How is it possible that NBC's America's Got Talent can be so completely entertaining, while ABC's Master of Champions, which is essentially the same concept -- people with odd talents compete for a prize -- is just painfully bad?
Maybe it's because AGT has Regis as carnival barker and The Hasselhoff as talent judge (the idea of David Hasselhoff as a judge of talent is so patently ridiculous that it actually works), whereas MoC has ex-Padres star Steve Garvey and that douchebag who hosts the MTV Real World/Road Rules Challenge.
Or maybe it's because AGT is campy and fun, with a nice mix of legitimately talented people and idiots making fools of themselves, whereas MoC is self-serious to the point of parody, with their admonition to the weekly winner of "go put your name on the Wall of Champions, where it will remain forever!" (or at least until we get canned.) The tone of AGT is like a cross between a summer camp talent show and the original Let's Make a Deal, with strangely costumed audience members getting called down to perform their weird entertainments. Whereas MoC has this weird translated-from-the-Japanese feel to it, like the American version of Iron Chef.
Whatever the reason, America's Got Talent is awesome. Actually, it's one of those shows I'd probably make fun of people for watching if I hadn't seen it myself. Maybe I have to reconsider my position on some of these other competition-based shows I never watch, but always just assume are idiotic, like American Idol, or Dancing With the Stars.
7.10.2006
Face Off: America's Got Talent vs. Master of Champions
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4 comments:
ever since you turned your back on Animal Face-off, I haven't trusted your views on TV shows.
Somebody please tell me what's taking them so long to produce Man Vs. Beast III. That was the freak show of all freak shows.
"And remember...the orangutan doesn't KNOW he's in a contest..."
Brilliant.
Animal Face-Off was/is the worst show ever. They spend nearly an hour building these elaborate mechanical models of alligators and bears -- even making sure each one has the same biting and swiping strength as the real animals -- but then the mechanical animals don't actually fight each other. Instead, the climactic "battle" is conducted via lame-ass cartoon reenactment.
damnit, mike, it's not a cartoon-- it's a computer simulation. Completely different. And a totally legitimate way to determine who would win in a fight between a lion and a boa.
And dave, i've been trying for a while to buy copies of man vs. beast I and II for years, but to no avail.
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