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Not that I am in any way bitter about not being selected for the return of WWE’s Tough Enough, the reality show where wannabe wrestlers perform a series of tasks week by week to earn a contract for the company, but I wasn’t blown away by its return.
In order to make the show modern and relevant, the executives have brought in a live aspect of the show, allowing viewers and fans to vote for their favourite superstar in order to save them from elimination. The problem lies in the execution of this live element, in front of a handful of people, probably students at Full Sail University, the contestants are “grilled” by the judges and those in the bottom three have thirty seconds to change our minds. What this leads to are boring, repetitive speeches on how each one of them is the best for this competition and how they will prove it to the judges and the world.
It remains to be seen if this is going to change as the weeks progress, but I cannot help but think the show would have been better off taking tips from one of the United States longest running reality shows – America’s Next Top Model. Here the show is all pre-recorded but still has fan interaction. Viewers can see all the photos that the models shoot online and then use social media to vote for their favourite. This score is then added to the judges total and the person with the least votes is eliminated. This could be easily modeled to suit Tough Enough, using WWE’s Network and YouTube to show the competitors in action.
Doing voting this way would also help to stop those not worthy actually getting through. In Tough Enough’s debut, contestant ZZ was shown not to have the physical capabilities or the stamina as he failed in the two challenges. (Authors Note: I don’t believe this wouldn’t make him Tough Enough, wrestlers are more than physically fit). But ZZ was shown to be funny in the clips, going commando in the hot tub and just being a little personality more than any of the other competitors. This is what probably led to his stonking 70%+ of the vote.
The first episode felt awkward, there were issues with the sound, not just in the live sections but also the video footage played the musical accompaniment much louder than the voices we were supposed to be hearing! If the show is lucky enough to get another season then I really hope it follows my advice above. Good luck to all competitors!