Simon Cowell, the Menace

One of my favorite genres of television is a good reality competition. I watch many of them, including AGT, Dancing with the Stars, and the Masked Singer. However, I have started to notice a trend in these shows that bothers me. It is the ever-present power of the people in charge of the show. The shows, no matter which one, always gets to a certain season and then it feels like it is the “stars of the show” (meaning the judges in most cases) that want a certain outcome and make it the reality. Things like AGT’s Golden Buzzer, Dancing with the Stars’ judge vote, and now even Masked Singer has the Ding-Dong Keep-It-On Bell, which is a mouth full in and of itself, but it saves a singer from being eliminated. My question is why have a “competition” if, in the end, there is going to be a giant thumb pushing on the scales. It comes down to less of a battle for the greatest or king of the hill free-for-all and more of a “who I want to win more” competition. For a set of shows that constantly harps on America to tune in and cast a vote, it almost feels like sometimes our opinions don’t even matter. It would be like if Jeff Probst went to put out the torch and then said, “Oh wait, here’s the thing.” We would be utterly pissed. However, I cannot shoot the messengers. Because honestly it is hard to make a morally righteous voting based show when there is a producer standing to the side shaking their head yes or no for certain contestants to make the show more interesting (I am talking to you American Idol). It doesn’t matter what Luke, Katy, and Lionel think is good. It matters what an extra cook in the kitchen thinks about a girl playing a squeezebox with every song. I don’t care if we have never seen someone like that on the show before, I am not voting for her. It makes you wonder if the winner of the Drag Race is truly the best competitor or if Rupaul is just picking the wackiest, zaniest character with the goriest make-up. In the end, I guess all we can do is continue to hope our data rates don’t change as we vote for our favorites, even if they lose. We can also hope that the betting pool at work doesn’t get ruined when they bring back an already eliminated Bachelor for a second chance. But that is just one man’s opinion. Thanks for listening to me ramble. I appreciate it. See you next time.