Mr. TV: Facing Reality

With a month to go before my summer fave, Big Brother, returns on CBS, I thought I’d bide my time with some reminiscing about the recently concluded seasons of American Idol, Dancing With the Stars, Survivor and The Celebrity Apprentice. That’s right, I watched them all, every friggin’ episode this season. So I’m a sucker for ordinary Joes and Janes seeking fame and fortune on TV reality/competitions. Sue me.From a ratings standpoint, Fox’s American Idol still leads the pack. Excluding ABC’s Dancing With the Stars’ results show, even an eroding Idol is seen by more people than any other series (while still topping the charts in the key adult demos). But the ratings dipped by double-digits this season, and the departure of Simon Cowell could be costly. Although Idol did manage to survive with Ellen DeGeneres (who, in fact, was not as bad as I anticipated) in place of Paula Abdul, Simon is the true voice of the show and without him expect viewers to flee in droves. Big names like Jamie Foxx, Adam Lambert, Harry Connick Jr.—even Madonna—have come up as potential replacements. But in my opinion, no one can fill the shoes of the outspoken Brit, who is usually spot-on in his criticism. In a perfect TV world, networks would know when the time is right for a show to call it quits. American Idol should have gone out while it was on top instead of morphing into what could be a pale version of its once great self. Without Simon, I have no desire to watch next season, nor do you, I bet.Over at ABC, viewers gathered en masse to Dancing With the Stars and much of its success this season can be attributed to the ultimate train wreck, Kate Gosselin. While not a fan, I was glued to the tube in anticipation to see how bad she would be. Gosselin only lasted five weeks, but the beauty of this season was the vast array of interesting contenders, including bombshell Pamela Anderson (who the target older female viewers did not favor), appealing Erin Andrews, bubbly Niecy Nash, American hero Buzz Aldrin and this season’s winner, Nicole Scherzinger.Technically, Pussycat Doll Scherzinger is a professional dancer, and runner-up Evan Lysacek is an Olympic Gold Medal skater, so it was kinda unfair for them to compete. Then again, if Dancing had a cast in which every celebrity had two left feet, it wouldn’t be fun to watch.Moving to my favorite reality/competition, I find it amazing how fresh Survivor remains after 20 editions. While I’m always a bit skeptical when any one of these shows brings back fan favorites, Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains was probably the best edition of the entire series, even if it meant seeing Russell (Boston Rob hilariously called him a Hobbit on crack) once again dominate until the final tribal council. This is one of the few instances I can think of where a show reaches a full decade and doesn’t lose steam.Although moving Survivor to Wednesday next season is a risk, it’s a gamble worth taking because of its stability with viewers who just can’t get enough of the bickering and backstabbing.I was never a fan of NBC’s The Apprentice when it featured unknown contestants competing to be hired by Donald Trump, the man with an outsized ego—and an orange-whip hair-do. But when Joan Rivers and poker player Annie Duke went at it on The Celebrity Apprentice last season, I was hooked. So I anxiously looked forward to this past season with the likes of Sharon Osbourne, Cyndi Lauper and Bret Michaels. But nothing happened. Everybody got along, contestants like Darryl Strawberry and Michael Johnson mysteriously quit, and Sharon Osbourne went AWOL for a few episodes. The only drama occurred when Bret Michaels became seriously ill and might have had to miss the season finale.Michaels did ultimately win. But it’s obvious Trump keeps the contestants around who make the best reality TV. While I do realize that reality television is not necessarily “real,” The Celebrity Apprentice definitely feels fixed to me.

Convergent TV

Mr. TV: Facing Reality

Marc Berman

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Marc Berman