Awards shows are the greatest reality television shows to date, I mean really, there are no other reality shows on TV where there are more stars packed in one room on truly live TV (Speaking of fake reality TV shows, I never felt more betrayed than after "The Hills finale"when the backdrop rolled up and you just realized you had been Punk'd by MTV for a good 6 seasons). Where else do you see more potential for big stars like Kanye West to combust on live TV so badly he goes on belligerent tirades on Twitter apologizing to Taylor Swift, nowhere.
From 2009 to 2010 there was a dramatic increase in ratings, 35% to be exact. This I would assume was because it was the largest musical awards show following the tragic death of Michael Jackson. Coincidentally, I was in California the day he died, just flying in to see my two brothers for our annual booze-a-palooza, lets just say you wanted to go nowhere near L.A. because crazy fans were trying to get UCLA Hospital and Neverland as fast as possible.
Regardless the talent pool for Music is about as deep as ever and more importantly for controversy. There is potential for Lady Gaga to upset a variety of rights organizations, Justin Bieber to miss his cue on when to start lip-synching, the awkward moment when Rihanna is performing with Eminem and the camera cuts to Chris Brown. Plus you can skip the Performance by Barbara Streissand, thanks to your DVR. Sorry mom.
But really I will be tuning into to see Eminem. Anyone who listened to Eminem's Album "Relapse" realized he was so deep in prescription drugs Charlie Sheen would have been impressed. So to see him get clean and follow it up with "Recovery", which prompted him to have the best selling album of 2010 and the best selling single of 2010, cemented him as one of the most talented rappers of all time. Rarely does anyone come back from that. Jay-Z has been quoted as saying (I am paraphrasing) that to make it in the business for 10 years is absolutely unheard of, Eminem is going on 13. Singles like "Love The Way You Lie" got such strong responses Kanye West copied it nearly to the "T" with "All of the Lights" off his latest album, both singles featured Rihanna. So if you grew up in the Late 90's and 00's and saw the trials and tribulations of Eminem only to see it come to this point you have to be semi-interested in this years Grammy's. Regardless if you were a fan, he was the most popular artist of our generation literally (80 million sold). I surely did not expect him to be where he is today, and rest assured he didn't either.
http://www.grammy.com/news/53rd-grammy-awards-slated-for-feb-13-2011
