An anonymous source at Sony doesn’t like what’s happening behind the scenes of Britain’s Got Talent Edit: it’s been taken down, and Holy Moly bloke on Twitter says it’s untrue.
Might be rubbish, might be genuine, I am sure you will draw your own conclusions. I do, however, largely suspect your own conclusions will correlate with whatever you thought of Simon Cowell in the first place.
There are good reasons why SYCO shows tend to get twice as many viewers as the same sort of thing on the BBC (for example), but you do get the feeling that this year there have been too many balls to juggle and Cowell has taken his eye off one of them and it looks like they’re all going to fall.
To the vast majority of that, I’d reply “no shit, Sonylock”. It’s all obvious to anyone with half a brain that Syco have the ability to influence a public vote like nobody else, and that everything’s engineered to make Syco as much money as possible, and that the auditions are exploitative and unfair. That’s just the format of the show – I don’t think there’s even at attempt to hide any of that.
However, there’s part of that article that I know for a fact to be wrong:
“It was also interesting to see that even before the final credits rolled on Ronan’s audition show, SYCO TV had uploaded the offical video of Ronan onto YouTube … SYCO don’t do that for other contestants, so why Ronan?”
Firstly, it’s FreemantleMedia that deliver the official clips to Youtube, not Syco. Because everything prior to the semi-finals is pre-recorded, they have the ability to upload the clips immediately after TX finishes. And guess what? They do it for tons of contestants. I’m not saying that this series *isn’t* geared towards Roman winning – because that’s obvious just from watching the show – but this piece of evidence is a non-starter.
Thing is, it’s not clear on the Youtube page who uploads the clips – Freemantle, Syco or ITV – but an ‘insider’ would know. This strikes me of someone just having a guess at some evidence to support their pet theory. And the pet theory may well be right, but this article is just guesswork.
Ultimately, Simon Cowell takes risks with these shows. Is this the moment his luck ran out?
The ratings for the final will be interesting. As will the winner. As will Ronan’s career regardless – his choice of song on Monday is telling as it’s in an alto range anyway so his voice may well already have started to change (because you bet he was noticed for being a boy soprano).
Personally, I’m taking this with a pinch of salt. I know literally nothing of how the music industry works or even how the television industry works. From time to time, I’ve read Ofcom reports of shows that have broken the rules, and if what this insider says is true, then BGT should be in breach of these rules as all competitions should be conducted fairly and that every entrant should have equal chance of winning.
When me and my mum first saw Ronan (on the first semi-final show, we didn’t really see the auditions), she instantly took a shine to him whereas I didn’t. I don’t like the idea of a preteen music market and as such, I don’t like Justin Bieber and acts of a similar ilk (plus I’m not in the target demographic, I’m turning 28 in August and I’m male). It just doesn’t sit well with me to have kids of that age singing about things such as love when they haven’t experienced it yet.
Personally speaking, out of all the acts that have gone through to the live final so far, I was most entertained by the impressionist Les Gibson, and I would have him as my choice of winner. If what this insider says is true, then anyone who votes for any act other than Ronan is wasting their money, which should also breach an Ofcom rule.
Also in camp ‘No shit Sonylock’.
Preferred contestants are exclusive to Syco productions and are an ‘open secret’. Anyone that has ever applied for Britain’s Got Talent and appeared at an audition could tell you that the preferred contestants are pre-booked in. That’s a heck lot of people that could at any time ‘blow the whistle’ on the practise. They don’t though (or if they do, no one cares) as it’s widely known about and not in the least bit shocking or controversial.
So Ronan may already be under contract (without seeing his contract we can’t possibly know whether the terms of it are being overstated by the source). As the prize of BGT is not ‘to win a contract with Syco’ (as it is with X Factor) – I hardly see how it matters. You could argue the finer points of transparency; but the acts on BGT are mediocre enough as it is. Surely this is just a way of ensuring there are at least some decent performers in the finals that don’t scarper of to another label once they got an on-screen endorsement from Cowell.
I think what’s far more insidious about the letter is what it is trying to imply about sexuality.
The writer accepts that Ronan was ‘effeminate’ and ‘girlish’ to begin and considers it perfectly right and proper when Syco attempt to ‘boy’ him up as is the hetero-normative industry standard. What the writer seems disgusted by is Syco realising that this is an effeminate boy that should be allowed to effeminate. He goes on to suggest that this is an attempt to sexualise Ronan – following the predictable route of associating homosexuality with paedophilia. Presumably “presenting” Ronan as an “everyday skater boy” wouldn’t have been ‘sexualising’ him at all?!
My conclusion is that if the source is a Sony employee at all – he/she has a bee in his/her bonnet about something – and that ‘something’ may be an unhealthy attitude towards certain gender issues.
Sorry,
Preferred contestants areN’T exclusive to Syco productions
It doesn’t actually matter to Syco whether Roanan wins or not. Susan Boyle didn’t win, and it made not a scrap of difference to Cowell’s plans. Heck, I bet a lot of people who watched the show think she did win.
And if he doesn’t win or do particularly well I’m sure he will promptly be released from any contractual obligation and he can do what he wants.
How is this much different to the contracts X Factor contestants sign which mean that if they reach the top 7 (ie. the acts that earn £100k by going on the X Factor tour) they can’t take deals with other labels until after the tour? SYTYCD contestants are also tied into contracts saying they can’t work until after the series ends…etc etc.
If you take BGT out of the equation and Ronan was simply in a development deal with Sony Music – the terms of his deal would STILL be that he was unable to work for another label until he released from his Sony deal. It’s so a label don’t spend £££ developing an artist that promptly leaves and another label reap the rewards of that development. The Saturdays and Pixie Lott had year long development deals with Universal, it’s quite standard.
I’m also taking it as pinch of salt. Ronan has been the bookies favourite for days before this story came out. If SYCO knew he didn’t had a chance then they would’ve pushed him even more.
Don’t forget that Simon Cowell prefers a singer to win Britain’s Got Talent as it would give him an excuse to sign the winner up on a record deal. Unfortunatly for him, it hasn’t happened since 2007.
Brig’s right, of course. Those who believe that Simon Cowell is the greatest impressario since Lew Grade may be guessable in the way described. Those who reckon him the most cunning manipulator since Wile E Coyote will doubtless believe that he’s capable of using hours of prime-time ITV in the cynical and manipulative way described. Those who believe that people will put all sorts of bunkum on the internet will not be disillusioned, either.
Personally, I suspect two things. One, that Mr. Cowell may have ideas like this, but he’s also aware that the Grate British Public will react in their own way and he can never guarantee success. And two, that this document may be a smear campaign on behalf of a rival act, containing a greater or lesser degree of fabrication.
In summary: you make your own luck.
Just saw this on DigitalSpy:
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/s107/britains-got-talent/news/a322768/simon-cowell-denies-britains-got-talent-fix-claim.html
Apparently, none of it’s true. If you look at it logically, the public votes for the winner so how can it be fixed to produce the winner they want?
Very interesting…
http://iamjamesward.wordpress.com/2011/06/02/syco/
I feel a little vindicated about my rage yesterday. The first person on the net to link to the article is a homophobic nut-job.
A good summary of “The Voice: The Story So Far…”:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2011/jun/05/the-voice-bbc-itv-war