Turning Over the Keys: Musical Guests in Reality Competition Programming
July 9th, 2010
LeBron James’ decision to join the Miami Heat in the fall isn’t half as interesting as his choice (nay, demand) to announce this decision on live television after twenty-eight minutes of hilariously awful build-up in which television sports journalism lost a great deal of credibility. Frankly put, ESPN had no idea how to string together a show around such a crass act of self-promotion, which to their credit isn’t a particularly easy task: this was an hour-long special built around a ten second announcement, taking what could have been some interesting pre-decision and post-decision analysis and blanketing it with hyperbole about how this will forever change the game of basketball. This wasn’t ESPN covering LeBron James (which has become nauseous in and of itself), but ESPN turning itself over to LeBron James, which at the very least will have media scholars talking for a long time (or, about as long as it took Jim Gray to actually ask LeBron the question of the night).
And in what is the most shameless segue you’re likely to see all week, this same problem of “turning one’s self over” plagues reality competition programming (oh yes, I went there). For shows like American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, and So You Think You Can Dance, it’s necessary for time purposes to turn over part of their results shows to a musical guest or some other type of performer who kills some time, promotes their record/show, and moves on with their life. These performances can occasionally be quite interesting, but the fact remains that there’s a tension between the narrative unfolding (the elimination of a contestant, in most instances) and the musical performance, and watching tonight’s So You Think You Can Dance (which, in my defence, I watched immediately after tuning out from “The Decision” at the half-hour mark) a few thoughts came to mind about how shows work to keep these musical performances from seeming disconnected from the series itself.
So, tonight was the first part of the rather epic Idol Gives Back event on American Idol, and the singing was just…ok. I thought Jordin was pitchy in the beginning, contrary to the judges, but really there wasn’t much to really say about the performances. There is a lot to say, however, on the subject of the cultural ramifications of Idol Gives Back. The elder McNutt has taken an interest in it, and I’ve assisted in analyzing and considering the issue over at McNutt Against the Music. I implore all of you to go over and check it out, it’s quite interesting (I even bring up Baudrillard!).
So, I haven’t been paying too much attention to Dancing with the Stars, but I’ve seen enough to know that the show is suffering the same fate as The Apprentice: its contestants are losing respect for the program. It’s one thing for viewership to fail, but the past two weeks has seen Clyde Drexler and Heather Mills give absolutely biting exit speeches that attack parts of the show’s structure.
Cultural Learnings 