and human interest elements those other shows do, plus incredible variety and scenery.
As for why people hate American Idol: I think it’s mostly because the singing is both undistinguished and overdone. Plus the same types singing the same songs over and over and over makes for pretty rotten viewing, yet the show kills in the ratings again and again, apparently mostly because of children and teenagers. It’s a triumph of the mediocre–and it doesn’t even relate to real singing success. The only truly successful Idol winners (or near-winners) have succeeded by not following the “Idol Model,” which bears no resemblance to the USA’s music business.
The idea of throwing sports coverage into the unscripted pile just doesn’t wash with me at all.
The ABC schedule breaks down like this
FALL
Scripted – 50%
Unscripted – 36%
Sports – 14%
WINTER
Scripted – 68%
Unscripted – 32%
Sports – 0%
Those are sizeable differences. There’s 8 hours of unscripted in the fall vs. 11 hours of scripted and 3 hours of sports. Meanwhile currently there’s 7 hours of unscripted vs. what looks likely to be 15 hours of scripted. And like I said there’s nearly twice as much scripted content on the major broadcast networks next season than there is unscripted content and that’s with the absurd addition of five hours of Jay Leno a week. Scripted content still vastly outweighs unscripted content on the major networks.
The idea of throwing sports coverage into the unscripted pile just doesn’t wash with me at all.
And I disagree. I think there isn’t much more difference between football and American Idol as there is between comedy and drama. They are both talent contests, the talent and scoring are just different.
I do sorta agree with you Holly. Anyway you look at it sports is unscripted and can only be grouped as such.
Why do people react negatively? Because they are nerds and their low-rated nerd shows don’t get 25 million viewers.
Me? I like seeing aspiring nobodies chase their dreams. I realize “Idol” is not always the fairest of competitions, what with the producers’ agenda and the attempted manipulation (not that it worked out for them this year), but it has good chemistry and much better production values than most other shows. That includes “The Amazing Race” — which may have won 125 Emmys but is hosted by a block of wood. People don’t want to watch it? Then don’t. Go watch your low-rated nerd shows. There are plenty of Top 10 shows I personally don’t care to watch. You can start with “Dancing with the Stars,” move on to “The Mentalist” and end with “Grey’s Anatomy.” Obviously, as long as people are watching them, they will stay on the air. My personal tastes do not dictate what gets to stay on the air. And neither do yours.
Clutz: “RSH, regarding Star Search, the biggest name I recall who fist caught the public eye is Alanis Morrissette.”
Oh, god…the woman who sounds like a cat being beaten to death in an alley. I heard her first song on the radio and resolutely have never allowed myself to ever listen to anything coming out of her mouth since.
Another good reason for denying that Star Search was ever worth watching.
People need to get a life, and move on.
CP: “To add on to what I said, people who think Carrie Underwood, Kelly Clarkson, Daughtry and others aren’t talented are completely insane. Look at the album sales and awards.”
Album sales have nothing whatever to do with quality, just like ratings of TV shows have nothing to do with quality (although LOW ratings CAN be a sign of bad quality or other problems, as TSCC proved.)
And for those citing talent show types who go on to have ONE Platinum record, it’s not really that hard to get a platinum record IF you’ve been on a recent TV show for weeks or months at a time. Try getting a platinum record WITHOUT having been a TV star first – that’s considerably harder.
My favorite rock band, the Irish family group The Corrs, sold thirty five million or more albums world wide, and did have a number one hit in the US with “Breathless” back in 2000, but basically they’re almost unknown over here, despite being singers/songwriters/musicians of considerable talent as well as being probably the best looking band in the world, twice nominated for Grammies.
Also the Spice Girls, to whom the word quality is unknown (based on their first single I heard), went on to sell 70 million albums, twice what the Corrs sold in half the time – with half the talent of the Corrs.
In other words, they were a “fad band” and most of the people coming out of the talent shows can be considered “fad stars”. In other words, no longevity.
Sales have nothing to do with quality and more to do with name recognition which is precisely what you get from shows like American Idol.
I do not mind AI….I have watched some of the episodes and gotten into it. I like talent shows and singing, so this is the good part of the show. IMO, the only way to watch AI is NEVER watch a results show; watch all the performances on the Internet (even the AI site has just the performances) and then just watch the last 2 or 3 weeks. This the way to enjoy the show without being overwhelmed by rampant product placement including musical acts of no interest.
American Idol killed my dog, burned down my house and stole my car.
True story.
Mikey says:
“Over the long run, IQ scores are up, SAT scores are up, literacy rates are up, college graduation rates are up.”
I’m not sure about the metrics behind SAT scores, but IQ scores are, by definition, not “up.” IQ is not an absolute measure–it’s both population and age normalized.
Wikipedia on Ray Romano: “Raymond Albert “Ray” Romano (born December 21, 1957) is an American actor, writer and stand-up comedian, best known for his role in the long running sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond. His other acting credits include Ice Age, Ice Age: The Meltdown, and the upcoming Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.”
I rest my case. The listed movies and TV shows further down in the article are precisely why I’ve never of this guy and never intended to.
I read this site everyday now. There was a time when I couldn’t wait for the Wednesday USA Today, so I could see the ratings. About 3 months ago I found this site and now I’am here everyday. I have never made a comment. I like Chuck, but I am not going to go on a hunger strike because people aren’t watching. I liked Dollhouse, but wow there is so much attention to a show online for the few people who watch it. Can’t help but to think if some of you guys would simply tell others about how great the shows are, well they might get some viewers.
Now to Idol! I watch it when I can and I must say I love the show. I like the results show the best because now there are great performances every week from some really talented people.
Then I see the comments on here about the lack of talent. I am not sure how you guys decide who is and who isn’t talented. But Carrie Underwood, Fantastia, Kelly, Chris D, and now a long list of others have done really well.
Maybe the problem here is simple. Idol is a show that allows people to get up and do something. Many of these kids work very hard at trying to make something of a career. Maybe there is so much hate because instead of sitting at a computer hating on the world of those who try, these people are doing something!
As far as the Emmy voting is concerned, then I see definite parallels to the Academy Awards.
In 2008, the five highest grossing live action films were: The Dark Knight, Iron Man, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Hancock and Twilight.
And yet all of those were ignored in the major voting categories of Best Film, Director, Actor, Actress and Supporting Actress. Dark Knight did get a nod for Supporting Actor, but none of the other films did.
While this is but one example, I’d argue that oftentimes what is most popular with the public is very different from that which is critically acclaimed, no matter what medium it is we are discussing.
Chrijozo: “A lot of famous people were on Star search but did not win. In addition to the ones already mentioned we have Aaliyah, Christina Aguilera, Rosie O’Donnell, Ray Romano (Everybody Loves Raymond star), Tracy Ellis Ross (Girlfriends star), Britney Spears, Usher, Sharon Stone, and Justine Timberlake to name a few.”
Of that list, Sharon Stone is the only one I’d watch doing anything – and frankly, her last few movies haven’t exactly remade her as a star icon. The others you list certainly have had considerable success to one degree or another.
But I question whether any of those people actually got their major boost from Star Search. What did Sharon Stone do to get noticed? Basic Instinct and before that, Total Recall. Before that she was a nobody starlet in Steven Seagal level movies. I suspect Star Search had zero impact on her ultimate career.
Aguilera was hyped as the opposition to guess who? Britney. Where would Timberlake be without Britney? Manufactured “stars” with limited talent is what we have here. I still don’t know what Timberlake actually DOES other than date Jessica Biel (kudos to him for THAT!)
It’s really not an outstanding list when you step back and look at it.
Compare once again to The Corrs. They started out auditioning for a small part in The Commitments, picked up a manager from that, started writing songs, got a little song-writing contract, started playing pubs in Ireland. Got lucky to be noticed by a relative of the Kennedy clan and invited to play in the US. Spent weeks hunting around for record deal, got nothing but a spot on a 90210 episode by chance. Finally a record exec mentioned them to David Foster, the Big Man at the time. They crashed a Michael Jackson recording session the day before they were due to return to Ireland, managed to meet Foster, played for him and had a record deal the next day.
Then they spent years touring, then back to studio and touring again, hitting nearly every country. That’s how they sold thirty five million pop rock albums – even beating U2 in the UK – and never did “break the States”. Which is something I’ve never understood because although the three Corrs sisters aren’t bimbos like Britney and Christina and Jessica, they’re still pretty damn hot. And there’s more Irish descendants in the US than Irish in Ireland.
The Corrs worked their butts off for their success. I’m not saying Britney and the rest don’t work hard – clearly they do. But that’s AFTER they’re picked by the Powers That Be because they’re bimbos that can be merchandised. The real reason the Corrs never broke the States is because they refused to go that way.
Alex: I agree with Holly. Sports counts as unscripted. And ABC isn’t doing ANY sports in the winter? None? Personally I don’t see the approximately fifty-fifty breakdown of scripted/unscripted being that big a deal. But your use of the word “vastly” is clearly incorrect. Go with “even” and I have no complaint.
Well, ABC does have the Super Bowl. That probably counts as sports in the winter.
Wait, I thought CBS had the Superbowl.
Julia: Yup. I’d say so.
Oops, Holly’s right – 2010 is on CBS according to Wikipedia.
Either way though, since it’s a one-time event, I wouldn’t count it in the unscripted/scripted comparison any more than I would count the various awards shows or Christmas specials.
Holly: Good point. On the other hand, one could conceivably include ALL those kinds of shows as “unscripted content” since they take away time from the scripted shows. OTOH, the scripted shows tend to get aired eventually anyway, so the net effect is probably moot, other than the tendency of some shows to have their momentum be negatively affected when they’re preempted.
Ok, I was wrong. Hmm… I could’ve sworn someone was talking about selling Super Bowl at an ABC affiliate.
RSH
The fact that you don’t like what those celebrities do doesn’t make them any less famous. The fact is millions have seen them and like what they do. I have never heard of the Corrs does that mean they aren’t famous?
RSH
Also to say that Justin Timberlake or Christina are only famous because of Britney is facetious. Both of them are very good entertainers and musicians on their own. Justin does pretty decent R&B music and Christina has good Pop music. Christina also has a voice that could make a good R&B singer if she worked at it.
Chrisjozo: You’re missing my point. Whatever talent show they were on has little to do with either their talents or their subsequent success. And the fact that they are successful has little to do with their talents or whatever talent show they were on.
In other words, the talent shows find very little top quality talent. Top quality talent comes from the bottom up, like The Corrs experiences, or sheer luck, which also applies to the Corrs. The talent shows have little to do with it.
The fact that some graduates of talent shows then got picked by the music industry to be hyped into “stars” is irrelevant. There are thousands of equally talented acts out there that will never be successful, regardless of whether they’re ever on a talent show, because the industry is based on “stars” (although the Internet is starting to break that down somewhat).
None of the people listed got where they are because of Star Search. And if it hadn’t been them, it would have been someone else. Pop rock music “stars” are mostly interchangeable.
So what’s the point of talent shows? Entertainment. That’s it. And people are entertained by competition, because it’s human nature – or to be more precise, primate nature. If one aspires to be more than a chimpanzee, I’d say avoid competition shows and watch shows that require a bit more thought. Which is not to say that scripted shows necessarily provide that – but they have the potential to do so that competition shows, including sports, do not.
Talent has always had a component of luck and being in the right place at the right time. Whether the show launched them to immediate stardom or not doesn’t mean they didn’t get noticed because of it. It also doesn’t take away from their talent. it takes both luck, perseverance and some talent to even meet producers and other music industry officials. You can have the best singing voice ever but if you aren’t in the right place at the right time you won’t be a success. That is just the way life works.
As far as American Idol being mere entertainment I was always under the impression that that is what TV is for. Its a vehicle to entertain us. I don’t watch most Reality shows but I’m not going to demean those who do or say that the shows I do watch such as Damages or Big Bang Theory are more than entertainment. Do I watch those shows because they give me some brilliant insight into the legal profession or the social lives of nerds? No. I watch Damages because it excites me and keeps me in suspense. I watch Big Bang Theory because it makes me laugh. At their very heart even the most highbrow show evokes some base emotional response from its viewers. Unless all you watch are documentaries every scripted show is mere entertainment aimed at attaching to an emotional response.
TV in general today is too slick and devoid of variety (I don’t mean variety shows.) Take a hint, TV Land!
American Idol is most likely hated because other networks put scripted shows up against it and they cancel them at the end of the season for “poor ratings.”
Star Search was a syndicated weekend show back in the 80s, so it didn’t compete with network prime-time.
I agree that “reality TV” is a ridiculous term–they are glorified talent, game, and documentary shows. And those things have been around for decades, just not on network prime-time.
Yeah Richard Less Star Search didn’t eat up so much time like Idol does. I’m ok with a reality show but do we really need almost three hours of one show every week.
I also think the root cause of the hatred has been pointed out many times over and that is the fact that Reality shows and scripted shows are judged by the same standards. As it has been said before if networks want to compare then they should pit their “reality” against one another and their scripted shows against other scripted stuff.
I could blame Idol because the CW sacrificed Reaper to it but I won’t. Instead I’m going to blame the CW for putting it against a show destined to beat it. If they really thought they could take Idol viewers they should have put America’s Next Top Model there instead. That way it would have been reality against reality and the fight would have been a fairer comparison.
Chrisjozo: I agree with the idea that pitting scripted against unscripted is a losing proposition. While it’s true that a scripted show SHOULD be compelling enough to win against unscripted fare, it’s simply pretty damn hard to do.
When I say talent shows are entertainment, I don’t mean it in the same sense of shows like comedies or dramas. I mean they’re entertainment in a social sense. Some people may tune in just to hear talent perform, but others are tuning in for the competitive aspects, which are absent in scripted shows. That’s not engaging the brain.
“Unless all you watch are documentaries every scripted show is mere entertainment aimed at attaching to an emotional response.”
Not quite.
I tend not to like comedy shows either, partly because they don’t (usually) engage the brain. Nothing wrong with laughing at jokes, though.
But talent shows and game shows are basically like sports – they’re purely competitive. They engage the chimpanzee side of the human brain, not the cognitive side. Any scripted drama is going to engage the brain at least somewhat because you have to make judgments about what’s happening and what it means and what might happen next and how it relates to one’s own life (if only subconsciously). With a competition show, not so much.
There really is a reason to say that competition shows – talent shows, game shows, and sports – are somewhat less conceptual than dramas, if not comedies. Comedies can be conceptual depending on the concepts involved in the premise and the execution. But dramas are inherently more conceptual than competition shows. Mind you, not all dramas are “intellectual” in the sense of requiring intense thought, obviously. But dramas require significant conceptual processing compared to just watching a competition.
Bottom line: It’s easier and less brain taxing to watch any kind of competition than it is to watch a drama. And that doesn’t exclude all the effort that goes into sports kibitzing. While there’s a lot of analysis that goes into deciding who is more likely to win a game – or a talent contest or a “reality” show – it has little to do with one’s personal situation. A comedy or drama allows people to consider the human condition and how it applies to them. A competition show really doesn’t to the same degree.
This is not to say that competition shows “dumb down America” or anything. If anything, it’s the other way around. The educational system and the society has dumbed down, and the TV fare is the result, not the cause.
So I guess what I’m trying to say is that the difference between competition shows and scripted shows is the philosophical component. Scripted shows can – if not always do – engage the “examined life” concept, whereas competition shows really don’t. To some degree, of course, it depends on the individual. It’s not just an emotional response that a scripted show can produce in a viewer, it’s a conceptual response. But competition shows aren’t intended to stimulate that response in a viewer. They are designed more to elicit an emotional response.
And as one my old mentors, Dr. Tim Leary, used to say: “Never trust anyone who comes on emotional.”
I like American Idol. No one was more surprised than I was to discover this. I can’t stand the beginning part — The beginning is like that train wreck you can’t look away from and is filled with people who are apparently delusional and/ or enabled by misguided family members into thinking they actually have singing talent. Once the top 12 are selected I think its fun– the contestants are good enough not to embarass themselves AND the show asks my opinion. It matters what I think. (yeah, I know — but since I don’t have a Neillsense (ha) box LOL I’ll take what I can get.
I’ll take a scripted hour first, mind you . . . .
The perception is that if these singers were really talented they wouldn’t need to go on a reality show in order to get popular. There’s also the perception out there that this type of show doing so well is ruining the ratings of better quality shows on at the same time and that creates some resentment.
I love how it is always their most talented year yet. But some of these didn’t make it the year before.
RSH,
I guess the difference is that I don’t look to TV for philosophical components. I usually turn to books for that. Given censors, sponsor sensibilities, network sensibilities etc you will never get a TV show along the lines of books like Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring or Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle. Because of the above named factors everything on network TV will be watered down to an extent.
Also i just finished law school and during that time I had very little free time and I wanted to be entertained in what time I did have. A lot of people get enough mental stimulation from other more comprehensive sources and just don’t look to TV for that.
Chrisjozo: I’m not saying one turns to TV for philosophy. I’m saying you get more conceptual and philosophical content when you watch a scripted drama more than you do a competition show – whether you want it or not.
In my case, however, I do pick the shows I watch based on their premises and the likelihood of their engaging me in a more conceptual sense – and possibly even a philosophical sense – than an emotional sense. I’ve always done that – with movies, books and even comic books. That’s why I gravitate more toward sci-fi, espionage, adventure media than comedic material. There’s more “meat” to it than your average family drama or romantic drama or comedy.
Which is not to say I don’t like getting a big emotional response from media. Take “V for Vendetta”, for instance. My primary interest is in the conceptual content of the movie. But the scene where Evey loses her fear is one of the most emotional moments I’ve ever had in watching a movie. It brings me to tears every time. But I’m completely incapable of getting emotional over who wins the SuperBowl.
It’s the difference between sirloin and luncheon meat. Competition shows are luncheon meat for the brain.
Richard Steven Hack says:
“And as one my old mentors, Dr. Tim Leary, used to say: ‘Never trust anyone who comes on emotional.’”
The ship will be ours and you got to roll with it!
And though your master’s head’s blown off you got to go with it!
Just by the by, did comet Hyakutake manage to get through any follow-ups to the Starseed transmission?
RSH
I think it just boils down to different tastes. Some people like Idol and you don’t. That’s all perfectly ok. Personally I’m indifferent about the show because I’ve never watched an episode. I’m not going to judge the merits of a show I don’t watch.
I watch a variety of shows from drama’s like Damages, comedies like Better Off Ted and Chuck to Sci-fi shows like Fringe or supernatural shows like Supernatural. The fact that those shows don’t all get stellar ratings is not all Idols fault. a lot of it has to do with the advertising provided by their network, their time slot etc. Proper hype and scheduling count as much as who your competition is.
Even without Idol there will always be a show that dominates other more deserving shows. I was never a fan of Seinfeld but that was a ratings powerhouse in its day and it killed other shows like Idol does. Even if Idol did not exist other shows will always threaten our favorites.
HA HA HA unscripted, you must be f–king kidding. Do you really think that everything those 15 minute of fame contestant do, they are not told when to eat, walk, talk, dress, P&S, laugh, cry, jump, fall, and act natural.
Unscripted, you must be f–king kidding. The low life producers made that titled up themselves so they could avoided paying a living wage to the poor desperate people who work for them.
When I see the success of AI type of show, I think I am living in the United States of Dumbfuckstand.
Sorry Guys this subject( Unscripted) really tick’s me off.
Chrisjozo: Can’t disagree with any of your last. I’m basically indifferent to competition shows as well, except that I think their growth – if it is growth or just a fad – isn’t a good thing in general. But I don’t lose any sleep over it.
As I said earlier, a scripted show needs to be compelling enough so that it can handle the competition no matter what it is. But I do think the networks should stop trying to compete against competition shows with fiction shows. They should know by now that it’s extremely difficult and can cause shows that might be perfectly profitable in another time slot to get clobbered. Makes no sense to me. If a network can’t come up with a competition show to match some other show in a given time slot, they might as well just give up that time slot all together rather than “sacrifice” a good fiction show in a vain effort to derail the competition show.
Some fiction shows this season have done moderately well against competition shows, but in general it’s a bad idea to schedule that way.
Paul80: You’re right. Both the terms “scripted” and “unscripted” are incorrect. They should be referred to as “fiction” vs “competition”. There might be a few “reality” shows that don’t quite fit the term “competition” but they can be described as whatever else they are.
“IQ scores are, by definition, not “up.” IQ is not an absolute measure–it’s both population and age normalized.”
Boris, if you’re still reading this thread, read this entry on the Flynn effect.
IQ scores are re-normalized periodically, so today’s 100 is not equivalent to a 100 in 1930.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect
As a musician, I despise American Idol. Fame is given to these people who barely have to work for it. They sing karaoke of other peoples songs, then get a record deal whether they win or not. What happens after? They sing songs written for them. This show is a reason other well written and acted shows have gone the way of the dinosaur. Immature women and girls stay glued to this abomination, and then all the news media reports on it as if it is important to the status of the world. I read CNN.COM and see a suicide bombing in Iraq killing hundred under a story about the “top 12″ remaining in American Idol.
Watching American Idol contributes to the declining intelligence in the world today.
Bill Maher summed up Idol for me pretty well. He was ranting on about people ceasing to try on a daily basis because they all want the instant gratification that the ‘American Dream’ can offer. He said everybody wants to be a Guitar Hero, but no one wants to take the time to learn a few chords.
That’s American Idol. A bunch of nobodies thinking they’ll be the next Michael Jackson, international singing sensation, by doing nothing but going to their local convention center on a tryout day and waiting for 10 hours in line.
But then again… I also hate Facebook, Myspace, and any sort of social event that makes people think that other people care at all what they do in their life. If these people had used AIM 10 years ago, or discussed things in internet forums for more than a week, they’d have realized long ago: No one cares.
Except in the case of American Idol… apparently people do care. Which disappoints me, because Grandmas and Mothers-In-Law and morons who can’t comprehend what happens in LOST every week without having 37 documentaries created about it are apparently dictating the direction of TV in this country.
Geez Eric, pretentious much? — here’s the thing — people who like different programming than you do or who may surf the net or whatever for different reasons than you do and who may — God forbid — be interested enough to ‘care’ about the outcome of a competition like AI are not automatically ‘morons.’
I don’t happen to enjoy baseball or basketball – its like watching paint dry to me — and yet many viewers are invested in the outcomes of these games and series. I’m not so pretentious that I think they’re morons because they care and I don’t.
Frankly, I quit watching AI because the only thing that is good about it are the delusional singers who think they got it, but they do not — wait, wasn’t that called “The Gong Show”?
It really doesn’t build suspense about the competition when they go on a commercial break.
These past two seasons when they asked the viewers to call in their choices after they show a clip of the “live” performance, they were really calling about their REHEARSAL performances.
Finally, if you want to text in your choice, make it a WIDER swath of texters. Not everyone has AT&T, which left a lot of people without it in the cold.
This is a note to Quinn, and anyone else who thinks that music quality is subjective. What stipulates good music or a good musician is not purely subjective. I graduated with two degrees with honors, one being music theory/guitar performance, in college and can tell you that there is a drastic difference between people who are basically singing karaoke and those who write real music. Singers generally have a much lower understanding for music theory and how to write complex music in general, but these people don’t even perform their own attempts at song writing. Some of us are allowed to be frustrated with the fact that people like you think these people are real “musicians” when they simply sing other people’s songs. It is a karaoke show with cameras publishing the best and worst of a group of singers. Bashing something that is completely without merit does not equate to hipster snark. I’m simply saying that if you want to spend your nights watching people sing karaoke, go to a local bar and watch Japanese business men and sorority girls do it without endangering shows that we might enjoy that can’t be reproduced with a hand held video camera and a drunk with a microphone.
On another note,I agree with those who say that reality tv helps kill lots of quality tv. That doesn’t mean that all scripted tv is quality, but that there are shows that all of us like (though it’s not always the same one)that could be canceled in part because of America’s new trend towards voyeurism.
Maybe the negative comments on your site is a product of the intelligence of your visitors in general (you like that did you? hehe) And they (WE!) want shows that encourage us to think and not just sit dumbly in front of a screen to be dazzled by a voice or really fast footsteps.
Full disclosure: I can’t stand reality TV shows and the only one I will give an exception to is Amazing Race. Another full disclosure, I haven’t seen an episode of Amazing Race in 3 or 4 years.
I dont like American Idol
A so-called reality show is a sure fire way to get me to turn the channel. They are mostly about the lowest common denominator and have no substance at all. They seem just as scripted as regular shows, without decent writing or acting and yes its mostly very poor acting.
I have never watched more than 3 to 5 seconds of American Idol. I don’t pay attention to anything having to do with it. I can say the same every reality television show ever made. I think I saw a full epp or 2 for the first Real World while home sick, too week to move my arm and change the channel. But that was more than a decade a go, I was young, reality TV was new, I didn’t know any better.
Now I do. All of reality TV is stupid. I’m not saying that in a generally derogatory way. I mean literally it is for people with 2 digit IQs. The most recent example is this show I don’t remember the name of. The viewers vote each week on which of 2 jobs some dumb chick from NY will do for the next week. The vote was closed 2 days before the show aired. The person I talked to was actually voting based on what they want her to do. They don’t realize that it takes much more than two days to shoot and edit a show, even a reality one. And thus, this woman already did both of them! The voting doesn’t effect this woman in any way.
In general I don’t like any show that treats it’s audience like idiots. Sitcoms are nearly as bad as reality shows. There have been a few good ones, 70’s show, 3rd rock, almost all the rest are crap. Yes even Friends and Seinfeld.
I watched Idol for three seasons. And lets be honest…I love the way Simon tells it like it is.
I don’t view it as a “talent contest” at all. It is a popularity contest plain and simple. Sanjaya only lasted as long as he did because people felt sorry for him when in reality he sings like a dying wildebeest! This should not be allowed to happen.
Nick C, Bill and/or Robert, I have heard rumors that DWTS has discussed moving to Tuesday/Wednesday nights because it smells blood in the water (i.e.: the supposed fight between Paula and Kara; Simon thinking about jumping ship, etc.). Have you heard this?
If there has already been discussion about this I apologize.
Another reason I hate American Idol…
It routinely runs 3-4 minutes over and I have to fast forward through the nonsense in order to get to Fringe.
It took a few times of this occurring before I finally set up my Fringe recording to record an extra 15 minutes.
I did the same to my Fringe recording the first time it happened. That Pissed me off something fierce!