Much Music VJ Search (Premiere)

I'll give them credit for trying to be different. Unlike most reality shows, in which the contestants are thrown together at the start with little explanation (Survivor, the myriad of Bachelor/Bachelorette-type shows) or are shown auditioning in front of judges (Canadian/American Idol), the first episode of the MM VJ Search featured in-studio host Dina Pugliese introducing a series of taped submissions and live auditions from malls across the country. Watching people goof off on film isn't the most enthralling way to spend an hour, and it didn't help that the pacing felt random and the production was somewhat amateurish. But as Ben Rayner wrote in last week's Toronto Star, MM has always prided itself on lo-tech, unscripted reality, so maybe that's exactly the vibe they were aiming for with this show.

The most annoying part was the self-promotion overkill -- far too much of the episode was devoted to putting over the, er, "prestige" of the VJ position. It was enough to make American Idol seem modest about its role in the industry. Nevertheless, the 20 semi-finalists (from what little was shown of them) look fairly interesting, so I'll certainly keep watching to see how this turns out.