[nq:2]I'm guessing everyone has seen Susan Boyle on "Britain's Got ... enjoy this: [youtube:9lp0IWv8QZY] (Kind of melts away a little cynicism.)[/nq]
"It's amazing. I thought this was a simple case of an undiscovered, older, frumpy, lady with an amazing voice, who got her chance on a talent show. Instead I find out it's all a vast conspiracy. Susan Boyle is not *really* talented (not "that" talented, anyway) and all the simpletons who thought she was, are deluded and/or hypnotized. These mouth- breathing yokels have never seen drama before and they're just too unsophisticated to spot a *scam* of this magnitude. Living in another age, in a place without movies or television (or even books of fiction) they have no way to tell the difference between what is real and what is make-believe. Poor, confused, milling masses of uncritical people! Music is also something completely alien to all these persons of less than refined taste who grope, mindlessly at that magic picture box and wonder what all those *pretty* noises could be. Accustomed to grunts and squeals, these deprived imbeciles think they heard something rare and beautiful. Oh, if only they were complicated enough to realize that this woman's talent is not rare, it is common yes, all too common! And, oh, how these people would rise up and destroy the vile seducers, these charlatans, who callously manipulate their every waking thought. If only for a moment they could see and see clearly, they'd destroy those who keep them in their mellow-dramatic shackles. But, alas, their intellect is far too low, the light of their *reason* (if reason it be) is far too dim. No this mob is destined to be led by the nose by these purveyors of the pusillanimous, who can make these morons dance, and grunt and "Oooo" and "Avvvvv" on cue. The lot of these idiots is sealed poor bastards. If they could somehow learn a healthy cynicism how much more fulfilled their tiny lives could be! With opposable thumbs they could reach out and grasp reality. Their existence would be so much happier if only they could be truly enlightened and therefore truly miserable, and know that "on every day, and in every way, they are being gamed". But it's not to be they live in a fantasy world and are stupidly happy for Susan Boyle and for her accomplishment. Brainlessly they think she has talent. Mindlessly, they smile and they listen and they enjoy. Pity them."
Your whole contention seems to come down to the claim that this is all about Susan's talent and that what the world witnessed was simply a "raw event" just a woman who basically came in off the street and wowed everybody and the world was swept up in it and those of us who suggest that, in fact, no irrespective of her abilities, what we watched was "stage managed" to produce the emotional effect that we and the rest of the world experienced is somehow cynical.
I'm sorry to say that that simply doesn't reflect a realistic view of how these shows are put together. There certainly has to be a pre- auditioning process before these people get on stage in front of an audience of hundreds of people live and millions of people at home, whether it's implied differently or not.
First, they simply couldn't risk having a full-blown nut go on stage like that and harm themselves or others.
Second, there are actual rules involving who gets to go on and who doesn't and they have to confirm that the people who go on are really amateurs who don't have recording contracts, so they have go back and check.
Third, there has to have been a major winnowing down process. As with American Idol and all the others, they must start with thousands of contestants to get down to a relative handful that end up at this stage. They surely can't depend on chance alone to decide who gets picked to go on. There has to be a pre-auditioning process.
It may not be the on-stage judges who do it, but somebody does it. The producers do it. That means that the producers know who these people are. That means they know who the stand-out acts are likely to be. They know because they pick them.
So when sit down to decide who's going to go out first, second, third, fourth in a given evening or who's going to go out on night one, night two, night three they're not just picking names out of a hat. They are orchestrating the shows based on results that can easily be anticipated because they fully understand what the stand-out acts are likely to be and where they are going to come - because they put them where they want them to go.
How else in the world do you think it works?
As for Simon Cowell, you do realize that that whole "hostile" thing is a complete put-on? When they were first doing these shows, people would come in and audition and he'd just say, "Thank you, that won't do," and they'd leave and after awhile the producers said to him, "You know, Simon that's boring. It's not good television. You need to have some kind of personality. What if you really attack them, tear the *** out of them, be really insulting?"
"Oh, all right. If you think it'll make the show better."
And that's why he does it. It's show business. It's an act.
What he does is an act. What the other judges do is an act.
It's all show business.
NMS