The Fifteen-minute Superstar

The Fifteen-Minute Superstar

Hardly anyone remembers Jamie Foss, or the television show that gave her fifteen minutes of dubious fame. The program aired in 2004 with auditions held across the nation. Contestants were chosen by three celebrity judges and then flown to Hollywood to take part in a nationally televised competition. Each contestant was given vocal coaching, makeovers, and critiques of their performances. The grand prize was a recording contract, along with the promise of becoming America’s next superstar. Week after week, singers were eliminated until a winner was crowned on the final episode.

If you are thinking American Idol or The Voice, you are wrong. Its name was much more grandiose: Superstar USA. But its premise was the polar opposite of those other televised competitions. Three celebrity judges intentionally eliminated anyone who had any talent, while praising outrageously bad performances and advancing the worst singers to the next round.

The judges and those who tuned in to Superstar USA were laughing at these wannabes with inflated egos. The premise of the show was that you could never go wrong banking on people’s capacity for self-delusion. The Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard was right when he wrote, “There are two ways to be fooled: one is to believe what isn’t so; the other is to refuse to believe what is so.”

The final contestants performed in front of a live audience. By now the judges had winnowed the group down to the worst singers. The producers deceived the studio audience by saying that the performers were terminally ill teens whose last wish was to perform in front of a live television audience. Compassionate spectators gave standing ovations to some of the ghastliest performances in the history of American television.

At the end of the final show, judges chose the worst performer and crowned her the winner. Jamie was overwhelmed with joy at being crowned Superstar USA. But her exuberance was short lived. The host let her in on the dreadful secret: she was the worst of a season full of America’s worst singers. That moment was so crushing to Jamie, and so embarrassing to almost everyone watching, that Superstar USA was canceled after one season. There is no nudity so offensive to people as the naked truth.

Jamie did get a check for $50,000 and a recording contract. As you might imagine, thirteen years later the record company still hasn’t produced her CD. The joke was on Jamie. It’s so easy to believe what isn’t so and yet so hard to believe what is. Superstar USA only ran for one season, but the ultimate reality show, Spirituality USA, runs every day of every year. The judges told Jamie what she wanted to hear. Lots of folks will do the same for us. But the embarrassment and pain that Jamie Foss endured will one day pale in comparison to ours if we allow false flattery to delude us about ourselves. Today, someone or something might smack you in the face with harsh reality. You’ll be better for it, if you remember this lesson from Jamie’s story:

Reality denied will always come back to hurt you more than the truth.

Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.

Proverbs 27:6, ESV