When Dawn Ostroff, the CW’s entertainment president, announced that Asia Nitollano, winner of Pussycat Dolls Present: The Search for the Next Doll, would be pursuing a solo career and not actually joining the band, reactions were mixed. There was a subset of the viewing audience that felt positively about it, mainly those that were fans of runners-up Melissa Reyes or Chelsea Korka.
But many of Asia’s fans were disappointed, and the critical response was decidedly negative, with one of the critics present at the announcement apparently asking Ostroff point blank what the point of a show like Pussycat Dolls Present is if the prize is meaningless.
Ostroff’s additional comments about the result of the program clarify the CW’s stance on the legitimacy of Pussycat Dolls Present and the experience of both the participants and the viewers.
Ostroff said, “Sometimes the winners aren’t the ones that have the big fame. It’s the runners-up that have the fame.”
She went on to say, “There’s no guarantee for how any of this will turn out. What the participants get is exposure. What participants get is to genuinely go into an experience where the experience is very pure. At the end of the day you can’t make anybody do anything, but you’ve given them an opportunity. If the program is entertaining and it’s fun or it’s engaging in some way, that’s what our responsibility is.”
While the contestants on some shows, like America’s Next Top Model, have struggled to turn their exposure on the reality program into the kind of career promised by the program, there have also been successes, like Kelly Clarkson and other American Idol winners and runners-up. There is definitely some truth to Ostroff’s statement that there are “no guarantees” as to how either the winners or the viewing audience will ultimately respond after the show.
– Leslie Seaton, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: Hollywood Today
(Image courtesy of CW)
Staff Columnist, BuddyTV
