I’ve always respected Sean Combs, known to most as Diddy, for his business sense and ability to be a mover and shaker in many different arenas. But his attempts at staying relevant to the youth demographic now seem more and more deliberate.
As if you didn’t know already, coming to MTV June 18th is Making the Band 4, starring none other than.. well, Diddy. This time around, the Didster is looking to construct an all male band, something along the lines of a 2007 version of New Edition mixed with a sprinkle of N’Sync.
I’m sure that the show will garner good ratings and whatever “band” is constructed will, in fact, be able to manifest the loudest scream out any average 14 year old girl. But given that the group will most likely not break any records for selling albums, this show, as well as the previous installment with Danity Kane, is all about Diddy staying in the limelight. It’s a no risk effort to keep his name a household one to “youngins”. He knows that viewers tune in to see his hip hop rendition of Donald Trump in the board room - condescending, loud, and not afraid to make a contestant do some truly ridiculous and demeaning tasks. Throw in some forced drama between said contestants using the typical tactics: force them to select beds to sleep on before even meeting, make them compete one to one, and throw in a few belligerent hopefuls, who are ready and willing to pick a fight with anyone. Voila! You have yourself a reality TV show that will get decent ratings.
So what do you say? Are you going to tune in and watch the drama ensue from the Bad Boy camp? Can you blame Diddy for exploiting a well-tested formula? It’s worked in the past, why not run it into the ground?
this season was actually much more bearable than the Danity Kane one. I’ll be watching tomorrow to see the results