Leave the kids alone!

Published on: 2006-8-11

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Leave the kids alone!

2006-08-11T22:45:00

I was just now watching a music program on TV. They are having a special kids edition. They way most of the kids sing is really amazing - we do have a lot of talent here!

Out of a total of 8 kids, 1 kid was to be eliminated. Now, this is quite natural. But the smart channel guys decided to make a ceremony out of this elimination process. First, six kids were chosen for the next round and two of the remaining were heralded on to the stage. Now, one of them was going to be eliminated. The judges came on stage, hugged the kid (maybe 10 years old) to be eliminated and conveyed in a very sweet tone that unfortunately, she was going to be `out'. They (the judges) then started singing a soulful tune to mark this grand occassion. Meantime, the camera kept focussing again and again on the kid's mother who had started sobbing and was getting agitated and angry. To my utter disbelief, mom then got onto the stage, grabbed a mike and started abusing one and all ... one of the judges told her to try becoming a judge herself and give marks to her child! The little kid simply kept on watching this `drama' in a perplexed manner.

Why did the channel guys do this? They could have eliminated the kid in a much simpler manner and they could have very well chosen not to show such outbursts to the viewers. Was this to add an element of emotion to their program and kick it up the viewer's rating chart? Do we really need programs to find `superstars' amongst our kids? Why don't we just let them be kids and play around? It's okay to have contests to bring out their talent - but to convert them into `superstar hunts' is something I don't really feel good about.