The
2000’s saw an explosion of competition shows.
From “American Idol” to “Last Comic Standing”, we have seen it all.
As we
begin the summer of 2014, what is the future of these shows? Will we see another decade of the same
familiar faces, or will the producers and networks have to make tweaks to keep
up with audiences?
While
not outright struggling, many of these shows have seen a decline in
viewership. While each show is unique,
the three biggest culprits for this decline are likely turnover among judges,
declining talent, and a general sense of viewer exhaustion.
Take
the former summer sensation “So You Think You Can Dance?” for example. When it debuted, I was hooked. It was fun to watch the week to week
competition as contestants were stretched and challenged.
A few
seasons in, I got bored. It felt like I
had seen everything that the show had to offer.
About this same time, there was an uptick in another aspect that I think
adds to viewer exhaustion: sob stories.
Everybody
who comes before the judges has faced insurmountable odds to get there. They have gone through horrors like catching
a cold, being denied desert for bad behavior after dinner by their parents, or
getting a B+ on their test instead of an A.
They have overcome these giant obstacles to now appear on this show. Oh and by the way, this audition is their
last shot. It will make or break their
lives. If they don’t win it all here,
they will be forced into the horrible pit of getting a real job.
I tuned
out. And I was not the only one to do
so. In the years since, my tv has
stopped on the show once or twice per year just to see how it is. Nothing has changed. And any time I stick there for a minute, it
takes one Mary Murphy comment to get me to change the channel.
I read
that recently the show has been condensed to once a week due to poor
ratings. Good grief. This is a FOX show. This is not one of the big three
networks. How bad must they be that Fox
is not willing to run it twice a week in the summer?
I tuned in to the latest edition
of “Last Comic Standing” and I don’t think I am going to bother. While there was some decent talent, the new
host is dreadful, the Wayans brother (a judge) looks bored out of his
mind. A quick word to the producers:
turn Roseanne’s mic off while the contestants are up there. Her laugh makes my skin crawl. She sounds like Salacious Crumb from Star
Wars. Quite frankly, if they got rid of
that, I would come back and watch the rest of the season.
When it
first came on, I really enjoyed “The Voice”.
The new approach and celebrity judges with personality made it fun. The more I watched, the more I realized that
this show has everything that I despise about this genre. Everyone’s got a sob story. Every audition, battle, and performance is “the
best” that the judges have ever seen.
Each person is told they have the potential to make a billion dollars in
the business.
Has
anyone from this show gone on to even be a regular on the radio? It is just like American Idol. No one knows who won, no one cares.
The
only show that has long term staying potential is “America’s Got Talent”.
AGT has
success because it is not constrained to any one thing. If you do something cool, you can be on. You can watch that show and see something
that you have never seen before. The
judges, for the most part, judge based on the level of entertainment. Too many of these shows feature judges who
are “professionals” who heap an over the top amount of praise on some folks who
have good technique and will treat anyone inferior as though they had just
personally insulted them. AGT judges
seem to (again, for the most part) realize that the show isn’t all about them
and the world doesn’t revolve around them and they just try to have fun.
This
declining brand of shows will only survive as they expand to be more inclusive
and as the judges lighten up and make it more fun. I predict that AGT will continue on
successfully while these other shows will slowly troll out.
