America loves a talent show, no matter how minimal or peculiar the skill involved.
That’s the good news. The country has moved beyond mean-spirited smart-aleck “reality” for the summer and settled on a more productive strain of reality TV requiring some degree of performance. The networks have found the switch productive in ratings terms too.
Singles partying and parrying in an expensive loft in front of the cameras can only draw so much attention. During the hot months, viewers have voted with their remotes: The masses would rather see aspirational TV about ambitious performers working hard to make something look easy. Sing or finesse hip-hop, juggle or snap your fingers, yodel or torture an instrument, but don’t just stand there flaunting bad behavior and product placement with no hint of rhythm.
In the coming weeks, TV’s talent fever is building to parallel crescendos.
Fox’s “So You Think You Can Dance,” a toe-tapping hit with key younger viewers this summer, shuffles off with a two-part season finale on consecutive Wednesdays, Aug. 9 and 16.
“Dance” has box-stepped to the top of the ratings, regularly drawing nearly 10 million viewers, an improvement on last summer’s hefty numbers. Fox has renewed “So You Think You Can Dance” and will use it as a “promotional vehicle” to launch another Simon Cowell (“American Idol”) talent contest, “Duets.”
The format for “Duets,” due Aug. 31, blends “American Idol” with “Dancing With the Stars,” pairing professional singers with non-singing celebrities.
The derivative but apparently massively captivating “So You Think You Can Dance” was created by “American Idol” masterminds Simon Fuller and Nigel Lythgoe.
NBC’s “America’s Got Talent,” the overall audience hit of the summer, boogies to its finale Aug. 16. The “grand finale” results show follows the next night. NBC has renewed the breakout series for midseason based on the fact that it regularly draws more than 11 million viewers.
The equally derivative/magnetic “America’s Got Talent” is from Cowell and Fremantle
Media, producers of “American Idol.” Credit affable host Regis Philbin for making “Talent” as enticing as it is. Shiny suits and all, he is at home with America.
Whether doing krunk or cha-cha, the dancer’s life is not easy. Not only do their bodies wear out sooner than singers’ voices, but they get less respect along the way.
In fact, if respect were measured by reality TV cash prizes, dancers would get a fraction of what others get. “America’s Got Talent” offers a $1 million grand prize. “So You Think You Can Dance” offers $100,000 plus a new car and a one-year contract with Celine Dion’s Las Vegas show, “A New Day.” (In dancing circles, word is that the job with Celine Dion may be more punishment than prize. You know the old joke, third prize is a two-year contract with Celine …)
Question: Just when did David Hasselhoff become “The Hoff”? And does anyone really care that he is leaving his job as a judge on “America’s Got Talent,” making a stink on his way out? The “Baywatch” actor (using the term loosely) whines that Cowell “conned” him into being on the talent show. Like he was so busy with his European singing career he had to be duped?
Preparing to exit, Hasselhoff complained that “America’s Got Talent” is “like ‘The Gong Show.”‘ As if that’s the problem. Of course it’s like a spiked version of “American Idol” meets “The Gong Show,” the perfect summertime refresher. The problem isn’t that Hasselhoff’s serious acting commitments make him unavailable to continue the job, it’s that level-headed Brandy makes him look idiotic by comparison.
Still, tamping down the snide for a minute, it’s true the TV talent shows add a bit of uplift to the generally degrading reality form. Inspiration is there in some of these performance showcases, or at least in the drive that motivates the earnest contestants to show up.
On the “Big Brother” and “Real World” shows, it’s all ego and exhibitionism; on “So You Think You Can Dance” and “America’s Got Talent,” it’s about practice, practice, practice.
TV critic Joanne Ostrow can be reached at 303-820-1830 or jostrow@denverpost.com.
