my idea for a tv show

Please welcome special guest blogger... Cyrus!

Here’s my idea for a TV show. Don’t tell me you could resist the appeal.

Everyone knows about American Idol. There’s the singing, there’s the judging. There’s the crushing of a would-be starlet’s hopes, and the vindication of a diamond in the rough. By most people’s standards, people with singing talent generally win the show.

This, of course, is not true in real life. People become famous singers for all sorts of reasons, many of which have more to do with their marketable images than their ability to stay on-key, while true talents are sidelined by the most random of circumstances.

In music, the great equalizer is that masker of incompetence: Auto-Tune.

It’s the omnipresent safety net for singers today. T-Pain, of course, is the most prominent user. But others have joined in: from the Dixie Chicks, to Maroon 5, to Avril Lavigne. Glee is obviously, obviously full of Auto-Tune.

How do you know if they really have talent? When Auto-Tune the News can be just as in tune as the greatest perfect-pitch singer ever, thanks to the advent of the pitch-correcting software, computer software can stand in the place of real, human talent.

The object of the TV show? To find out whether the accolades and the Grammys bestowed upon some of today’s “talent” are actually deserved.

Multi-platinum artists of the day would compete in a sing-off elimination tournament Idol-style. The prize would be $20 million dollars. Or a giant donation to their favorite charity. Or pick a number high enough to entice them — and post the names of the people who chickened out. The pilot episode of Lost cost $10 million. I think a season of this show would be worth enough to offer a significant prize, plus a significant bonus to the artists just for having the testicular fortitude to show up.

The twists?

No Auto-Tune. None. No production, no backup dancers, no fireworks. Just a voice on a stage. Let the Grammy winners be judged on the grounds they should be: their voices.

Judges. I could envision three possibilities: 1. You could keep the Idol judges. 2. Bring in ordinary people, with TV-size personalities, to critique these singers’ abilities. 3. Bring in real classically trained voice instructors who, by virtue of their occupation in the classical music world, are unfamiliar with the famous singers.

Songs. If you can really sing, you should be able to sing anything. Rihanna, for example, would have to sing something that has more than a 6-note range. Chad Kroeger must sing anything other than a rock ballad.

Trust me. It’d be awesome. Some would go home in shame. But who knows – maybe T-Pain is a fantastic singer underneath all of that Auto-Tune! You would want to know, though, and that’s why America would tune in every week.

Isn’t there someone you’d want to put on the show?