Talent Search as Entertainment

"Open Mike" night is a common occurrence at many night clubs and comedy clubs around the country. Rather than hire a band or other entertainment, the club asks patrons to supply the entertainment themselves. Sometimes prizes are offered to "winners" of amateur performances on open-mike night.

Many aspiring entertainers love to perform at open-mike nights in clubs. They see it as an opportunity to "strut their stuff" and may be "discovered." They'd probably have a better chance of being invited to participate in the next space shot than to be "discovered" on open-mike night, but hope springs eternal in the hearts of all entertainment wannabes as well as entertainment has-beens.

Television gurus have figured out a way to take full advantage of the wannabes and the has-beens. They have created talent search television programs like "American Idol", "America's Got Talent," and "So You Think You Can Dance." The lines of people who want to audition and perform for free for these money-making television programs are almost endless. Hundreds of thousands of wannabes show up to "strut their stuff" for judges who choose the acts that will move on.

Modern-day talent search television entertainment programming is big — very big! The viewing public loves the programming, so the corporations who spend big bucks on advertising and thus make money for the television networks also love the talent search programming. These programs are produced at a comparatively low cost,but they are high yield by any standards.

Of course, it isn't difficult to see why everybody (audience, network, advertisers) loves talent search entertainment programming. The winners of these talent search programs truly can go on to real fame and fortune.

New hopefuls know that Kelly Clarkson, Clay Aiken, and Carrie Underwood have become household names, so there will never be a shortage of talent to choose from. Television is the most powerful of all mass media, and talent search as entertainment is both entertaining AND profitable, so we aren't likely to see the end of this craze for quite a few years.