Reality Show Fast Losing Credibility

The first decade of 21st century brought with it a string of reality shows on silver screen all across the globe. And the first decade also saw the search for talent through reality shows in every walk of life. The ones that gained popularity in Afghanistan, most of them telecast through the much famed TV Channel ‘TOLO’, include Sitara-e-Afghan (Afghan Star), Fikr wa Talash (Thought and Search) and Khanda Bazaar (Laugh Market). Nowadays, the fifth season of Sitara-e-Afghan runs on the same channel and is telecast every Thursday and Friday at 9:30 pm local time.

afghanstar 20875s Z5YoB 19968

The show is affixed with dates that it culminates on the eve of Afghan New Year (Novroz) every year. As the days draw closer, the show gets more and more exciting and votes keep coming for the contestants.

Last night marked the elimination of the third runner up (4th Best Singer). It was a big surprise to everyone to hear that the best singer of the show, the most talented of the twelve finalists would go home. Rishad Shiwa stood fourth while comparatively low standing Abdullah Milad Kabiri got through to the top three.

Unlike past five years, show organizers have decided to accept as many votes from a single cell as the user opts to vote. Previously you could vote from one mobile cell once every week and any additional votes would go unaccepted. Though the show organizers and sponsors are walking in the footsteps of their peers from abroad, the show is becoming more and more controversial as to whether the judges, organizers and sponsors are really looking for good voices or selling voices?

In addition, the role of judges has also been restricted go giving views and symbolic marks only. The decision lies in the hands of an audience that’s predominantly illiterate and only vote to a particular contestant because of his affiliation to a certain part of the country or race or language of the country.

Worsening the situation is lack of organization. This time the show does not appear organized, with no restrictions on contestants to sing a particular song just once in a season, nor is there any particular schedule for a particular class of songs to be sung in a particular show. Many contestants keep singing the same song again and again, thus, creating disinterest amongst the home viewers and the audience in the hall.

The host of the show, a former contestant of the same show, couldn’t grab attentions. He had no idea of how to put sentences together. The noise created by the audience on his unnecessary calls created more disorganization. The host was never prepared for the show. His talking style with the judges, with the audience and with the contestants was not professionally mature at all.

With all the weaknesses the show is now in the top three, the show is not as popular as it used to be. Last night’s elimination has closed the doors to talented young singers and opened it up to incompetent singers to come forth and rule the industry. Certainly the show has lost a lot of things this year.

Because of all these mismanagements, the future of this show has come to doubts. Sponsors are not also as interested as they used to be in sponsoring it. It was evident this time when no company came forth to sponsor the dresses of the contestants nor did anyone appear as chief guest or guest of honor.

The show like its predecessors will culminate in two weeks giving way to the prize distribution event on the 21st of March 2010.