Scene-stealing judges elbow their way into new talents’ turf

Simon Cowell. AP FILE PHOTO

TALENT tilts are the rage on TV these days, featuring not just gifted newcomers, but also panels of celebrity jurors and mentors who dispense helpful comments that teach contestants how they can improve their performances—and win.

Of late, however, a problem has cropped up, due to some celebrity mentors’ tendency to amp up their idiosyncratic and colorful comments and analyses, so that some of them even ended up upstaging the contestants—
and running away with the show!

This is clearly wrong, because talent tilts should be all about discovering unknowns and polishing them up into stars—not to boost their stellar mentors and jurors’ careers.

After all, the judges are already certified stars, so they shouldn’t elbow their way into the new talents’ turf!

Remarks

If memory serves, the problems of scene-stealing judges first presented itself on “American Idol,” especially when Simon Cowell dominated the show with his colorfully caustic remarks.
Cowell’s gambit clicked with viewers and boosted his TV career so much that he became a top earner and launched his own TV talent tilts forthwith.

Cowell now acts as top judge/producer on “Britain’s Got Talent,” but his remarks are much less cruelly caustic than they used to be.
After all, he’s already made his mark—so, he can relax and enjoy the immensely profitable ride!

On “American Idol,” the judging panel headed by Jennifer Lopez doesn’t feel the need to call attention to itself, and simply focuses on commenting on the performances of the tyros under their watch, so that they will continuously improve. That’s more like it, and we wish other TV jurors would take their cue from their enlightened example.

Opposite

On some local talent tilts, however, the problem is quite the opposite: The judges are so overwhelmingly nice and complimentary in their comments that the contestants feel that they’re doing great, with no room for improvement at all!

Contestants are consistently and effusively praised for their “fantastic,” “amazing,” “fun-filled,” “mega,” “super,” “sobra,” “stupendous,” “great” and downright “perfect” performances!

Even absolutely toneless and awkward musical performances end up getting praises, even if evidence to the contrary is plain for all to (painfully) see and hear!

Why are the jurors being so nice and kind? Are they leery of dissapointing the contestants and getting on the wrong side of fans? If so, why did they agree to serve as judges, in the first place?

Critiquing a performance in all honesty comes with the territory, so for a judge to shirk that essential responsibility is for him to renege on his all-important obligation to point out what a contestant can do to improve his act.