Blight
Scholar
- Joined
- Jan 16, 2007
- Messages
- 105
Some of you may have read my review of "The Power", an Israeli TV show dealing with "people with power" and skeptic/believer judges trying to get to the bottom of it all (it was also mentioned in this week's commentary).
The TV show is sort of an American Idol type competition where people who claim they have powers are given all sort of tests and the worst "psychic" get eliminated each week.
Now to the point. One of the problems facing the million dollar challenge has been the difficulty in getting good press and public attention (lets face it, one of the prerequisite of becoming a successful psychic is the ability to talk fast and around the actual subject matter).
What I am thinking of, and since Randi does have good contacts in the entertainment industry, wouldn't it be good to have a pro-skeptic TV show. Put the prize on the line for the show, have every would-be psychic (or crack-pot) come and audition for the show and run them through a series of tests (supervised by skeptics with the knowledge of how to run the tests, possibly instructed by randi himself).
One of the reasons why american idol is a success is that people derive some pleasure from seeing all the crack-pots that come for the audition process and some even take pleasure in seeing the contestants get kicked off every week. There's no shortage of crack-pots and even if the big-wigs wont come out and play, it would still be very entertaining and deliver a very strong message of who these people really are. Not to mention that you can post in advance the rules and hold auditions in several locations so people can't have excuses.
Another trend I noticed is that American Idol has gotten more accepted by mainstream music. The first few years there were sort of looked down upon, but money talks and american idol winners became best selling artists and in recent years the show has become accepted by big names in the industry. If a skeptic type show with similar mechanics would become successful, it may put additional pressure on the big names to appear.
Worst case, we'll be surprised and someone will prove skeptics wrong and take the million, best case we get to laugh and be entertained and promote skepticism and common sense.
And there are so many badly conceived programs on the air as it is, I think this type of show might interest a lot of people... there are so many true believers out there that might tune in.
The TV show is sort of an American Idol type competition where people who claim they have powers are given all sort of tests and the worst "psychic" get eliminated each week.
Now to the point. One of the problems facing the million dollar challenge has been the difficulty in getting good press and public attention (lets face it, one of the prerequisite of becoming a successful psychic is the ability to talk fast and around the actual subject matter).
What I am thinking of, and since Randi does have good contacts in the entertainment industry, wouldn't it be good to have a pro-skeptic TV show. Put the prize on the line for the show, have every would-be psychic (or crack-pot) come and audition for the show and run them through a series of tests (supervised by skeptics with the knowledge of how to run the tests, possibly instructed by randi himself).
One of the reasons why american idol is a success is that people derive some pleasure from seeing all the crack-pots that come for the audition process and some even take pleasure in seeing the contestants get kicked off every week. There's no shortage of crack-pots and even if the big-wigs wont come out and play, it would still be very entertaining and deliver a very strong message of who these people really are. Not to mention that you can post in advance the rules and hold auditions in several locations so people can't have excuses.
Another trend I noticed is that American Idol has gotten more accepted by mainstream music. The first few years there were sort of looked down upon, but money talks and american idol winners became best selling artists and in recent years the show has become accepted by big names in the industry. If a skeptic type show with similar mechanics would become successful, it may put additional pressure on the big names to appear.
Worst case, we'll be surprised and someone will prove skeptics wrong and take the million, best case we get to laugh and be entertained and promote skepticism and common sense.
And there are so many badly conceived programs on the air as it is, I think this type of show might interest a lot of people... there are so many true believers out there that might tune in.
