America's Next Forgettable Person
What are the stakes when winning means nothing?
The boom of reality television in the early 2000s was not sustainable. Dozens of insane one-season shows that involved short-sighted plastic surgery, luxury prizes that tax the low-income winners into debt, lies leading to marriages that become a legal nightmare to dismantle; absolute mess that was so fun to watch. The era of reality TV that’s being mined for juicy documentaries now.
Last month, after watching Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model, one thing really had my mind going. And I’m not referring to the repeated blackface (!) or sexual assault (!!) depicted on camera, but those are certainly harrowing! I’ve instead been thinking about the stories told by cycle 5 winner Danielle Evans: after being coerced into oral surgery to shorten the gap between her front teeth, and then winning the series, Dani never coming close to becoming a “top model.”
It’s clear that the prize was oversold to her, and her post-show glamorous model life was underwhelming to say the least. But then again, the prize was oversold to all of us. The thousands of aspiring models in line to be on the show who thought they could be different, who thought they actually could become top models if they won. The same way thousands of hopeful singers show up to audition for The Voice today, for example.
The memorable winners of reality competition shows are too few, given how many of them there have been.1 I’ve felt strongly for a long time, since perhaps I was of voting-for-American-Idol-on-my-own-phone age that this is the system’s fault. I’m not completely absolving blame from Lee DeWyze for not taking our culture by storm (look him up), but if he had even a smidge of modern resources to succeed, maybe that would be our sliding doors moment to prevent Alex Warren’s “Ordinary” from still being in the Billboard Hot 100 top 10.
And so I’ve genuinely wondered why these television studios and networks don’t budget out the resources to support a winner. Yes, the cameras have stopped rolling, the show is over, onto the next season. But I’ve always found myself struggling to suspend my disbelief that a star is being discovered when… no stars have been discovered.
Historically, reality competition series based around a craft (singing, fashion design, cooking) have included a prize tied to a reputable brand (a record deal, a magazine spread, a modeling contract, even just money to start your career) and the reason these hopefuls sign up for the show is because they haven’t made it anywhere on their own and they seek help; a connection to someone who can market them.2
And it’s very possible that, in the modern era of the TikTokification of the music industry, no one pushed out inauthentically by a record label would stand a chance. If that’s the case, what are we doing spending money making new American Idol seasons? Providing Lionel Richie with a hobby?
(A separate but equal tangential argument that finds my gears being ground: winners will never stand a chance when talent competitions are marketed completely on the lineup of celebrity judges. Paula Abdul judging unknown singers in 2002 was interesting and new; Sarah Michelle Gellar judging a reboot of Star Search in 2026… I’m certain I have more important things to do.)
In Summer 2025, Netflix premiered Building the Band, a silly little show with the hook being various singers blindly listening to each other’s auditions and trying to form a vocal group. It was pre-taped, almost by a year (Liam Payne, who passed away in fall 2024, was a judge) and so the winner was selected months before the show launched on the streamer. Vocal trio 3Quency (silly) won the prize, deservedly, and once again I clocked in at Clown Academy, majoring in naiveté, because Netflix had every resource at its disposal to have a lead single available and marketed on their interactive platform the moment their win was televised— click here to watch their music video or stream the song! And… nothing. Their lead single was middling at best, but I forgive you if you don’t know it because they went nowhere with the little momentum they had. 3Quency was left to start from scratch after the show concluded as Netflix opted for the route of secrecy before airing. The girls won a monetary prize, but the rest was up to them to cash in and walk away, or try to buy their way into the music business.3
Forgive my naiveté (the metaphorical glass in my brain is mostly full) that assumes television producers should care about the people they work with, that TV competitions could actually change someone’s life, especially when a skill or trade is involved. But how much better would we Ted-Lasso-Believe™️ in a process like American Idol if more than two (2) winners ever went on to successful recording careers? It’s a lesson in branding and reputation that the boom of the reality TV era never latched onto, and I’ll truly will never understand why.
Call it research, call it development, call it anything to legitimize it on the company budget. Imagine a world where managers are hired specifically to help post-show winners of The Voice navigate the industry, get meetings setup, work with a brand strategist and record producers, form a release timeline, ANYTHING aside from just locking them into a record contract they can’t understand at their own peril. (Lol it’s so funny that no one who has won The Voice has made a fingernail scratch in the talc of our culture.)
Survivor, especially in its newer seasons, boasts about the mental health resources available to players after the show. Cost notwithstanding (though this can’t be just pennies) this is an example of how to support your talent, and your brand, after the cameras go down. Because of something like this, it’s unlikely to see Survivor players appear on a documentary in a few years complaining about how the experience ruined their lives, even if they were embarrassed by losing a game show. When a contestant signs up to prove their skill against an industry that doesn’t care if they live or die, these shows don’t have any more to boost them up than a summer season of Big Brother.
Top Model’s Dani recounted tales of living and working among models, but often being treated differently because she’s “from the show.” Designers didn’t want to put her on a runway for fear that she’d pull focus from the fashion. If that is a huge asterisk and stain on her modeling resume, why do these modeling agencies sign up to accept the winner into their client list in the first place? It can’t be great for your brand to sign the show winners and then dump them with nary a successful career to speak of. What does it say about you that, handed a beautiful woman who takes great photos and can walk in couture, you couldn’t do anything with her? In a recent interview from Vulture, after the revelations that came from Reality Check, runway coach Miss J said they weren’t surprised that the show didn’t produce any top models. “It was a TV show.” Sad to think that no one actually believes in the mission but me, the gullible viewer.4
We’re on season 24 of American Idol, and *whispers* season 29 of The Voice, and how many times have you had the conversation that the only successes to rise from these thousands of hours of programming are Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood?5
What are we competing for other than to be on the show one more week? In the end, maybe all they get is a few thousand extra followers on social media. Mission… accomplished?
Name a winner of The Voice. Quickly.
The phrase “reality competition show” in this context means, of course, shows that require a skill or trade: singing, cooking, art.
For purposes of this argument, we’re largely ignoring that many in this decade may just want to be on a show of to raise their social media follower count and brand awareness.
And in a world that is DEVOID of modenr femalepop trios!!! All we have is fake Huntrix! I still watch this performance, hopeful.
I’d say the one person who was most invested in all of this from the start: Simon Cowell.
Not discounting notable names like Jennifer Hudson and other Broadway and TV stars, but recall my mind is focused on the winner prize package