Ok, so it's been a while since I posted, but here I go. Want to talk to you about one of my summer's guilty pleasures, the Glee Project. This was a reality show from the producers of GLEE. The prize in this competition was a 7 episode story arc on the hit show GLEE. Now a cynical mind might look at this and say, "Wow, the producers of GLEE just found a way to make advertisers pay for their audition process!!" ...Yes, I said that at first...yet somehow, I kept watching.
From the start this was different from most competition shows. There was no audience vote or tribal council deciding who went home each week. The final decision rested on producer Ryan Murphey along with Robert Ulrich (GLEE casting director) and Zach Woodlee (choreographer). Each week contestants would work on the assignments given them, and be observed by Ulrich and Woodlee. The 3 performers they felt needed the most work would perform solos for Murphey, and one of these 3 were cut. And for most of the season things rolled smoothly.
But as things went on, reality show rules began to be broken. In episode 7 Cameron Mitchell, an outspoken Christian throughout the competition withdrew, sighting his convictions that some aspects of the sexuality involved in the show might make him uncomfortable, and that the competitors who were more willing to face these situations should be given the chance to go on. Ryan Murphey actually tried to convince him to stay on, but he held firm, saving Damian McGinty, who had been Ryan's choice to send home that week. I was very impressed both with Cameron's convictions, and with the respect Ryan and the other judges showed for these convictions. (Side note: lots of viewers apparently liked Cameron's convictions also, as he won the online-voted Fan Favorite prize of $10,000).
Reality show rules were again broken on episode 9. This is the point where the final 4 were supposed to be cut down to the final 3 for the final competition episode. But when it came to the final call back, Ryan had chosen to keep all four of the final four and move them all into the finals. I guess when you're the shows producer as well as a judge you can do that.
But the biggest rule-breaking came during the reveal of the winner after the final competition episode. Remember that the prize is a 7 week story arc on Glee. At the end of the final show all four contests are standing before the judges, waiting for their dreams to be crushed. First the judges tell Alex and Lindsay that they are not the winners. At this point I'm sure they wanted to run off the stage and cry, but they were told to just step back. The judges then spoke to Damian and Samuel. Ryan tells Samuel that he has won the Glee project. There is the usual jumping up and down and congratulations. After a few moments of this, Ryan talks with Damian (a young sweet Irish kid) Damian is very gracious saying he is sad, but glad for Samuel...Ryan then tells him that he has also won a 7 episode arc....breaking the rules...2 winners. But the rule breaking doesn't stop there. Ryan next calls Alex (who is in drag by the way) and Lindsay back up and tells them that they were so great as well, so he has something for them too. Each of them won a 2 episode arc on GLEE. So in all, four winners!! I loved this show, just like I love GLEE..hope Oxygen brings it back next summer.
