By their fruits shall we know them

Many talent/reality tilts and searches are being held on TV, with the end in view of discovering the stars of tomorrow. These shows are popular with viewers, who feel that it gives them a hand in choosing gifted and personable unknowns whom they will deign to favor with their all-important support and adulation.

On the TV networks’ part, such talent discovery shows make great business sense, because they are often relatively inexpensive to produce, since they feature, not pricey stars, but unknowns.

In addition, the shows themselves serve as great build-up vehicles for their chosen starlets, who gain a following even before the tilts have run their course. It’s very expensive to build up a new lead player, so the tilts’ built-in promotional advantage is a considerable plus factor.

On the unknown hopefuls’ part, joining those tilts may take a whole day of lining up in “cattle calls” for new talents, but the “suffering” is well worth it—if they are among the lucky, talented or well-connected few tapped among hundreds and even thousands of eager and “faceless” auditionees to actually become a contestant.

For the winners, the prizes and performing contracts proffered come up to a very tidy sum that can pay their families’ bills and debts—and then some!

Even if the contestant ends up as a “thank you” boy or girl, the fact that she or he has become sort of well-known in the course of the tilt may be money in the bank, too, because it can also be parlayed into a profitable career.

That’s why so many hopefuls line up to audition! Recently, for instance, we learned that a prospective contestant was among the at least 900 presumably talented and personable child hopefuls who auditioned for the imminent tilt, “The Voice-Kids.” She didn’t make it (because her singing voice wasn’t of the locally preferred birit sort), but it was still a great learning experience for her, so she definitely isn’t sorry that she tried, even if the failed attempt took up nine long hours of her young life!

On the other hand, we feel that there are too many TV tilts and searches being conducted, with precious few actual success stories resulting from all that hectic fuss and bother. In our opinion, talent/reality tilts deserve all the attention they get when they actually discover and create popular stars, like Kim Chiu, Mark Herras and Jennylyn Mercado.

For every Kim, Mark and Jennylyn, however, there are scores of “winners” who get noticed for a short while, but eventually crawl back into the dark nooks and crannies from whence they sullenly sprang!

So, we choose to pay attention only to such “productive” tilts, and regard the rest as the TV channels’ way of making hay from viewers’ “votes.” Just take a look at the actual star-making record of some of the biggest and “loudest” tilts on TV, and you’ll know what we mean.

Where are the actual, practicing and performing stars produced by those allegedly big-deal, stellar discovery tilts? Their ostensible “stars of tomorrow” don’t even make it all the way through today! So, caveat emptor, prospective auditionees, and be properly advised: By their fruits shall we truly know them.