Reality TV - My Experience

Hello All!

I spoke briefly in class about my experience on the reality TV show, Canadian Idol. Unfortunately time didn't allow as I have silly rehearsals first thing on Tuesdays and get to class always after 10:30. But I'm excited to share it here! It was certainly one of the most fascinating and eye opening experiences in my life as of yet.

As a participant on the show, I saw a true dividing line between reality and 'the real'. We had mentioned in class whether we thought that much of reality television was staged or not, and as a competitor on the show, I had an opportunity of seeing first hand, how staged it really is!

A friend of mine had participated two years prior, Michelle Madeira, and she told me that I had to go on the show just to see all of the real behind the scenes that go on. Since we had sung together a few places and participated in different events, I told her I'd take a stab at it, and peek into the vortex of the media's hocus-pocus.

I made it to the top 32 females in Canada, before I was eliminated for the peculiar reason of 'being too confident', as the judges had explained to me afterward. (Because I was eliminated before the final cut to go on the top 10 on the voting round of the show, the people who were eliminated on that day had the opportunity to speak with the judges after, without being on camera). I was sure to take advantage of this! In real, real, real life, the judges are normal people, and are basically actors. They take on personalities for the taping of the show. The season I had participated, the judges were Farley Flex (Randy Jackson personality), Sass Jordan (female judge: Paula Abdul personality), Jake Gold, and Zack Werner (Simon Cowell personality). You can see the show's set formula already, just by looking at the judges and how they are casted to 'match' what the public was familiar with from the well known American Idol show. And of course, since Simon Cowell wasn't going to be judging on Canadian Idol, they had to find an appropriate substitute (Zach Werner) to be the token 'asshole', and on camera, that he was.

It was Zach Werner that firmly stated that he disliked me as a performer, and at my very first audition for the TV segment, he made this clear. He had told me I was 'too confident' to perform on the show, and as a performer it wasn't good to be that confident. Of course when he said this on television (though this segment of mine wasn't aired), he used his rough and tough, ass personality to do so. Sass Jordan, who as of course encompassing Paula Abdul's empathetic aura, interjected and explained to me that it's great that I'm confident about myself and that it would get me places. Zach simply interjected, "yeah, but I don't like her. She's too confident". Alright Zach. lol.

Anyway, the story goes like this. From audition one to the last audition, we had practically zero sleep. Why? Because we would get out song for the next day, at sometimes as late as 3:00AM, to be performed at 7:30AM the next morning and ready to go. This pattern of receiving our material in the wee hours of the morning, and having to go back to the hotel (Royal York is where we stayed) and learn it for 7AM went on for the whole week. That's right. Competitors don't choose their song, and get no sleep. We receive a list of songs that we need to choose from because it is those songs which are allowed to be released. The station has the rights for these songs. So if you didn't know the song, basically you needed to learn one from the five given options, within less than 4 hours, which probably meant you weren't getting sleep. And there was a necessity to practice because they'd would tell us that "tomorrow is duet day" or "tomorrow is trio day", so we had to team up with other people and throw together three part harmonies and arrangements within 4 hours, and memorize lyrics. So when viewers at home are watching the show and laughing because people are forgetting lyrics, they don't realize that those people trying to sing have had little to no sleep in the past 4 days. It's pretty much music bootcamp, and the only thing fueling you is food, nerves and adrenaline. Which is a pretty weird feeling. In fact I remember hallucinating one of the last days just because your brain is trying so, so hard to shut down.

It was pretty sweet seeing how far you can push yourself as a human being though. It really showed me what the body is capable of.

Anyway my elimination day happened and both my partner and I were eliminated. Many extremely talented people were eliminated before us, which didn't surprise me, because many, were also very confident as performers, like myself, and the TV station's producers wanted them gone.

Speaking to the judges after, they told me (without acting and off camera) that what the meant when they angrily stated that I was too confident, was that on a show like that, they wanted people who look weak, who cry on camera, who get nervous, people who are 'entertaining' to watch, and not just talented. Because being just 'talented' is boring on TV.

So that's the big exciting joke of reality TV. Our sleep time was nil, we were memorizing off of no sleep (which really is impossible. I couldn't remember Howie Day's 'Collide' song's chorus by the fourth day...and how easy is that song! lol). This one time the camera men tried filming my coming out of my hotel room and asking me questions, but explained that I needed to take my Kit Kat bar I was eating, out of the shot because they can't show the chocolate bar on television, either that, or I had to eat it without the wrapper. lol. Crazy.

So I hope you enjoyed my story. I'd be happy to tell anyone some more about it. If any of you ever have the chance to participate in a 'reality' TV show--Do it! You won't regret it, and it'll be like nothing you've ever experienced. Sometimes, you really can't beleive how scripted it is. The contracts alone, were one heck of a read! I mean, who really wants to sign something that essentially says, 'we own you for the next three years'...uhhh... no thanks.

Bianca