–as things begin to wind down

E-NETWORKS/RED Entertainment’s talent show, The Spotlight is finally down to its final

episode next week, and if all things go as planned come next Wednesday, we’ll finally find out just who that lucky $2.5M winner is.
Either singer Trevaun Selman, Delisha Wright or three-man dance group are going to win “A whole lot of Grangers”.

The winner, of course, already knows who they are because the show is pre-recorded. But don’t expect to see them flossing and stunting just yet; contestants and the private audience members can’t exactly reveal parts of the show until it’s all said and done.
Anyway, before they really reveal just who this newest millionaire is, the producers have decided to use last Wednesday’s episode to give the viewing audience “an inside scoop of the journey of Season One of The Spotlight”.

BEHIND THE SCENES

The introduction for the episode screamed that they’ll be “featuring ALL the behind-the scenes laughter, drama AND tears that has happened so far!” But let’s go ahead and admit things came up a little short on that promise. We were not impressed. There was some laughter, hardly any (if any) drama, and… What tears!

If you were looking for behind-the-scenes moments of how the contestants and others gelled together, the jokes they shared, moments of holding hands and being nervous about whether they were going to be eliminated or not, a few backstage interviews as they were getting ready to go on perhaps, then you best be looking elsewhere.
The half-an-hour episode mainly focused on behind-the-scenes moments and outtakes between host Faizal Khan and co-host Sean Thompson (Sean finally got some of the kind of airtime he deserved in at least one episode).

With about nine minutes to go, some bloopers from the judges got brought in. You got some laughs there, because Judge Alana Seebarran’s giggles were infectious. Christian Sobers just seemed like a fun- loving guy, but if nothing else, last Wednesday’s episode taught us that behind the scenes, Faizal is a bit like a hyperactive child on ecstasy.
You also finally got to realise that the audience actually had fun being on set sometimes, and even got a few laughs in during the filming of the show, something that you never picked up on from the way they looked in the final edits that aired, because, most of the time, the audience either looked hungry or constipated. Not counting that moment Delisha’s mom broke down in tears. This teary-eyed moment did not make the cut for last Wednesday’s bloopers episode.

GOOD, BUT STILTED
At times the contestants seemed as if they were being held at gun point to find Khan funny. Laugh or die! It didn’t look as if the contestants were having fun with the making of the show most of the time. Imagine at the end of Episode 9’s semi-finals with only three acts remaining, none of the final three seemed particularly moved at the thought that one of them was a future millionaire.

The semifinals episode ended to the tune of Dwayne Bravo’s song, “Champion”, which is usually quite a party starter even at the worst of times, yet still most of them could hardly move. Trevaun’s face looked like he couldn’t wait to go home. Euphoria, natural dancers that they are, were not going to be held back though, and let loose.
But that’s not to say the show wasn’t good. It was a pretty good Guyanese initiative, and definitely rose the bar for talent show standards, and gave a remarkable stage for talented Guyanese to showcase just what we got.

This was no National Cultural Centre throw-down. Advertisers definitely got their money’s worth, because thousands tuned in to catch the show every week.
There were encouraging concepts like themed episodes and relevant guest judges such as Jackie Jaxx, Joel Ghansham, and Macaela Cameron aka 94.1 BOOM FM’s The Remix Chick.
But oftentimes the judges and host failed to connect with the audience, and some of the acts lacked precision and gripping performances. It’s safe to say that none of them would ever survive in an America’s Got Talent line-up. Yes, of course we need to get away from that foreign-mindedness where we always seem to compare Guyanese to overseas, but overseas does set the standard.

A FEW STAND-OUTS
Anyway, as Guyanese standards go, there were quite a few outstanding performances; and when the show first aired, everyone was impressed. But things lagged a bit as the episodes went by.
At one point during the comments, someone even brought it up that members from the Behold the Jury band were falling asleep, and had to be literally shaken awake. Definitely not the kind of thing you expect on a vibing, suspenseful, awe-inspiring talent show.
On another good note, though, one can hardly argue that the show was not fairly judged, as more often than not, the act that got axed on any particular night aligned with the what the viewing audience was often thinking, even though the show was a pre-recorded event.
And at the end of the day, “The Spotlight” categorically achieved what it set out to do: Set the bar, and high on quality.