For seven years, American Idol has been the focal point of the music industry. Contestants become superstars. Songs sung shoot up iTunes. Established artists experience significant boosts when they appear on the show. An average of 30 million viewers tune into the reality giant to see the year's fresh crop of talent. Of course, all of these facts are certainly not lost on the producers of the show. Why else would they have an hour-long result show (it used to be a 1/2 hour)? For what other reason would they air a week's worth of auditions over a month and a half period? The truth is, American Idol (as much as I love it) has a tendency to be manipulative in order to maximum the profit margin.
It was because of this reason that I was so leery of Idol Gives Back the first time around. Yes, it's a great idea for one of the country's most influential shows to do something for the world. But that feeling of sincerity continues to nag at me. To clarify, not the sincerity of the judges or the contestants; I believe that they truly care. However, it is kind of hard to accept that a show notorious for its audience manipulation is all of the sudden a beacon of light for charities across the country and Africa.
The show last night was terribly long, but sat through it all. Starting at 7:30pm, all the way to 10:10pm, I watched a variety of artists and celebrities perform in order to raise money for the aforementioned charities. Some of the segments were heart-tugging and emotional (Bono's video packages, Carrie Underwood's stunning performance of "Praying for Time"). Those moments made the whole show worth it for me. Other moments were cringe-worthy and ridiculous (Terri Hatcher singing, Miley Cyrus performing TWICE). Then there was the odd smattering of celebrities from seemingly every walk of entertainment making appeals for donations. That was the part that was a bit unsettling. American Idol is a music show, so it naturally makes since that musicians would be there. It is also a television show, so that could explain (although barely) many TV stars appearing as well. But how random was Eli and Peyton Manning appearing on stage? Even they admitted it was weird. What about UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown? David Beckham and Posh Spice?
All of the celebrities made it seem like they were literally pulling at all directions, getting any popular face they could to maximize ratings. One could argue that the high ratings would equal high donations, but what they forget is that high ratings equal high advertising prices. Last time I checked, the money AI made from all of the commercials wasn't being donated to charity.
I'm very glad that American Idol is raising money for amazing causes, and I hope they continue doing so. That said, charity doesn't mask the American Idol money machine still in full force. I would be less unsettled if the show wasn't so bloated, contrived, and seemingly desperate for ratings.
If anyone disagrees, I would greatly appreciate your comments. Maybe I am overanalyzing it. If I am, let me know, LOL!
1 comment:
Okay it may seem this way, but I have great knowledge of charities. And one thing I can tell you is that the bigger the charity drive the bigger the operational expense. And let's face it, the are performers and they get paid for this and AI gets proceeds but to give 76 million dollars after that is unbelieveable! So let's give credit where it is due and not knock them about for their efforts. I mean really how hard is it for you to give up 1 dollar. If everyone in America gave up 1 dollar for every family member the total would have been in the billions. For my family it would have been $4 dollars, one time that it! I am trying to start a thing in my town where every family living here above a certain monthly income will give $1 per family member per quarter. That will be a grand total of $240,000.00 dollars a year. Imagine how many homes can be built for the poor so they don't have to pay rent anymore, or educational gifts, or medical expenses. Just imagine if everyone in america would give up $1 dollar per family per month for 1 charity per month. That means for 12 charities that year each would get $303,837,843.00!!! If everyone in the world did the same it would be $6,660,874,449.00 per month. Now granted some people can't spare a dime let alone one dollar but that's where those of us step forward and give a little more. I am disabled and I am on a fixed income but I live in such a manner that I able to give money to charities. Why? Because as a human being it is expected to.
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