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TV Talk Discussion Group
I too find myself thinking more & more about what a scripted reality show it is, and how methods of editing are chosen over substance most of the time. I feel really bad for many of the so-called "losers" when A.I. makes fun of them - it's just plain mean.
But I don't agree about Ellen. Who exactly is an expert judge of singing?? I don't agree that, just because someone's been in the production end of things, that gives them a better ear. It's a very subjective thing. The extremes are obvious, of course, but there's a very fine line when it comes to choosing who should pursue a professional career and who shouldn't. All the other current judges have worked in the business a long time; I think Ellen represents someone who's been in show biz a while but not music production, and just loves music. I think the guests she has on her show and the music played on it show her to have a pretty good ear. She represents the common listener, like you and me. So I think she's needed.
Though I think a lot of it is a waste of time, I still enjoy the show enough to watch. I don't know how much longer a life it has, but viewership will dictate how long it stays on. I understand the Olympics the other night was the broadcast that finally toppled A.I. from No. 1. Could be the first of many such events.
In my opinion, there's only been two seasons where TCO hasn't won -- Season 5 (Taylor won, but Chris Daughtry was TCO), and Season 8 (Kris won, but Adam or Danny was TCO, or the other theory holds that there wasn't necessarily a TCO but Kris still wasn't meant to be the winner). And when it comes to Kris, I think that there was a point during the competition where they really could have knocked him out if they'd fully gone after him. But they either didn't think that he was a threat or else thought that they'd be able to deal with him later, so they focused on getting rid of Anoop, propping up Lil way beyond her time, trying to Make Matt Happen, etc. Kris was always an afterthought and by the time that the bus left the station (Top 4/5), it was too late. This is notable because Season 5 went off the rails big time for TPTB, and was immediately followed by Season 6, which was IMO the season where TCO (Jordin) was "protected" the most (lots of pimpage, barely criticized for bad performances, overly praised for good ones, Ruben got this treatment too), and where the entire theme for the season ("ONLY17!!! Can sing but not as well as the other ladies, but that's ok because she's ONLY17!!! Oh and all the guys are bad, don't bother voting for them, this is a ~singing competition~") was based around ensuring a Jordin victory. Season 6 was one of the most manipulated seasons ever and I don't think that it's an accident that it followed the Great Daughtry Tragedy of Season 5. IMO S8 went off the rails for TPTB in a similar way to S5 wherein someone other than TCO ended up winning. As for S7, I think TPTB did not care which David won, as long as one of them did. TCO will generally be sheltered from criticism even when they deserve it, and will not be shown as being in the B2 or B3, and will get lots of various extra pimpage in terms of interview segments and such. Also, I actually *don't* count S1 in the whole TCO mess because all the machinations we got so used to in later seasons didn't really take place back in the S1 days.
What's interesting to me is that throughout the course of the show, there have been five extremely obvious CO's. Four of them (Ruben, Fantasia, Carrie and Jordin) won and the fifth (Chris Daughtry) has been treated as if he did. If you take out Season 1 (when TPTB were still figuring things out and were only starting to get their manipulative feet wet), then the two seasons where there doesn't seem to be a consensus about the identity of TCO are also the two most recent. For S7, was it Archie or Cook? Did they switch mid-stream? Could they have even wanted Carly or Michael Johns at some point? Or were they fake-outs? I've seen a bunch of different theories that make an equal amount of sense. S8 is even more confusing because they seemed to treat Adam as both TCO and TCRU at the same time. In-fighting and disagreement among TPTB (my own theory)? Or simply a big manipulation fail, possibly because of Nigel's absence? We'll probably never know, but I suspect that arguments will continue into S10 and beyond.
So after all that ranting, I do agree that the show is so contrived and manipulated. So I gave up after last season. I just do not care anymore.
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