Gratuitous Ratings Grabbing

In case anyone thinks I only bitch about TV, I bitched at some length about the Matrix Trilogy over at An Unused Voice. I've decided to use that blog for recording my thoughts on movies as well as books. I get through movies much more quickly than books, so I can update more! I tend to watch movies more than once and having a record of my own "reviews" will be one way to track if my impressions change upon subsequent viewings.

Back to this present rant, which IS about reality TV. I watched American Idol 4 for the first time on Wednesday night and thought it was the single worse episode of any Idol series I had ever seen. Yes, even worse than the semi-finals in Season 3 with the brothers Roman and Jesus (remember how totally wretched the singing was that night?). What was strange was that the talent was quite good and the singing was a whole lot better than most of the finalists in AI 3. With the age limit raised to 28, there was also definitely a better mix of contestants, with some of the more mature people actually displaying interesting personalities (no offence to the kids last year, but could John Stevens, Jasmine Trias and Diana Degarmo have been any more boring?). But the episode itself really stank. They took one whole hour to let us know which 2 of the 4 rooms were "safe". In past seasons, these revelations were made at the end of the final Hollywood episode, taking up maybe 15 minutes at most. Now it stretched over the full hour, complete with back-stories, people crying and breaking down and "in-depth" interviews. In case anyone had forgotten, the producers really wanted to reinforce that AI is first and foremost Reality TV, and secondly a talent search.

So I thought Wednesday's episode was the worse ever. Well, that was until I saw Thursday's episode. This was the one where they would reveal which 24 were going on to the voting rounds. I actually rather looked forward to this, as this was supposed to mark, for me, the "true" start of the AI4 season when we finally get down to the talent that may have a chance at success. I was expecting that there may have been another round of auditions to narrow the 44 down to 24. What did we get instead? Absolutely no new singing at all! Lots of people walking down corridors and taking long rides in elevators. Lots of crying and stoic looks and squeals of triumph.

What was the point of the previous episode then? They could have dispensed with choosing the 2 "safe rooms" with 44 people and just gotten straight to picking the 24 moving on to the next round. After all, BOTH decisions were based on exactly the same sets of auditions. It's not like they made the 44 sing again. When the picked the 44, they had more or less made up their minds about the final 24. We could have been spared an entire unnecessary episode!

In a way, I admire the genious of the producers in squeezing every ounce they can out of this franchise. They know they have a ratings winner and can get Americans to watch anything leading to the annoucement of the final 24. So why not stretch it over 2 weeks intead of 1, and 4 episodes instead of 2? The editing and packaging of the episodes have been exemplary in the Reality TV scheme of things. Drama, tension, nerves, bratty behaviour, overwhelming joy; it's all been spliced together and voiced-over in just the right way to appeal to both the MTV crowd and viewers of The Bachelor (which are, unthinkably, legion). It's all very slick and entertaining, but so cynically calculated that I find it appalling.

Guardians of social values have always argued against gratuitous sex, nudity, violence and gore on TV. Isn't it about time someone stood up against gratuitous padding of epidoes and wasting of viewers' time?

That said, I am looking forward to seeing next week's 3 episodes of AI4. The fact the new format necessitates 3 episodes a week is a stroke of brilliance on the part of the producers. I do admire that. Unlike the last 2 episodes, this is actually not gratuitous padding; it's just the best way to get at the final 12 within the new structure of the competition. And the new stucture in itself does make a lot of sense and would ensure a more balanced group of finalists. Now, if they truly wanted to pad things out, they could have had the boys and the girls singing on alternating weeks, thereby having only 2 episodes a week, but having the entire semifinal process last 6 weeks instead of 3, a total of 12 episodes instead of 9.

Maybe, seeing what we have been spared, the last 2 episodes weren't so bad after all!