Yesterday my friend and I were discussing the rage of reality shows in television. She said she watches many of these shows like Indian Idol, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa, On The Job etc and likes them too. Even I used to watch them a few years ago when this trend initially started with M T V’s talent hunt show (whose name I don’t remember) that produced an all girls music band named Viva. It was a big hit at that time as it was a new concept at the time when television was dominated by Ekta Kapur’s saas-bahu serials and their repeat telecasts. But fortunately I lost interest in them just after Viva went unemployed and then eventually split.

I have noticed that they are all very similar shows featuring similar people- basically youngsters from small towns who are striving to erase their anonymity by being picked up in a talent-hunt contest. They come from similar places and want to transport magically into the same glittering fancyland. In all these shows the background of individuals seems to be of immense importance and the emphasis is very often on the modest circumstances that they come from in order to highlight the variation success in a show like this brings. In most of the shows the contestants are expected to possess something called the X factor that eventually turns out to be nothing more that some blonde streaks in ones hair.
And another thing that the producers of these shows never miss is to encourage the contestants as well as the judges to be emotionally unstable for which they truly find ways. The contestants are meant to touch any and everybody’s feet every few minutes, speak in a voice choked in emotion, perform well and faint if they are eliminated- in that order.

In these shows success seems to be the amplification of who you already are. I have not known any winner of such shows actually making it big on his own after the grand launch they get at the conclusion of the show although they give up their career and possibly a lot more to take part in them.