"Choir" competition

NBC10, a TV station in the Philadelphia area, sent me a press release breathlessly announcing the NBC 10 Choir Talent Competition. It's a sort of American Idol format: competitors submit videotapes or DVDs which get whittled down to five finalists, then viewers can vote on a grand-prize winner.

The grand prize? You get to appear on their "Bring in the Holidays" show at a shopping mall on Thanksgiving Friday, a low-viewership time when broadcasters are desperate for content. And yet, the endless legalese rules of the competition make it clear that they don't really promise to broadcast your group if they think there's something more interesting to show that day. You have to commit to coming, but they won't commit to broadcasting it, then or ever. And Thanksgiving Friday is such a convenient time for choirs.

In fact, they really don't want choirs. The judges who will determine the finalists are representatives of "casting agencies and recording studios," not musicians. The rules require you to sign over all broadcast rights to your video forever for any use, but there's no mention of composer's copyright, suggesting it hasn't even occurred to them that you might perform music written by somebody else.

They must want boy bands, really. Why use "choir" in the name when that's not what you're looking for? It's mysterious.