Now I hear that La Toya London, yet another of American Idol’s most talented, got voted out, I realized something was most definitely wrong. Everyone was completely shocked, from the judges to the audience in the studio to America to us Filipinos watching over here. Anyone who watched American Idol knows La Toya is an exceptional singer. She has a very rich, powerful, and beautiful voice that she, like Jennifer Hudson, has superb control over. She hits every note and is crisp and graceful about it. When she walks on the stage, her voice and captivating presence draws everyone in. And she got voted out of American Idol? Even if it meant that fellow Pinay Jasmine Trias stays on the show longer, I got bothered. A lot of people did. Did everyone really vote according to who they thought the most talented Idol was? Jamine Trias has since been voted out as well.
Of course, our very own local star-circle-search-in-a-million shows have sprung up in almost all of the channels, complete with dynamic, good-looking hosts, behind-the-scene narratives, and even panels of judges with their own Randys, Paulas, and Simons with the graphic, metaphorical comments ("You’re like a [fill in the blank of a cartoon character/vegetable/etc.]."). Star Circle Quest, one of the most popular and successful star search shows, now has its very own drama. It seems that everyone was jolted out of their seats when Neri Naig didn’t make it to the Magic Circle of Five. Now, I don’t watch the show, but everyone who does tells me she was one of the best. Just like when La Toya got voted out, suddenly everyone’s jaws were scraping the ground as they talked about it on TV and wrote articles about it when Neri got voted out.
Just like American Idol, in Star Circle Quest, no matter how ruthless or right the judges are, they have no influence on the winners. The voters have the last say on who wins. Whoever among the finalists has the most number of votes at the end of the day wins. After Jennifer and La Toya (and hey, even Neri), I don’t know if voting is ultimately the right way to determine who the winner really is in these shows. Are they still reality shows or have they evolved into popularity contests?
I always thought popularity problems were completely petty and belonged to high school. Whether we admit it or not, there were unwritten social rules in our high schools which told us who the cool kids were. They were the ones who had the right look, told the funny jokes, always had a table in the canteen because no one dared to sit at their table, went to the fun parties and had equally popular friends. Everyone wanted to be them, or at the very least have their approval, especially since a lot of the popular kids were the designated leaders in their respective year levels. How did they get to be the group leader/class president/student council member? Well, of course, their friends have got their back if they want to get voted in the position. If you’re popular, you’ve got a lot of friends or at least a lot of people who know you and will vote for you. Of course, this does not always happen in high school, but it does happen a lot of times. When we’re adolescents and still trying to form our own identity, people often go with what the rest of the people do. It’s a classic high school TV drama case scenario.
I would think that when teenagers grow up, we all realize the importance of a person’s substance, not social status. People would get crushes on others because of their personalities, vote for capable and responsible officials, and admire celebrities for their acting prowess. Yet there is always something in us that make us do double takes at supermodels, vote for someone because he or she sounds familiar, and practically go gaga over the good-looking celebrities. We’re right back in high school, and although we’d all love to be sweet sixteen again, there are a thousand things we have to learn about life outside of high school.
I understand that these star search shows give audiences the power to choose the winner because they want to involve them as much as possible. People have their different tastes and opinions, and so the networks want to reach out to their viewers and give them what or who they want. But just as Spider-Man learned, with great power comes great responsibility. Imagine – we become an important part of these contests and we can choose the winner. What’s running through our heads? Are we going to pick the most talented or the best looking? Are we going to pick the crowd favorite or choose someone who you think needs the vote? We need to learn how to look at the appropriate criteria and how to judge impartially.
We may not be able to vote for the next American Idol, but there will be countless opportunities to consider and deliberate other people. Yes, we will still have that great power to make spirits soar and break hearts. I’m sure we’ve all learned that you can’t judge a book by its cover. Let’s see if we’ve all learned how exactly to judge people by their substance.