So as we approach the X-factor final there is once again controversy and allegations of a fix.
Today HMV launched a pre-order page for the single recorded by finalist Amelia Lily. The page was for the “winning single,”
Obviously as soon as people realized what was going on the HMV bosses were quick to explain that this was a mere technicality and that pages should actually have been posted for all three of the finalists.
But this isn’t the first time that Amelia has been at the centre of fix allegations. After Frankie Coccoza was thrown off the show earlier in the series, Amelia and three other acts who had been iliminated by their mentors in the first round came back for a sing-off in which the public voted for one of them to come back into the show.
However, an hour before the result was revealed, Scottish TV had announced that Amelia had won the public vote and was back in the show. They also reported on mentor Kelly Rowland’s reaction. As it turned out, Amelia was declared the act to go back into the show and Kelly Rowland’s reaction was exactly as had been described. The justification? Releases are prepared for all acts in advance and it was sheer coincidence that this one had been reported. Really? So we are led to believe that not only do the press pre-prepare a release beforehand (a concept which is actually quite feasible), but we are seemingly also to believe that the judges and contestants have pre-agreed and rehearsed their reactions? After all, only by knowing the reaction could it surely have been known how Kelly Rowland was going to react.
And all these technical glitches that just happen to happen to the show – are we really supposed to believe that they’re just technical glitches and that it is purely a coincidence that things really turn out exactly as they were accidentally pre-published? I think there are just too many coincidences for the explanations to be credible.
One thing is for certain, if Amelia Lily is named the winner on Sunday night, there will almost certainly be questions and doubts among the public as to whether her win was genuine or pre-determined.
Showing posts with label entertainment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label entertainment. Show all posts
Tuesday, 6 December 2011
Friday, 19 August 2011
When they want to be... on reality TV.
This week sees the return of Celebrity Big Brother, and x-factor, two of the most widely watched reality TV shows in the UK.
In Celebrity Big Brother we will see a dozen or so well-known (or in some cases not so well-known) people spend several weeks in a house with almost no access to the outside world, while their every move is captured on camera for the viewing pleasure of several million viewers. This is of course a slight alteration from the original Big Brother, where the housemates were members of the public who had to audition for the show and who spent twelve weeks shut in the house. Every week the public votes to evict one of the house-mates from the house,until at the end there is just one left and he/she wins a cash prize.
In x-factor we will watch the initial auditions, where wannabe singers will sing for the judges in the hope of being considered good enough to make it through to boot camp, and then on to the judges houses, to then hopefully appear as one of just twelve acts who will sing live for the public each week in order to be voted for and to win a £1 million recording contract.
The contestants of these shows all have one thing in common, they want to be famous, and they want that above anything else.
During the x-factor auditions we will see wannabe contestants interviewed who will tell us that "This is all I've ever wanted," and "I just can't go back to being a waitress/shop assistant/office worker." and "If I don't make it then my life will be over."
The reality is that for most of these people the dream will end within seconds, for one or two the dream will become a reality, and for the rest the fame they will gain will be based not on how good they are, but on how bad they are, and yet for some that is seemingly enough.
We have reached a stage where children look at reality TV as being something to aspire to. Rather than wanting actual careers and jobs, they want to be famous.
Surely it's time to question how it has happened that so many people see working for a living in an ordinary every day job as inferior, and instead they see being famous as the goal to aim for? Even if being famous means having been locked up in a house for twelve weeks under the constant watch of millions of television viewers, something that doesn't require any talent at all.
But it is time to question not only the people who create these shows, but also those who watch them.
For the next several weeks millions of us will tune in to the x-factor auditions, not to see the next great talent, but in order to watch several hundred people humiliate themselves in the name of entertainment. We will see pictures of the hundreds of thousands of people queuing outside the various audition venues in the hopes of being one of the lucky ones. The public are led to believe that the judges see all of them, when in actual fact contestants have to audition three times before seeing the judges. So those acts who are truly awful have been told three times that they are what the show wants, only to be humiliated on national television in front of an audience of millions.
So why do we watch it? What pleasure is there to be gained in seeing people, sometimes surely vulnerable people, being humiliated like this? Equally why do people feel the need to spend hours and hours in front of a television screen watching people in a house chatting, doing tasks, and cooking the dinner, almost like watching animals in a zoo?
It's easy enough to blame the manufacturers of these programmes for raising the expectations of the hopefuls who compete to appear in them. But in truth, without an audience there would be no programmes. So do we as the public not also have some responsibility here?
In Celebrity Big Brother we will see a dozen or so well-known (or in some cases not so well-known) people spend several weeks in a house with almost no access to the outside world, while their every move is captured on camera for the viewing pleasure of several million viewers. This is of course a slight alteration from the original Big Brother, where the housemates were members of the public who had to audition for the show and who spent twelve weeks shut in the house. Every week the public votes to evict one of the house-mates from the house,until at the end there is just one left and he/she wins a cash prize.
In x-factor we will watch the initial auditions, where wannabe singers will sing for the judges in the hope of being considered good enough to make it through to boot camp, and then on to the judges houses, to then hopefully appear as one of just twelve acts who will sing live for the public each week in order to be voted for and to win a £1 million recording contract.
The contestants of these shows all have one thing in common, they want to be famous, and they want that above anything else.
During the x-factor auditions we will see wannabe contestants interviewed who will tell us that "This is all I've ever wanted," and "I just can't go back to being a waitress/shop assistant/office worker." and "If I don't make it then my life will be over."
The reality is that for most of these people the dream will end within seconds, for one or two the dream will become a reality, and for the rest the fame they will gain will be based not on how good they are, but on how bad they are, and yet for some that is seemingly enough.
We have reached a stage where children look at reality TV as being something to aspire to. Rather than wanting actual careers and jobs, they want to be famous.
Surely it's time to question how it has happened that so many people see working for a living in an ordinary every day job as inferior, and instead they see being famous as the goal to aim for? Even if being famous means having been locked up in a house for twelve weeks under the constant watch of millions of television viewers, something that doesn't require any talent at all.
But it is time to question not only the people who create these shows, but also those who watch them.
For the next several weeks millions of us will tune in to the x-factor auditions, not to see the next great talent, but in order to watch several hundred people humiliate themselves in the name of entertainment. We will see pictures of the hundreds of thousands of people queuing outside the various audition venues in the hopes of being one of the lucky ones. The public are led to believe that the judges see all of them, when in actual fact contestants have to audition three times before seeing the judges. So those acts who are truly awful have been told three times that they are what the show wants, only to be humiliated on national television in front of an audience of millions.
So why do we watch it? What pleasure is there to be gained in seeing people, sometimes surely vulnerable people, being humiliated like this? Equally why do people feel the need to spend hours and hours in front of a television screen watching people in a house chatting, doing tasks, and cooking the dinner, almost like watching animals in a zoo?
It's easy enough to blame the manufacturers of these programmes for raising the expectations of the hopefuls who compete to appear in them. But in truth, without an audience there would be no programmes. So do we as the public not also have some responsibility here?
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