Work-stopping TV: The Contender and American Idol

May 27, 2005

It must have been a conspiracy of sorts.  On Wednesday evening, the final episode of “The Contender” aired live over AXN at 10:00 p.m.  I’ve been following this show on and off after having watched the earlier episodes based on Mark Burnett’s statement on the Tonight Show that this was the best work he’d ever done.  Well, it doesn’t rise to the drama of The Survivor series but what it lacks in emotional conflict, it makes up for in raw violence brought up in weekly matches between at the Contender Arena.  My wife thinks it’s all rigged and to a certain extent I agree with her.  It’s all in the editing anyway since they don’t show the whole fight.  They lead the audience to believe that one fighter is better than the other and then lead that one to lose.  This was certainly the case in the first episode when Alfonso Gomez, the smallest of the bunch, beat world-ranked Peter Manfredo.  By some twist of fate, Peter made it back to the show and onto the final bout with Sergio Mora.  Again, I thought Peter would win and again, I was wrong.  Same was true for the unannounced pre-fight between Alfonso and Jesse. The smaller guy won.  What’s going on here?

So, much for Wednesday evening.  American Idol was waiting at 8:00 a.m.

Truth be told, it was my first American Idol final episode and I didn’t know what to expect.  It wasn’t so bad except that I found myself sitting through this show for something that took less than 5 seconds to announce.  The show itself tries to be unscripted but it’s obvious that just about everything outside the singing competition is scripted.  The producers obviously concocted the controversy and conflict between the judges and in one instance between Simon and Ryan.  And that alleged Paula Abdul-contestant affair?  I guess they’re just giving people more things to say by the water bottle.  Distractions aside, I don’t think the best person won but I think it was a fair outcome.  The reason is that I think Bo will become a star while Carrie’s going to fade out.  The other losing Idol that will make it is Constantine.  The energy these guys bring to the stage is phenomenal and I have little doubt their Idol exposure will bring them very good projects that will make them shine. 

I sometimes wish more Pinoys join American Idol because I think they’ll definitely win.  If Pinoys here can vote then we’d swamp the polls with at least 30 million votes on each episode cast for our kababayan.  You might as well call it Pinoy Idol.  Simon Callow would pass out.  Now, that would be a show I’d watch every week.

NTC’s New Moves

Depending on your inclination, you’d either be worried or delighted with some of the policy moves of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC). It seems that having been stumped by the telcos at their ability to regulate SMS and related issues, they’re no longer satisfied with issuing their own rules, they’re expanding out to other branches of government.  On the VoIP issue, Congress is all set to pass a law if the NTC’s VoIP rules are contested in court. On cellular phone policy, INQ7 reports that Congress is also stepping in after a prolonged litigation has successfully delayed the implementation of consumer-friendly NTC rules.  Today, another INQ7 story discloses that the NTC is cooperating with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to regulate text spam.

For some, these are welcome developments.  They show the NTC’s unwavering determination to solve these public poicy issues and the Commission’s creativity in seeking out alternate policy responses. 

For others, these display the Commission’s unwillingness to utilize its own levers against the telcos.  As to the Text Spam issue, the NTC can threaten to revoke the telco’s license to provide SMS if certain spamming complaints are not addressed.  After all, all of these spam messages go through the telcos.  In the case of their content providers, it’s a simple matter for the telcos to regulate. In the case of others, the telcos can easily trace the occurrence of spam based on traffic analysis.  There’s no reason why the NTC can’t do this.