"you will be going home tonight" dumbass procedure on competition reality shows

Cafe Society
1

The example I’m using in this post is for Last Comic Standing (which is the only show of this type which I watch), but I’m aware this dumb-ass procedure applies to other shows like American Idol, America’s Got Talent, etc

at the end of the previous episode, viewers can call in and vote for somebody to stay or leave, so then in the next episode they have to announce who is going home.

The way they handled it on Last Comic Standing tonight:

There were 4 people left, and one was leaving…

Josh, you will be returning tonight

Chris, you’re staying on stage because we will get back to you in a minute

Ty, you will be returning tonight

Michelle, we’ll find out your fate after these words

(commercial)

Chris and Michelle are put next to each other, and after a couple moments of tension, they say that Michelle’s going home.

Now, I can understand building tension with the commercial break, but why did they even bother saying anything about Chris if they weren’t going to tell us his fate yet? This isn’t the first time this show has done it, but the procedure is really getting on my nerves, to the point that I am going to tivo forward the procedures from now on. As I understand, some shows are even worse, where they’ll randomly pick two people, have them stand next to each other, just to say “neither of you are going home” and then pick two more people and say “one of you is going home” etc…

2

I don’t understand the question. The show is trying to create dramatic tension by singling out two people, one of whom is going home. How do they do that without saying something about both people?

3

No, what happened was, the host called out the person (Chris) whose fate was to remain unknown before moving on to tell the next person they were safe, so he was placed in a kind of limbo between targets. My impression at the time was that it was just host Anthony “The Gay Mortician” Clark screwing up the order.

4

Right, I understand the order, but I don’t understrand why it’s a “dumbass procedure.” The show wants to create tension so it sorts the contestants into “safe” and “not safe.” If it called off all the “safe” people first every time then that reduces the chances for that tension. The first few people called know immediately they’re “safe” and so does the audience. But if the safe-not safe order is randomized then that bit of comfort level is stripped away.

5

I know they have to build tension and all, but sometimes it gets ridiculous. I’ve been watching RockStar SuperNova and as soon as they go into their “elimination mode”, out comes the tension-filled musical background…dendondendondendon…and some of you are bottom three but some of you are not…dendondendondendon…some of you must remain standing…dendondendondendon…and some of you must not…dendondendondendon…some of you must juggle a bowl of jello on your head…dendondendondendon…and some of you must not…dendondendondendon…Kathy Savagebeast?..dendondendondendon…you are…dendondendondendon…safeeeeeeeeeeee…dendondendondendon…NOT. Get the jello!!!

It’s severely torturous to go through this six times only to find the real bottom three and then THEY preform again and THEN one of them really gets eliminated by “Hatchet Man” Tommy Lee, who feels really, really bad, man, cause there are NO losers here, man, and you’re really great, man, but like it’s just not gonna work for us, man. I’m glad they let the band make the final decision, but they could really cut down on the “final three” crap and leave the jaws theme for the last part, you know?

6

You’re talking about it like it’s a normal procedure on this show. It’s not. It only happened once, to one person, and was quite possibly a mistake. It’s also not a normal procedure for other shows except AI, and even they don’t do it very often.

7

for those of you who missed the actual question in the middle of that rant, it was why they bothered to say anything at all about Chris if they weren’t going to tell him if he was staying or going until after they got to Ty. It would have made more sense to have them on the stage in a different order. I wasn’t sure if it was just the writers being stupid, or if they actually made a mistake and the host was sticking to the script. After all, this show has had a number of snafus recently…

8

Try reading the thread, dude or dudette.

9

Oh. See, I don’t watch Last Comic Standing. It just sounds like standard pseudo-suspense building to me. “I Wanna Be a Soap Star” does it this way to what I find hilarious effect.

10

Actually, thinking about it, isn’t this sort of suspense building business the standard for these elimination shows rather than the exception? You say AI does it at least sometimes. Project Runway, America’s Next Top Model, Who Wants to be a Super Hero?, Kept, Manhunt, etc. all do the elimination thing.

And yes, I am a bit ashamed that I’ve seen enough of some of these shows to know this…

11

Right. (What channel is that show on?) I agree that it isn’t unheard-of – AI is kind of notorious for it, and has in the past taken it to an almost sadistic level. (Which is fine by me. They bought the ticket, they can take the ride). Just that particular example, I think the OP is off-base about.

12

Of course, every time I watch LCS I ask myself what the hell kind of clown show they’re running over there, so it could have also been a clumsy and awkward attempt to mimic the big dog on the block.

13

Yes, they do the elimination thing, but not the “Jane, you’re safe. Tim, you’re safe. Ahmed, you’re safe. George, you’re…going to wait to find out if you’re safe. John, you’re safe. Priscilla, you’re safe. Now we go to break.” out of order thing which happened on LSC and sometimes on AI. At least, not on PR, Kept, or ANTM, the ones I’ve seen that you listed.

14

I saw that and I just thought that Anthony was screwing with the stupid way every show does it. The comics were even smiling, and I thought it was nice they could take a joke even with their own fate on the line.

I think the later people kicked off have been very gracious and seemed really grateful for the exposure.

15

Oh, OK, I think I get it now.

Usual: “Joe, you’re safe, Jane, you’re safe, Ahmed, you’re safe. Kelly and Bonzo, we’ll learn your fate after this break.”

LCS one-time: Joe, you’re safe, Jane, you’re safe, Kelly, stay where you are, Ahmed you’re safe, Bonzo we’ll see what happens to you after the break."

Yes?

If that’s not it then I give up trying to understand.

I Wanna Be a Soap Star is on SoapNet, all soaps all the time. I really don’t watch it, it just always seems to be on when nothing else is. They line the people up and ream them on their acting one by one and then tell them to step back in line, or sit on the couch, or whatever. No order to it at all that I can see, and they never know which is the good option. So the judge gives the performance notes and sends the contestant to wherever and you can see the wheels turning in their brains over whether being told to sit down instead of getting back in line is a good thing that week or not.

16

You got it. :slight_smile:

The part of me that enjoys watching strangers do stupid shit for my amusement wouldn’t mind if someday one of these shows started making them do really wacky shit. “Okay, stand on one foot and twirl. You, touch your nose with your tongue. Okay, you’re both out. Now you…”

17

You must be too young to remember “Battle of the Network Stars” and the all-star Simon Says tournaments.