Fed up with reality TV

“Seoige has many talents which have become apparent through the years, but spontaneity is not one of them, and her attempts at ‘banter’ are embarrassing to say the least”


Speaker's Corner
Michael Duffy

I DON’T know if it’s just me, but is anyone else out there totally fed up with ‘Reality TV’? I can only presume I’m in the minority at present as, season after season, all our terrestrial television stations commission new series of these types of shows which either involve members of the public ‘entertaining’ us, or teaching so-called ‘celebrities’ a talent which they have not shown any propensity for before.
I suppose I should not be surprised that this brand of television has maintained longevity because of the fact that it involves the public and their ability to text in at every opportunity afforded to them. It seems the public like nothing better than to be the masters of destiny and this, of course, suits the television executives as copious amounts of revenue can then be generated.
The two latest shows which I happened to stumble across on Sunday evening were the cringeworthy ‘All-Ireland Talent Show’ on RTÉ One and the utterly pointless ‘Dancing on Ice’ on ITV.
The former is basically RTÉ’s answer to the Simon Cowell’s ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ but in true RTÉ style it lacks the humour and tongue-in-cheek approach that made the British version such a big hit.
The first main problem, which was obvious once the show moved to the live stage, is the presenter. Gráinne Seoige is currently RTÉ’s ‘poster girl’ and is mentioned as a possible contender once any major role pops up with the national broadcaster. Now don’t get me wrong, Seoige has many talents which have become apparent down through the years, but spontaneity is definitely not one of them, and her attempts at ‘banter’ with the judges are embarrassing to say the least.
The second, and main problem for me, is the length of the show. The central part of the format is obviously the performances from the five contestants and each of these individually take roughly three minutes. That’s a total of 15 minutes. And how long is the show? Ninety minutes! Yes. An hour and a half, so even if the ad breaks are factored in, you are still talking about an hour of television on Sunday evening where basically five judges and a host try their best to ‘big up’ their acts and create TV tension.
The producers want us to believe that the judges all hate each other and secretly spend their time off camera having arguments and throwing tantrums. This is much easier to believe when you have someone like Simon Cowell involved as he basically calls it as he sees it. If someone is embarrassingly bad he will tell them.
But on RTÉ’s version no one ever puts up a bad performance. I am open to correction here, but I have seen two or three of the live semi-finals of the ‘All-Ireland Talent Show’ and not one act has received less than seven out of ten! Are we, as a nation, really that talented?
Singing contestants tend to dominate these shows which essentially means what we are dealing with is the local karaoke night being broadcast live every Sunday night.
But if there is any justice left in the world of reality TV, then seven-year-old break-dancer, Jack Lynch, from Waterford will win the €50,000 first prize.
Winning the show is probably meant to be a ‘spring board to international stardom’ for one of the singing contestants, but in this case, we have a young child, from a working-class background, who clearing is enjoying himself and having a good time in the spotlight.
If one good thing does come from the show, at least a young boy will be given a start in life, as I presume he won’t be able to access the money until he is 18.
As I said earlier, the second reality TV show I stumbled across on Sunday evening was ‘Dancing on Ice’, where I saw Donal McIntyre, an investigative journalist with the BBC, skating around in a sequined outfit and getting lavishly praised for it. And apparently seven million people watch this! Give me Glenroe on a Sunday evening any day!