Can American Idol Change the World?

I’ve never been much of an American Idol fan. I’ve always thought of it as just another dumb reality show — and besides, something about Ryan Seacrest and that golden boy, bleached-white smile look of his creeps me out. Point being, I’ve never watched a full episode since it first aired five years ago. How then, did I get addicted to a very similar show on Arab television? Back at home in New York City, my dad called me over to show me a program he had recorded; I guessed that it was probably an interview with a politician. Instead, it turned out to be the first episode of a new show called Star Academy on the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation.

What is Star Academy? An adaptation of the French show by the same name, think American Idol + The Real World. Though the show takes place over a period of four months in Lebanon, the 16 contestants come from all over the Arab world. These contestants are all young and hot Arab youth who live together in an “academy” where they attend singing, acting, vocalizing and theater classes, all in preparation for the “prime” or performance aired live on Friday nights. Each week, three candidates are nominated to leave the “academy” and the audience votes through phone calls and text messages to save their favorite candidate from being kicked off the show.

Suffice to say, I suddenly found myself hooked. Not only did I watch the daily half-hour show (which was essentially just watching the contestants live their lives and go to their different classes) and the “prime” every Friday night, but I was enraged when I found out that there was actually a Star Academy Channel where you could watch them 24/7, and that our satellite couldn’t pick it up. (I am completely serious — 24/7.) It seemed like the entire Arab World was obsessed with this Western-export; crowds gathered outside the academy just to catch a glimpse of the stars from the windows, fans sent them presents — everything ranging from flowers and stuffed animals to watches and laptops — and the contestants immediately became household names. Quite simply, Star Academy swept the region — but why?

First you have to understand that Star Academy is unlike anything before it. A reality show starring hip, young Arabs who can sing, dance and play instruments? Unheard of. In the beginning, my friends and I got a kick out of making fun of the show — laughing at the unsynchronized dancers, complaining about the technical difficulties and the horrible camera angles and criticizing the rudeness of the host. We were particularly critical because we were comparing this show to the many American reality shows aired daily. We failed to realize that the U.S. has been airing reality TV for ages, while this was one of the Middle East’s first major endeavors. So how did I grow to love — or rather to become obsessed with (“Sorry Becca, I don’t think I’m going to be able to make your birthday because Star Academy is on”) the show?

Aside from the fact that Star Academy really has improved over the years and is extremely entertaining, it serves a more important purpose. I love Star Academy because it is breaking down some important barriers. Critics may argue that this show is a way of spreading the worst of Western culture to the rest of the world. While I agree that it is spreading Western culture, at the moment, I don’t see this as bad — in fact, I see this as extremely beneficial. When the show first launched, a great amount of controversy was raised over the fact that men and women were living in the same house. Though I compared it to The Real World, it is only truly because the contestants are all living under the same roof. In Star Academy, men and women sleep in separate rooms, and, to put it mildly, their behavior is much more conservative than that of the Real World characters. Soon enough, however, people got over this initial shock and as the show has progressed, more and more things have become accepted. The show has begun to play up romances within the house (innocent crushes really, but juicy nevertheless) and this past season, three of the contestants made it known from the very first episode that they had boyfriends or girlfriends back home. Arab kids announcing to the world that they were dating — what’s going on?!?! The show also brought up the issue of religion; Christian and Muslim Arabs found themselves learning about each other’s religions and celebrating Christmas and Ramadan together. Also in the fourth season, Shoroq Ahmed of Bahrain became the first female contestant in the show’s history from the Gulf Region, and after four years, Shada Hassoon, a 25-year-old Iraqi became the first woman to win Star Academy.

To us, as Americans, this does not seem like a big deal. “Haven’t you watched The Real World? People have sex — on national TV!” But we are not talking about the U.S., we are talking about the Arab World. Though the show is based out of Lebanon, by far the most liberal country in the Arab World, the show’s audience lives throughout the Middle East where, for example, women’s rights are seriously lacking. It may seem silly to say this about a reality TV show, but Star Academy is slowly modernizing the Arab World. The show has pushed their audience to the edge by introducing them to new and uncomfortable situations. When the show launched and the executives at LBC showed that they were not going to conform to the demands of others by shutting it down, the criticisms quickly died away, surpassed by its tremendous and ever-growing popularity. I am afraid to think of what would have happened had the LBC made the show more conservative, or even worse, canceled it — what kind of a message would that have sent to the people of the Arab World? Luckily, this is only a hypothetical situation; the success of Star Academy has created other shows like Superstar (= American Idol) and Mission Fashion (= Project Runway). In fact MTV is launching MTV Arabia on Nov. 17 with Arabic versions of Punk’d and Pimp My Ride — I’ll have to check it out myself before judging.

The next season of Star Academy is starting next month, and I can’t wait! Why this obsession? Why focus an entire column on a reality show? Because recently, one little TV show has created more of a positive change in the Middle East than the world’s leading politicians and diplomats have.

Nora Choueiri is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be contacted at nchoueiri@cornellsun.com [1]. A Helping of Hummus appears alternate Mondays.