The Glee Project

'Glee' creator Ryan Murphy wants to find new talent for his runaway hit series. No use wasting all that hard work and a perfectly good national talent search, so The Glee Project was born. Tens of thousands of teen singers (as well as post-teen singers pretending to look like high-schoolers) grind through the auditions for the chance to perform on several episode of 'Glee'. 'The Glee Project' shows little of these early efforts, starting out almost immediately with the twelve chosen standouts. It's a diverse mix of male/female, pretty/not so pretty, tall/short, longhair/short hair kids. All very, very good singers in their own right. Each themed episode is visited by a regular cast member form the Glee mothership, not the A-list mind you, mostly support characters, but unquestionably talented people in and of themselves. The kids are given homework, a song to sing and choreograph together. They then perform it as the surprise 'guest mentor' watches and picks a standout. That standout is given perks in the form of individual tutelage with the guest mentor and special solo focus in the week's video shoot. The week's video is professionally produced with vocals recorded in a studio ahead of time, giving vocal producer Niki Anders an opportunity to instruct, motivate and if at all possible, belittle the nervous, struggling voices. The show captures brief vignettes in the recording studio and the video set zooming in on every possible cracking voice, petty squabble and unfortunate diva moment. Drama between the young singers is sought out and drawn out throughout the whole episode though most often it seems contrived or very selectively-edited. The finished video is shown in its entirety. This is the undisputed acme of each episode. Casting director Robert Ulrich and choreographer Zach Woodlee sit in the front row and one by one offer critique and then announce to the kids on stage who will continue and which three, the weakest of the week, will be required to perform individually in front of the Murphy himself. From these three, one will not be 'called back'. The singers only have a couple of hours to prepare (so we are told), so there are the predictable shots of rehearsal room sweat, tears, fear, woe and lament. Extra camera time is awarded to anyone willing to reveal his or her innermost trial and torment. Each of the three perform and are then told their strengths and weaknesses (mostly the latter) by a usually pontificating and condescending Murphy, whose highest compliment seems to be "I can write to that." Indicating, in my opinion, that he really doesn't know what he's looking for at all, but will apparently know it when he sees it. (or writes itself entirely, a la the Glee character, Kurt (Chris Colfer)) Rather then man up and tell the kids to their faces who got the boot, Ulrich posts a list and the three each make the solo perp-walk out to check to see if they've been called back or eliminated. The best parts of this show by far are the kids' performances. These are all relatively unknown and yet very talented young individuals. The weekly videos are first rate and even the homework assignment is polished and near-ready for prime time. The 'drama' is overstressed and is fast becoming a tired, clichéd, and dare I say, lazy entertainment mechanism. This is the same sort of glop you see on every other reality show from 'Survivor' to 'Next Food Network Star'. Minor, petty bickering and emoting juiced up with dramatic sound tracks and contextually questionable close-ups and narrowly edited sound bites. Murphy comes off at the same time as both arrogant and weak, completely subjective and at odds with himself as to what it is he is actually wanting. The kids themselves, bless their little hearts, are fun, expressive, intense and eerily 'normal'. It's a fun and entertaining hour each week, number one in priority on my DVR, even with all the fake drama bits. Highly recommended!

Amazing chances for people to get to do what they love, makes me happy!

More shows like this should be done since many people dream of being actors, performers and singers all in one.

Gets a bit boring sometimes and the songs are nothing new that you feel you want to stay up listening to, want to buy or feel being better than the original. This is very hard for them of course, they only have weeks but it still makes people not watching it.

This wouldn't be interesting for everyone. Only for the "real" Gleeks.

For me, who lives in Sweden I feel sad that Glee related things never appreciate countries outside of the U.S

Ryan Murphy, thanks for giving people this chance in life! You change people's lives to the better.

I watched this show the first week, and fell in love. Ryan Murphy has decided to give a 7 episode guest starring role on Glee to a winner of this project. It keeps you coming back every week. There's great drama, comedy, and a fair share of cute guys ;) Every week, one contender gets eliminated. The only thing I don't like about this is that Ryan and the others have favorites, they aren't eliminated based on that weeks challenge. It's kind of like Glee/Americas Next Top Model I love the music videos they do each week. Every contender is so talented! There's Bryce, a bad boy almost, a heart breaker. Then there's Ellis, an 18 year old girl who looks 12. Then Emily, a sassy diva. Then McKenliegh, a mixed girl who sings country music. Matheus, a short dude who has high confidence, and a high annoying voice. Then Marissa, a pretty hipster/stylish chic kinda girl with an amazing voice. CAMERON, a nerdy guy who writes his own songs, very love-able. Hannah, a big girl who doesn't have the strongest voice, but a hilarious personality. Alex, a black chubby gay guy, who is a huge diva. Lindsay, a pretty girl with a great voice who seems mean, but is just confident in her abilities. Samuel, an edgy rocker guy with dreads. Damian, an ADORABLE Irish native. He is cute and amazing and has a deep voice, but wants to be a pop singer.

So if you want a show that will suck you right in, then watch this one!

I really loved the concept of the Glee Project when I became totally hooked on the first one, until I realized it's simply a way to audition pretty young boys without seeming obvious. I won't argue that the guys aren't talented, because ALL those contenders are so talented and it's a pleasure to watch them bravely compete, while their hearts break over realizing they can only win if their new friends are sacrificed. But when they sent Shanna home, I knew that the point of this whole project is to boost ratings, of course, and find new boys. Shanna wasn't cool enough, but she had the pipes, and wore the meat dress like a trooper, and Nikki had no criticism for her, and neither did Zach. She was on the mark every time, and she had the best attitude. Even Ali, who never had a chance because of the limitations imposed by the wheelchair, was just the brightest star, and I couldn't stop watching her to see what dimension of herself she would show next. She could really manage that wheelchair, and always looked like the shiniest person in the room. AND the woman can SING. Aylin is exotic, and had a great voice. Blake is boring, but he's nice to look at, and has kind of a John Krazinski awkwardness about him that is endearing. Last year, the most talented of the top contenders was clearly Lindsey, who was a triple threat, but she lost out to a baby faced Irish crooner who is a terrible dancer, and a mediocre singer/songwriter who has some sexy Michael Jackson moves, and the same facial expression for all occasions...go Ryan Murphy. Sooner or later, you're going to have to let a girl win because your motives are becoming obvious, and it's becoming harder and harder to believe these kids are on an equal playing field. It seems more likely that you choose each contender to appeal to a different television viewing niche, and then pick the "winner" you had your eye on all along. It's becoming too predictable. And please don't try to make us believe that Nikki Anders is sentimental. Talk about bad acting. Nikki crying? And Zach Woodlee seems more insightful about the attributes of the contenders than anybody, but he had very few compliments for this group's abilities as dancers. Isn't that his job as the choreographer elite? To find the diamond in the rough? Erik White seems to be able to get everyone to perform. Maybe it's all in the editing. The tie-breaker: That Blake Jenner can sure toss a microphone. And what about that poem? Why was Blake allowed the special consideration when his "I'll Be" couldn't even touch the spot-on performances of Ali and Aylin? No fair.

8 years after the Glee phenomenon we now know who the real winners were. First of, the prize? A seven episodes storyline is not a great prize to be fair, especially knowing that season 1 winners got maximum 3 episodes and the rest of them they were just swaying in the background. The real winner of season 1 was Alex cause he got to stay for 2 seasons. Then, season 2 came and the winner is another pretty boy, the new Finn Hudson, now we know who he really is tho. Everyone was rooting for Ali (cast members, screenwriters) and she got snubbed by Murphy, well, your lose Ryan cause now she has a Tony.