It's amazing what some TV shows will do for viewers, especially in their fading years. I'm referring this time to American Idol, the show that once seemed to be a juggernaut of viewers but has recently seen a serious decline in viewership. Now, I'm not talking about their issues with judges, although that's been pretty ridiculous (and, I must admit, I really have a hard time taking Nicki Minaj seriously...). Instead, I'm talking about a segment they did as a parody of "Les Miserables", "The Miserables".
This segment featured reactions from people who didn't make it. There were many profanities, and the bird got flipped many times (both were censored by the American Idol symbol). I found this to be incredibly distasteful. These were people people who were genuinely crying, who very clearly desired some privacy to get over the denial of what was clearly one of their biggest dreams and this show was essentially mocking them. A large percentage of the people either explicitly said that they wished for this not to be aired, or made some sort of physical gesture that indicated that they wished not to be filmed, and yet the camera crew persisted in following them. It really makes me wonder what kind of people could possibly be the cameramen. As someone who enjoys his solitude when I'm upset, I know I would not feel at all comfortable filming people at what is possibly their lowest moment. The amount of empathy I would have those people would make it impossible for me to stand watching.
The worst part of this whole thing is that these people are most likely often the show's biggest fans, the ones that have followed the show from the beginning and have grown up with this dream of being on the show. And yet this show treats them like trash simply because they didn't live up to the show's standards. If I was someone who actually watched that show, I would have quit right then and there.
American Idol has exploited the untalented since Season One, which was about 12 years ago now. I would suspect that the majority of those people signed waivers and/or disclaimers to allow such footage to be shown, and most of them definitely knew that there was a possibility of being exploited. I also don't doubt that many of them over readt with the hopes of making same sort of "bad" reel.
ReplyDeleteAll that said, I'm glad that you're looking at reality TV with a critical eye. I actually have seen this season (2 episodes!) and I viewed Nicki as the ironic voice of reason. She's the kindest (most empathetic), has a pretty decent eye for talent compared to the others on the panel, and is usually right when her and Mariah argue.