Can anyone honestly say that they are eager to have NBC put this crap on TV ever again? FOX, maybe. But NBC obviously does not know how to work this kind of show. Ever see any of the live "Apprentice" finales? Horrible stuff.The early weeks were somewhat promising because we saw a handful of people with real talent and a lot of goofballs who were entertaining because they sucked so bad. I didn't even mind so much that we didn't get to see all of the good acts in the beginning because then, presumably, there was something to look forward to in the following rounds. It works for AI, right?
But from the beginning the judges were horrible. Their comments to the performers were neither constructive nor witty. We usually heard either "You're great! Keep doing what you're doing," or "That was just horrible. Please do not ever perform again." Hell, the contestants had better put-downs than the judges. And the judges, especially Hasselhof, showed a propensity to vote through anyone who had a hint of marketing value, i.e. a stripper who wore Disney costumes. Not really a talent there, just a hook for a certain demographic. Then the judges reversed their votes. Remember how Leonid the Magnificent was sent on after he cried for five minutes? In other words, the "judges" did very little judging except for an ocassional outburst by Piers. But he was leagues behind Simon Cowell, who Piers was obviously picked to represent in this fiasco.
Then came the voting in the second rounds. The judges sent through whoever they wanted on an equal footing with what the voters actually wanted. In other words, some of the most annoying and least talented performers - Rappin' Granny, I'm looking your way - were given free rides to the end. This was a huge turn-off. Let us, the viewers, decide. Unless you want to do it Apprentice-style and have the host stir up a cannibilistic feeding frenzy amongst the contestants. That can be fun to watch.
This brings us to Regis. He is not funny, he is not witty, he is not nice to look at. So what do we get in the finale? Forty minutes of Regis. Blechh! Keep him off the air, I beg of you. That finale was awful. Well, okay, the Blue Man Group is always entertaining but the rest of it was boring. And the "Let's split the group in half and have everyone guess who they think is the better group" was really stupid. I DON'T GIVE A DAMN ABOUT WHO CAME IN 6TH THROUGH 10TH. Just tell us who came in the top three and announce the winner. That's all we want at this point in the competition. The suspense wasn't killing anybody, it was just annoying.
Finally, the winner. Bianca was her name, right? I thought she was pretty good. But there's two problems here. Number one, we already have singing contests. I don't think I was the only one who wanted to see different kinds of talent show-cased. Second, Bianca is going to be messed up. Just the look on her face said it all. She will not be able to cope with that kind of money and God help her if she actually gets a recording contract out of this. I said weeks ago about how she was like a little Janis Joplin. Keep tabs on her if you want, and I would bet almost anything that she will have a similar story to poor ol' Janis. She should have been competing against people her age for a lesser prize. What a shame.
There may be a way to make this kind of contest work in the future, but I don't think there's anyone at NBC who knows how to do it.
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