Okay, so here is a belated story from my Vegas vacation.
I went to an attraction in the MGM Grand Casino called Television City.
In Television City people were invited to preview television shows and give their feedback on the show they just watched. It was a CBS network initiative because there were posters for shows like Without a Trace, Ghost Whisperer and the fourteen CSI shows (okay, exaggeration). There were also signs for Nickelodeon and MTV networks. I don’t know if MGM and these networks are all owned by the same company. It would be interesting to know exactly where the commercial interests lie.
Anyway, I was hoping to score a pilot for some hot new comedy or perhaps an edgy drama. Or even some new Nickelodeon cartoon show like Spongebob Squarepants (of which I am a big fan).
I lined up with a bunch of other tourists (who all seemed to be Americans) and then went into this screening room. There was a large LCD TV at the front of the room. There were a bunch of computer monitors on desks with keyboards. There was also a little box with a dial on it and a cord attached to the computers.
Each person was asked to enter the details into the computer. We were told that the show we were seeing today was a pilot for a new reality show (AAAARRRGHHH!!!!) called Covershot. We would rate the show by turning the dial constantly for the duration of the show to indicate scores between 0 and 100. The control also had a ‘turn off’ button, indicating the point where we would switch channels if we really hated the show. After the show we would be required to answer pages of questions about specific aspects of the show – the talent, the premise, as well as our own viewing habits.
Well, Covershot was a pilot (first test episode) for a reality show where a person is given a makeover, then given a fancy photo shoot and then has their poster plastered on a billboard in a busy city street.
This episode was about a Hispanic woman with a husband and a son who was once really fat, but had recently lost half her weight. So she wasn’t looking too bad now, but she still felt a bit frumpy. So, some model comes to her house and tells her how she has been given this modelling opportunity.
She goes in and some gay stylist, a fashion designer help make her up and a photographer takes some shots of her to make her look and supposedly feel good. She shares her feelings about being unconfident in her appearance. Then she says that this process has really helped her feel good about herself. Anyway, at the end, she is shocked to see a billboard of herself in a busy city street.
When she summarises her experience she is really positive about it, suggesting that this has been really important for her and made her feel good about herself.
Well, I spent the whole time trying to give the show scores between 0 and 20.
Then I gave a very vitriolic response to all aspects of the show. I then gave what probably came across as some staunch feminist diatribe about how this show is basically telling women that the way to be fulfilled is to get a makeover.
It was a terrible moral and I hope the show is never picked up. I also said the last thing TV needs is another reality show because it takes money away from funding fresh new creative shows.
Well, I went in for a second show hoping to score something good this time. Sadly, I got another reality show. This one was called Life or Debt. It was another pilot for a new series.
In this one a guy helps people get out of debt. It had a better message, which was that over-spending is bad and that what really counts is family. So I gave this one scores between 0 and 40. But I still wrote that TV does not need more reality shows in my comments.
Well, as a fan of TV it was fun to be able to actually voice my opinion about unaired pilots for new shows. It was like that Simpsons episode where the makers of Itchy and Scratchy get the kids in Springfield to rate the show and Nelson turns Milhouse’s dial to 100 when the Speedo guy is on screen.
“One kid really likes the Speedo guy!”
Classic.
