The Reality of Reality TV
October 16th 2007 02:16
So here I am with post number two.
Thank you to the 11 people who hit the vote button on the last blog. I'm not really sure what it does, but when those numbers go up it makes me feel happy. Hey what can I say, I'm easy to please. So if you want to make my day, after reading this post, please press the vote button. If you want to make my entire week, leave me a comment. That's all it takes to make me a happy, happy girl.
Enough about that, time to get my cranky on.
Today subject of rant is reality television. I like it as much as the next person, but after viewing the Australian Idol verdict show last night, I feel that there may be a few things that the show are not letting us in on. I'm not so sure that I believe that we as the voters have complete control over what happens to the contestants.
My case in point is the shock elimination last night of Ben. I honestly thought that the boy would make it to the end. The thing is though, it makes me wonder if it was more then coincidence that he should be eliminated after making comments about song chioce for the past two weeks during his judging. The judges ripped this boy to pieces twice in a row over his song choice only for Ben to defend himself by starting to say that he didn't want to sing the songs either. But he was cut off straight away by the judges. Me thinks that maybe the contestants don't actually get to choose their songs, but are perhaps "guided" in their choices. If they are by chance doing this, does it not give them power over the show? Maybe they aren't fiddling with the votes, but they are making sure the the contestants are giving the performances that are sure that the audience is going to love or hate. Is that cheating? I for one feel ripped off. Even though I don't actually vote, I am merely an observer giving my point of view.
I read a book recently called "Chart Throb". It is written by Ben Elton and gives an interesting insight into such shows. This is a "ficticious" rip off of Idolesque shows but when applied to what I am seeing in this years Idol, seems to ring spookily true. The song selection theory in this one is that the judges also double as mentors for the contestants and suggest that they would be best singing this song as it would increase their chances of winning. This of course, is not the plan. It works as a way to get contestants booted from the show by singing inappropriate songs. And when they are blasted by the judges, they are told "That was not a good song for you to have chosen." Then the contestant tries to defend themselves saying that it is not the song that they would have picked for themselves and they also were unhappy with song choice, only to be cut off mid sentance. Its all beginning to sound familiar isn't it.
So that is pretty much what happened last night and it made me angry. For a show in which the viewers are meant to have all the power, how much power do we really have?
Hmm thought provoking stuff. So thats today's rant. Remember to press that little vote button and make me happy.
Until next time,
Rebecca
Here's something I forgot the first time around. How useless are the judges? They do not give any constuctive criticism on the performance. What are the judges famous for? Have they done anything in their lives that makes them worthy of judging and stamping on the dreams of talented (and also delusional) young aussies? And Mark Holden, don't even get me started on him. Oh actually, it looks like I already have. Is Mark Holden the biggest tosser ever? I think so.
Thank you to the 11 people who hit the vote button on the last blog. I'm not really sure what it does, but when those numbers go up it makes me feel happy. Hey what can I say, I'm easy to please. So if you want to make my day, after reading this post, please press the vote button. If you want to make my entire week, leave me a comment. That's all it takes to make me a happy, happy girl.
Enough about that, time to get my cranky on.
Today subject of rant is reality television. I like it as much as the next person, but after viewing the Australian Idol verdict show last night, I feel that there may be a few things that the show are not letting us in on. I'm not so sure that I believe that we as the voters have complete control over what happens to the contestants.
So that is pretty much what happened last night and it made me angry. For a show in which the viewers are meant to have all the power, how much power do we really have?
Hmm thought provoking stuff. So thats today's rant. Remember to press that little vote button and make me happy.
Until next time,
Rebecca
Here's something I forgot the first time around. How useless are the judges? They do not give any constuctive criticism on the performance. What are the judges famous for? Have they done anything in their lives that makes them worthy of judging and stamping on the dreams of talented (and also delusional) young aussies? And Mark Holden, don't even get me started on him. Oh actually, it looks like I already have. Is Mark Holden the biggest tosser ever? I think so.
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Comment by Ranting Rebecca
Thanks for joining in, much appreciated to know that my rants aren't in vain. I reckon you're spot on with him going to the papers. But I also think that they would have to sign something saying that won't before they enter the contest. Otherwise it would have happened long ago.
Thanks again for joining in. You've made my week.
Cheers,
Rebecca