Apr

9

Why Sanjaya Malakar will never become an American Idol

April 9, 2007 posted by indiatime |

Reality television is really not all reality. The producers and the studios that create the reality shows, aren’t bound by any morality clauses to stick to the unwritten scripts and let the reality shows take their own twists and turns. It is us, the stupid gullible public who really believe a lot of the hype and hoopla behind such so-called reality shows.

The American Idol producers are smart. Very, very smart. They tried to put a twist in the script with the inclusion of Sanjaya, because they did know that they would pull a wider audience.

Only a few months ago, another western reality show ‘Big Brother’ became a worldwide talking point, with an Indian actress emerging as the winner, and the news media from both India and UK milking the littlest happenings in the show to their utmost racial and ethnic possibilities. Of course, the American Idol producers must have known this going in, that the international news media would pick up on the Indian-American contestant story. It DID work, because CNN International, MSNBC, and several other news media that normally would not give detailed attention to just another top ten finalist, have so far given hours of free footage to Sanjaya Malakar.

The Idol producers went further when they kept advancing Sanjaya to the next rounds as the story got picked up by media outlets. With blogs and the internet abuzz with a love-hate relationship with Sanjaya, the Idol show got more airtime, publicity and visibility not just in the US media but in the Indian media as well. Stories are already out about of how the show’s producers fixed the audience in one of the episodes by having a 13-year old girl sit close to the stage and have her cry during Sanjaya’s song renditions.

When the Indian actress Shilpa Shetty won the UK reality show, it didn’t put any dent in the show’s credibility, or didn’t really harm the show in any way. But American Idol is not going to take that gamble. Having Sanjaya go all the way to the final 3 not only destroys the show’s credibility about producing the next American crooning sensation, it also puts the whole Idol format in jeopardy. They want the best of all worlds, the publicity, the notoriety, and also the credibility. The first two they’ve gotten in plenty. The last one they will never compromise with.

The producers will milk the controversy a little more by having him go to a few more rounds. But in less than a few weeks, Sanjaya Malakar will be thrown out by Fox. Tata! Finito! Alvida! His 15 minutes will be up. For some of us, he’s been a joke. To some others, he is probably a victim. For the producers of the Idol show however, Sanjaya Malakar has been very, very good business!


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6 Comments so far

  1. Vipasha on April 9, 2007 7:25 am

    interesting …. but if that were true, he wouldnt be this far, would he ? if what u’re saying is true, then by the time its the Top 7, he’ll be out ? there are sanjaya fansites and sites dedicated to his hair. and the guy’s already got a whole lot of haters. PLUS on top of that, simon says that he wont be a judge on idol anymore if sanjaya wis ! and you’re telling me this is all a hoax ???????????? either thats not true and the voters voting for sanjaya dont have hearing OR the TV industry got’s some balls ………..

  2. indiatime on April 9, 2007 12:55 pm

    This isn’t new to the television industry. One of the classic examples is the huge 1950s scandal about a rigged quiz show (Twenty-one) in the United States. Even the Time magazine dedicated its cover page to a popular quiz contest that eventually turned out to be a staged quiz show.

  3. snydez scrap crap on April 10, 2007 1:24 pm

    Sanjaya Malakar, another Delon’s Syndrome(?)…

    but there’s some thing fishy that i smell about this rejection. i think this is some kind of racist.

    because Sanjaya, not Caucasian nor Afro-American. he is an Indian-born. so I believe, he’s not accepted because this racist things.
    if Sanjaya is…

  4. Lage Raho Sanjaya : It’s Indiatime on April 19, 2007 7:26 am

    [...] Why Sanjaya Malakar will never become an American Idol [...]

  5. Mrs. Malakar on June 28, 2007 4:12 am

    I LOVE Sanjaya and he stayed on the show that long cause people like me voted for him!! Not cause of some rigged voting system or any wierdo proudeces!

  6. Mrs. Malakar on June 28, 2007 4:13 am

    I LOVE Sanjaya and he stayed on the show that long cause people like me voted for him!! Not cause of some rigged voting system or any wierdo proudecers!

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