We’ve called the new slew of social video sites (YouTube) and services (MySpace) a “fame machine” in the past, now some new sites are starting to take it a bit more literally.
Big Shot Live is a new gimmick website that promises to fly a new person to Hollywood each day of the week for the chance at hitting it big. It’s similar to other online reality shows like “You Be The VC” or Crackle.
Daily winners are picked through voting on a variety of user submitted audition tapes. The person with the most votes gets flown out, hooked up with one of the co-hosts, and prepped for a real audition with TBA tinsel town “Big Wig”. The show will aired five days a week, once for each of the different talent categories (modeling, singing, dancing, acting, TV host, comedy, sports). Todd Glass – you may recognize him from some VH1 shows – outlines the process in a video on the site.
Obviously the show and contest are a way to push visitors to the site. Fame-hungry viewers will post videos and their friends and family promote them. FunnyOrDie leveraged Will Ferrell’s fame to create a self sustaining community around comedy videos and I expect these VH1 alum expect the same. However, five days of watching aspiring talent struggle through an audition isn’t enough to keep me clicking back every day. The site will have to grow to sustain itself off of quality user generated audition videos, and I have my reservations over whether thousands of videos in that format will be compelling enough.