Talent plays little part in the industrialized talent shows of today. Talent is a marked innate ability, for artistic accomplishment. Success is the achievement of something and talent shows are public performances made up of acts by amateur entertainers who compete for a prize and are sometimes given professional opportunities for further development. I disagree that talent plays no part in the success of talent shows to a small extent as talent does play a small part in talent shows. My scope would revolve around American and Singapore Idol.

In Singapore Idol, the long stay of Paul in the competition was quite a hot topic and caused much of an uproar. Many were unhappy that vocally stronger contestants like Mathilda D’Silva got eliminated earlier which was most probably due to her appearance. Paul had a large fan base due to his cute and fresh look, his charisma and his eye catching “monkey dance moves”. This large fan base kept him in the competition despite the criticism received. With the criticism raving, a judge even told him that it was time he made his “dignified exit”. Despite all the negativity, the fact that he stayed in the competition for so long proved that viewers are focusing on other factors like appearance, stage presence and charisma rather than the singing.

The victor of these competitions would be decided by the viewers’ votes of their favourite contestant. The contestants’ fates are in the viewers hands, even if the contestants do not possess top-notch singing skills and powerful vocals. They all stand a fair chance of winning through their looks, charisma so on and so forth.

Another example would be William Hung from American Idol. He auditioned for American Idol, got rejected and became world famous for his very own version of Ricky Martin’s “She Bangs” He possessed of no singing talent, his looks were not exactly good looking, he could not dance and yet he managed to gain fame worldwide and produce his own album through his determination and never-say-die attitude. The William Hung episode attracted large numbers of viewers and caused them to be hooked on to the show.

Does talent really play a part in the success of talent show? To a small extent it does play a part in the success of a talent show. If one does not have the talent, he or she would not be able to qualify rounds and rounds of elimination and end up in the finals. Without real talent, it would defeat the purpose of a talent show. Talent however is just a small part of the success; the other aspects make up much of the success. Aspects like entertainment, amusement, drama, looks and more are the vital keys to the success of a talent show. With all these other aspects, people would be intrigued to watch the show and make it a success. Talent therefore plays a small part in the success of a talent show.