Oh, reality television stars. How we love you. And hate you. And, of course, love to hate you. But nevertheless, some of the most notorious celebrities on the entertainment scene today got their name out there through reality TV shows or — in the case of Flavor Flav, Brigitte Nielsen, Bret Michaels and probably everyone else on VH1 — got their name out there once again after a long period of relative anonymity.
But what if you are on a reality show not because you want your 15 minutes of fame or to lose 30 pounds or to win a million dollars — what if you legitimately want to use it as a way to jumpstart a career, whether in show business or otherwise?
I have often wondered about the success of such characters. Even outside the realm of entertainment, what about shows like The Apprentice and America’s Next Top Model — do these people actually get anywhere? What about the alumni of “star-making” shows like American Idol? The results seem to be hit-or-miss with a relatively paltry percentage of reality stars that actually make it big compared to the numbers who sink back into non-relevancy faster than you can say “reruns.”
Most obvious are the previous American Idol contestants. Most AI wannabes audition for one reason and one reason only: to pursue a career in music. Regardless of whether they are actually crowned “The American Idol,” these aspiring musicians want to at least catch the attention of fans and music industry executives alike. But American Idol winners have achieved a varying range of success.
Kelly Clarkson has become so famous in her own right that one often forgets that the two-time Grammy winner might still be a waitress if not for American Idol. On the flip side Ruben Studdard, who was crowned just one year after Kelly, sold just 750,000 copies of his debut album versus the 8 million for Kelly’s first two. With other Cinderella stories like Carrie Underwood, American Idol can still claim to be a legitimate path to a successful music career, but no doubt there are many more Justin Guarinis (remember him?) than there are Chris Daughtrys.
Ironically enough, there are also a few examples of reality stars who have made it big in show business when their reality show had nothing to do with the entertainment industry. Look at Elisabeth Hasselbeck, a contestant on Survivor: The Australian Outback. While Elisabeth didn’t win, her charismatic personality, all-American good looks and relationship with future NFL quarterback Tim Hasselbeck earned her a lot of attention quickly after the show aired.
After a few different projects, Elisabeth was named the replacement for Lisa Ling on ABC’s uber-popular daytime talk show The View. Unlike most 15-minutes-of-fame reality celebrities, Elisabeth has not only kept her job but thrived in it, and anyone who can be heard over the gab of Whoopi Goldberg, Rosie O’Donnell and Joy Behar clearly has a talent apart from being the cute, nice girl who didn’t look half-bad without makeup on Survivor.
It’s hard to watch reality TV these days without being frustrated by the obvious ulterior motives of most of the people on the show (it’s curious how every member of MTV’s The Real World cast seems to have an agent and be partying in L.A. immediately after the show wraps). But despite the obvious complaint about reality stars who are famous for absolutely nothing (Spencer and Heidi, anyone?), thankfully reality shows do occasionally help undiscovered talent achieve their dreams. While this may mean we unfortunately must be routinely forced to see Clay Aiken on the cover of “People,” at least we also get to see a worthy star like Jennifer Hudson win an Oscar, and I think the latter justifies the former.
Read More
The best albums of 2014
By Noah Zeidman | December 4, 2014Across genres, it has been a pretty great year in music.
Top 10 movies of 2014
December 4, 2014This has been an excellent year for film, offering everything from gripping blockbusters to innovative personal films.
Iggy Azalea is “Reclassified”
December 4, 2014It has become common practice among music artists to repackage their albums in an effort to simultaneously boost single sales and dish out new content by slightly renaming the album or slapping “Deluxe” onto the title.
