In yesterday’s post, I was complaining about the gentle competition shows that have gotten worse and worse. The problem is that most of them feel like they need to stick to the way the Great British Bake Off did it in the first few seasons. Oh, sure, there are different names for the sections in each series, but it’s pretty much the same. Here’s the basic set-up.
- Have a host or two who is/are cringingly awful/blandly bearable. Have two or three judges. One is the nice one. One is the critical one. One is the forgettable one.
- Have eight to ten contestants from all walks of life.
- If it’s a cooking competition, make sure it’s increasingly a niche category.
- Have a theme per day. Make the individual competitions adhere to the theme.
- (This is optional) Throw a wrench into one of the competitions, making the contestants scramble.
- Have team competitions. These are my least favorite, honestly. Probably because I’m not a team player.
- Really strained banter among the judges and host. I understand that they can’t just sit there in silence, but really, why can’t they? Let the contestants do their thing with minimal intrusion. That is what I would prefer.
- Two or three different competitions. One that is shorter and one that is longer. The third can be a technical test. This is not in all of them.
- Each competition gets judged. Sometimes, they get ranked. Sometimes, the top two or three (and/or the bottom two or three) are identified. This is where it can get creative. For Glow Up (I have included the trailer for the first season below), they have two red chairs. The two lowest competitors in each of the first two competitions have to sit in the red chairs and are the bottom two. That can change from the first to the second competition. Then, in the third round, the two in the red chairs go against each other in one ten-minute contest (like who can do the best smoky eye). This is done on twins so the models are as close to the same as possible.
- Bring in a guest judge/give a prize for those who win a certain competition.
- Rinse, lather, and repeat over eight to ten episodes (or however many there are). Then, semi-finals and finals.
It was a decent format/formula when it first came out, but now it’s showing some wear and tear. I have been thinking of ways they could improve it. My first suggestion would be to put more focus on the art itself. I mentioned in the last post how I felt Blown Away had moved more into the hype factor and away from glass-blowing itself. In the latest season, I mean. They even said repeatedly that they were going to be MORE EXPLOSIVE AND BIGGER AND BETTER AND HYPE HYPE HYPE.
This was a letdown for me. I felt it was the weakest season so far because of it. Maybe I’m a weirdo in that I watch these shows for the art/craft. I don’t care about the manufactured drama. I don’t care about the weak jocular interactions among the judges. I do care about the contestants, but not when they get all “I’m not here to make friends.” Granted, that doesn’t happen often, which is why I like this kind of show. That’s also why I call it gentle competition. Yes, they are competing against each other, but, no, they are not cutthroat about it. There was (is?) a show called Cutthroat Kitchen on the Food Network hosted by Alton Brown. Was, Google tells me. I watched a few episodes of it before turning it off. It was too stressful to watch, and it wasn’t what I wanted in a competition show. At all.
I also watched Chopped quite often back in the day. It was so predictable to watch, but it was comfort TV. I usually knew who was going to get cut per section, and while there was more ‘I’m the best come at me bro’ attitude than I preferred, it was still in the realm of gentle. Ian and I used to joke on Twitter about the ingredient baskets, and several pepole would join in. ‘Kale, leg o’ lamb, peanut butter, and an old shoe.’ There is always one ingredient that is almost completely wrong for the basket.
At some point, though, I noticed that the format was feeling stale and the judges did’nt seem as into it. It makes sense. The hundredth episode isn’t going to be as exciting as the tenth. Also, once I figured out the f0rmula for knowing who was going home after each competition made it less enjoyable to watch. The person who was highlighted in the first section and bragged about how good they were and how they were going to beat everyone goes home in the first section. The one who criticizes and puts down other contestants will be going home in the second competition. You can mix those up at will. Also, the contestant who is the most uncertain about their talent will oftentimes make it to the final two.
It got to the point where I could just listen to the clips of each contestant, and I would figure out who was going home. I didn’t need to know what they were cooking or what the judges thought of their food in order to deduce who was going home. While that was fun in its own way, it was deflating for a competition show.
This is not just a problem with these shows, obviously. In any pop culture (or anything consumerism-related, really), something that is popular is going to be copied over and over again. This is not particular novel or new, but it’s still irritating. I can’t be completely mad because it’s such a fine line between iteration and flat-out copying. And it takes time for the fatigue to set in. But it has.
I put on the fourth episode of the blue ribbon show, and I just can’t. I had watched it already, half-watched, but my eyes glazed over. I thought I’d watch it again (and I probably will finish it at some point0, but I’m just…so burnt out. I want the hot newness. I want something fresh! I don’t want the same old, same old.
That’s it for now. More later.