Ladies and gentlemen, pick up your phones and vote for your newest superstar.
In an age when anyone with a television and phone has the power to choose today’s celebrities, the right to vote has taken on new meaning.
The contestants on last season’s “American Idol” received a record-breaking number of votes. And a new star, Taylor Hicks, was added to the Hollywood Hills.
NBC decided it couldn’t miss out on a seemingly perfect formula for a television show and premiered June 21 Simon Cowell’s “America’s Got Talent”. The show, of course, involves the direct input of call-in voters.
ABC jumped in with “American Inventor,” also a Simon Cowell creation. Voters call in to pick their favorite inventor and product to help their inventor’s dream become the next home necessity.
With a quick look at the “American Inventor” Web site, you can see the show’s attempts at rallying votes: “But in the end it will be up to America to call in and vote on which invention is worthy of the one-million-dollar prize.”
But this summer’s shining star of voting madness has nothing to do with Simon Cowell. It is Fox network’s “So You Think You Can Dance,” which snagged the attention of nine million-plus American viewers and voters.
What is it about these talent shows that have people voting by the millions for the next Madonna or Justin Timberlake?
“It’s obviously very competitive,” Lindsay Averette, a mass communications student, said, “Anything with competition makes you watch it, with the suspense factor.”
But perhaps the most important ingredient in a successful recipe of a TV show is the privilege to vote.
“Reality television allows us to not only view, but by means of voting control the winner,” said E.J. White, a junior political-science major and associate justice for the Student Government Association.
Perhaps it is the appeal of participation. Or maybe viewers enjoy knowing the show’s contestants must impress not only qualified judges, but the average Joes as well. Priyanka Dhingra, an alumna and a “So You Think You Can Dance” fan, agrees.
“With the rise of all these new reality television shows that ask for America to call in and vote for tomorrow’s biggest stars, we as viewers are producing these great, big celebrities. We essentially make or break these future stars. We have that power as voters.”
So Americans hold the golden key to fame, penthouse apartments, designer clothes and private jets.
The summer addiction “So You Think You Can Dance” was different, however, from its fellow talent-searching show, “American Idol.” Throughout the 12-week competition in Los Angeles, the judges had their fair share in deciding who went and who stayed.
“I like it better than ‘American Idol,'” said Lauren Bradshaw, a lieutenant for the VCU Dance Team. “I think it’s more fair to have 50-50 votes. You can’t just rely on what America thinks is a great performance because it is about technical ability as well.”
America gets a little guidance on how to vote. But how does it work?
Every Wednesday the dancers performed, and voters were given two hours to call in and vote for their favorite dancer.
A follow-up show announced on Thursdays the bottom three females and males. These dancers received the least amount of votes and found themselves in the “danger zone,” as executive producer and judge Nigel Lythgoe called it. The at-risk dancers must “dance for their lives” and prove to the judges, not America, that they deserved to stay.
“I like it better that the judges decide because with America there is always a bias. If you’re from a bigger town, you get more votes,” Averette said. “With the judges, they go by the actual talent and who they think should really win. America doesn’t know the skills it takes.”
Another difference was the performances. After the at-risk dancers finished their solos, entertainers stepped in to perform their latest hits. Some of the artists who graced the stage were Natasha Bedingfield, The Pussycat Dolls, Ne-Yo, Chris Brown and Busta Rhymes.
“It adds another element to the show and makes it more fun to watch,” Bradshaw said.
The judges were backstage deciding which girl and guy to send home, while the performers finished up onstage.
After a few weeks, the judges handed everything over to America’s voters.
Then it was up to America to decide which dancer would receive a job with Celine Dion’s show “A New Day” at Caesar’s Palace, $100,000 and a new car. All of that was in the hands of American voters, regardless of age, sex, race or socioeconomic status.
And the producers don’t take voting lightly.
“If your favorite is up here (in the danger zone) tonight you should have picked up the phone,” lectured the show’s host, Cat Deely, during the show’s first elimination based purely on telephone votes.
“This show, along with ‘American Idol,’ has intrigued people to vote in the millions weekly,” said Angela Skaggs, a VCU alumna. “With people being eliminated and sent home based on our votes, it’s a perfect example of why we should take voting seriously, because our votes make a difference.”
Voters made their wishes known in the season finale of “Dance” when California native Benji Schwimmer beat Travis Wall of Virginia Beach.
So there it is: television shows-shows that hold the key to fame, fortune and the coveted status of superstar-give viewers the power to determine a person’s fate.