The reality of Reality TV...

I have never been a sucker for reality TV.. Well almost never... I kinda used to follow Survivor during the 1st and 2nd seasons.. But, recently with the renewed zeal in reality TV shows, I have been thinking of them again..

Seems that Idol fever hit India last year, and soon after there were 20 other shows trying to sponge off Indian Idols popularity. Unfortunately, in that fray, one of my favourite TV shows was tainted with the reality stamp.

I have been watching SaReGaMaPa, since it started. It used to be hosted by Sonu Nigam, and then by Aman and Aayan Ali Bangash and now by Shaan. It was a good show. Though most of the times the people who won were not my favourites, the show did bring forward some really great talents.. Shreya Ghoshal and Kunal Ganjawala to name a few..

Last year, succumbing to the hope of great ratings and more (I will come to that..)they changed it to an Idol like contest. So basically, there are no judges and the 'public' vote for their favourites. Well, I won't go into the details of the 'drama shama' that unfolded. It was so much that they would have to make like 3 Hindi movies out of it, just to do justice to the drama. For those who have no idea how much drama Hindi movies have... just try to catch one..

My interest lies in the financial aspect of reality shows. It seems that every SMS vote you send costs Rs5. (That’s like 20 cents). And they have been getting votes in hundreds of thousands every week. That the best part of running a show like that in India.. The sheer amount of people makes it a huge money earner. So it’s like they make millions from just these votes every week. There is not much expense though. Only 1 participant gets the final prize and the other stuff is probably paid for by the sponsors. That's good business...

So I have decided if I can’t find a job, I am going to start a reality TV show. Just imagine, a reality TV show on students studying in NUS!!! The winner gets CAP of 5!! And the weekly challenges are assignments!! Their answers of the assignments are put up on the website for the viewers to see and vote accordingly.

So who wants to participate?? Contact me asap!