This week's New York magazine cover story looks at the post wrap-up lives of reality TV luminaries from shows like Project Runway and Top Chef.
Because these programs are based on genuine talent and translatable skills (unlike, say, Survivor or Big Brother), there's an expectation that they'll act as a launching pad for contestants' careers -- that they'll discover the next big fashion designer the same way Idol discovered Kelly Clarkson.
The reality, unsurprisingly, is not that simple.
I found this quote from Ted Allen, 'dignified cooking guru' for Top Chef and Queer Eye, particularly telling:
'There is something a little bit cruel about all the attention. Because during the season you're in one of the shows, you are famous for a while, and you get to enjoy all the fun of that. But you're not someone who has any sort of expertise that's going to keep you on television. There's no certain road map for translating that kind of ephemeral success into a life of yachts and bling.'
Having run talent spotting and development programs for young writers and future public thinkers, Allen's words struck a chord with me. Being selected to participate in an anthology of new ideas isn't quite on the scale of Project Runway, sure (in part because a bunch of writers tapping away at their computers for weeks on end doesn't make for great TV), but the expectation that, one's talent having been spotted, doors will fly open, is similar.
The truth is that, in most occupations -- and all the more so in most creative occupations -- a foot in the door is just that. To get your entire leg (let alone the rest of your body) through, takes hard work and a lot of persistence. There is no 'big break', but rather a succession of small breaks that need to continually be built upon.
Programs like Idol or Next Top Model are a little different, because they complement the way those industries already operate; while most contestants who appear on these shows will never quite grasp the glittering brass ring, the modeling and pop music businesses have people whose jobs it is to spot, groom and -- importantly -- promote talent.
For would-be fashion designers, chefs, hair stylists or interior decorators (the Bravo reality TV quartet), the kind of infrastructure that takes a contestant from raw talent to business dynamo just isn't there -- which is why many of the stars of shows like Project Runway and Top Chef, however skilled or talented, end up finding that the only opportunity appearing on television affords them that they're actually able to take up is the opportunity to appear on television some more.
Of course, we can't lay the blame entirely on contestants' high expectations -- the entire reality TV genre is founded on the premise that success can be easily won through a little carefully orchestrated television exposure, despite the fact that the experiences of most who attempt it show that this is not true. You could even go so far as to argue that our culture as whole projects that this is the case.
The last word goes to Project Runway host, Heidi Klum: 'This show is an opportunity. But ... as an adult, you have to find your own way in this world.'