Prime-time TV seems more and more like a carnival. It’s not so much a schedule of shows as, well, a sideshow hawking reality fare.
Within the TV industry, the preferred lingo is “alternative programming,” which, right now, suits the occasion: It’s an alternative to fresh episodes of the scripted dramas and comedies no one has been writing since the Writers Guild strike began Nov. 5.
But it’s an “alternative” that seems close to taking over.
Viewers got a crush of reality this week as ABC and NBC each aired a limited series, 4½ hours of which went head-to-head with the other. ABC’s game show “Duel” dueled with NBC’s choral contest, clashing with “Clash of the Choirs.” (MSNBC is a joint venture between Microsoft and NBC Universal.)
There’s a lot more reality ahead. Come January, NBC’s Sunday-through-Friday lineup devotes six of 18 hours to the likes of “Deal or No Deal,” “1 vs. 100,” “Biggest Loser Couples” and “Celebrity Apprentice,” as well as reviving “American Gladiators.”
CBS is loading up with “Survivor” and three nights of “Big Brother,” along with the Drew Carey-hosted game show “Power of 10.” ABC weighs in with “Dance War: Bruno vs. Carrie Ann,” and a new season of “Dancing with the Stars” in February.
Fox, of course, is blessed with “American Idol.” And don’t miss something called “When Women Rule the World” or “The Moment of Truth,” a game show where contestants are strapped to a lie detector while being asked personal questions.
Unconfirmed reports of other reality shows include “Can You Keep a Secret: Waterboarding Edition.” And “Whose Child Is Yours?” — a warm, family-reunion show that challenges a deadbeat dad to identify which of three adorable kids is the one he abandoned as an infant.
Three basic flavors
Naturally, there’s plenty of copying from show to show. Setting aside “celebreality” series like “Gene Simmons: Family Jewels” and “Scott Baio is 45 ... and Single,” there are three basic flavors of reality show, available for blending in endless variations: Competition, Help and Humiliation.
Both “Duel” and “Clash of the Choirs” fit in the competition category. But the differences between them are instructive.
“Duel” (whose six-night run concludes Sunday) would justify a been-there-done-that shrug from anyone who’s ever seen “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” or almost any subsequent prime-time game show. There’s the familiar disco lighting and a thumping synthesizer soundtrack. A flashy split-level set (with a retractable gangplank that delivers each contestant to the playing area), and a hefty jackpot: more than $1.5 million.
The host had a typically overblown come-on: “a tournament like no other ... a weeklong event different from anything you’ve ever seen before.”
If scripted dramas were as hammy as most reality TV, they’d be hooted off the air. But they observe different rules. Scripted programs typically respect the audience by moving at a brisk pace with a sort of expository shorthand that viewers are smart enough to follow, even insist upon. With so much reality fare, everything is spelled out. Then spelled out again. Amid lots of other padding.
Happily, “Clash of the Choirs” arrived as somewhat of an exception.
The premise: five pop-music stars were dispatched to their respective hometowns to audition amateur singers for a 20-member choir, then bring each ensemble to New York to compete during the series’ live Monday-through-Thursday run. From the first moments of Monday’s premiere — when all 100 singers joined in a rousing performance of “Living in America” — one thing was clear: These singers could really sing!
As the week wore on, “Clash” echoed “Dancing with the Stars” in its rivalry between the celebrity choirmasters (Michael Bolton, Patti LaBelle, Nick Lachey, Kelly Rowland and Blake Shelton). The talent element invoked “American Idol” (with viewers judging each round).
But at stake wasn’t stardom for members of the winning choir — it was a $250,000 grand prize for them to take back to a hometown charity (which meant Help was also part of the series’ recipe).
The problem with “Clash”: its lack of edge. Here was a feel-good show where everybody rooted for everyone else; a musical love-in that, at least through Wednesday’s episode, radiated too much harmony. Where was the clash the title proposed?
That was the problem. “Clash of the Choirs” was easy to like, a bright standout in the networks’ glitzy video arcade. Even so, in its overaccommodating way, it shared a tell-tale flaw of reality TV: It was trading on real life, but didn’t feel real.