How a hit almost failed its own audition Essays

How a hit almost failed its own audition Essays How a hit almost failed its own audition Essay How a hit almost failed its own audition Essay Bill Carter, in an article that is to be published in the book Desperate Networks, tackles the fact that television networks need to find hit shows to be able to survive. Because of this, they can be very thorough in examining potential programs and may sometimes almost forego program proposals because they do not sound potentially popular with viewers. This was what happened with Fox Network’s American Idol. In the article â€Å"How a hit almost failed its own audition†, Carter tells of how the now-famous reality show American Idol encountered difficulty in breaking through in America. Despite the fact that its creators Simon Cowell and Simon Fuller are well-versed in the music scene and are even pretty popular in Britain, their idea bombed out in America. Cowell and Fuller, when proposing Pop Idol in Britain, had little to no obstacles because of their credentials in the country. And Cowell’s proposal in Britain seemed to have sparked a lot of interest: this music format is to be as much a talent search as a soap opera. Basing on the success of former talent search-soap opera amalgamated shows like Pop Stars, British network ITV was immediately sold to the idea. Yet crossing over to America proved to be problematic. As was outlined in the article, it could have been easy to peddle well-known British reality shows to America because of the tremendous success of British-produced Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and Survivor and because reality programming is â€Å"light, entertaining and not very expensive to produce†. But Pop Idol (soon to be American Idol) had one big barrier to overcome: the fact that music reality shows have previously failed in America. Having endlessly met the unenthusiastic response of American network executives regarding the American version of the hit British reality show Pop Idol, Cowell almost seemed ready to give up. He was, as Carter said, already answering network executives with â€Å"a dash of acid†. But Fuller was not going to throw in the towel. Going to Fox, he pitched Pop Idol â€Å"with fervent passion†, saying that the show will â€Å"essentially be all audition†. This seemed to have gotten the attention of Mike Darnell, Fox’s reality division head; after all, the only part of band-making shows that he liked was the auditions. But even this positive response was not to signal American Idol’s birth. The show’s creators are still to be haunted by Fox’s demands for the program to come attached with sponsorship. Perhaps American Idol would have taken more time before its successful take-off if Creative Artists Agency (C.A.A., which represented Fuller and helped him get Pop Idol in America) did not pull some strings. In a meeting with Elisabeth Murdoch, daughter of News Corporation (which owns Fox) founder and chief executive Rupert Murdoch, C.A.A. executives mentioned how Pop Idol is being stalled in Los Angeles. Having witnessed the program’s success in Britain and genuinely loving it, Elisabeth Murdoch immediately called her father and convinced him that Fox should buy the program’s rights. And the rest, as they say, is history. American Idol had a rough start, proving that what is already popular in another country will not necessarily be sold easily in another – there are, in fact, other important factors to consider. In Idol’s case, the history of like program formats worked to its disadvantage. Yet the show also demonstrated how, at times, flexing some muscles and forging good business relationships are really advantageous to one doing business. Had it not been for C.A.A.’s initiative to ‘use’ their connection with Elisabeth Murdoch, American Idol may have not found its American home as soon as it did. And now, Fox have under its belt, one of the most famous American shows to ever hit TV – and to think, it had been rejected by numerous TV networks in April of 2001.