The 20 Year Anniversary of WB's Superstar USA
So, every now and then I rewatch Jenny Nicholson talking about the worst reality TV show of all time, because it’s funny, and because I have a cold.
Anyways, the comments for that video are now filled with people pushing their own, alternate takes for worst reality TV show of all time, and, uh, okay.
WB’s Superstar USA.
The whole show is available in its entirety on YouTube:
Whereas our legendary Opposite Worlds was merely dangerously incompetent, WB’S Superstar USA is actively malicious, a season long elaborate prank.
The conceit is: It’s American Idol, but the judges are simply instructed to reverse their judgement. The worse the singer, the better.
This is essentially a show intended to try to chase the virality of the William Hung “She Bangs” clip, on purpose
anyways, even at the time it was unpopular. Like, it’s a funny idea in the writer’s room but the execution is just so staggeringly, unyieldingly cruel.
America hated WB’s Superstar USA, because very few people actually want to be this mean.
Watching these awful singers go to all of these effort - learning choreography, practicing, putting their whole ass into a competition where they were judged based on how unlistenably bad the final result was? This was terrible. This was a terrible thing to do.
Even the show kinda soft-pedaled the reveal, explaining to the winner that they were looking for someone with all of the qualities of a star except for the voice. Which was still very bad and embarassing for everyone.
anyways, this does offer up the opportunity to put one of the world’s least appealing CDs into someone’s Toyota when they’re not looking
Have you ever heard of Florence Foster Jenkins?
Killing Me Sharply With Her Song: The Improbable Story Of Florence Foster Jenkins
A Manhattan socialite, who sold out Carnegie Hall in 1944 despite having a very dodgy voice, inspired a new movie starring Meryl Streep — and aided generations of actual singers.
This is a good opportunity to bring up Contrapoints, because I’ve very rarely seen people try to delve into why this kind of thing works.