TV 152: The Glee Project

In case you didn't get enough of the show Glee this past season, you can tune into the summer series, The Glee Project. As the title suggests, it is a spin-off the original and involves 12 talented teens competing to earn a seven-episode guest starring role on the original show.

But why is this necessary? Well, Glee creator Ryan Murphy realized that he'll need "new blood" when the current cast graduates soon -- within the show, of course! Then he decided the selected 12 will undergo a Glee boot camp, which is essentially a singing/acting.dancing masterclass, and viola, The Glee Project was born.
Every week there's a theme (so far Individuality and Theatricality), a "homework" assignment, a mystery guest from the actual Glee cast, and a group number. The show promotes that it follows the same process as Glee would: vocal recordings with Vocal Producer Nikki Anders, and dance lessons from Choreographer Zach Woodlee. The show's host/guide, as it were, is Casting Director Robert Ulrich. He auditioned 40,000+ aspiring stars and narrowed it down to the mere twelve (pictured above).

The homework assignment requires each participant to perform an assigned line from a song and through that, best display the theme. The winner of this challenge, generally the person who stands out the most, will earn one-on-one time with that week's guest and a featured role in the group number. This reward is also just freakin' cool.

After that, participants work and train hard to learn their parts in the group number. Anders and Woodlee double as advisers tasked with observing each teen's efforts. These observations will combine with the teen's final performance and help determine who makes the call back list, and who is at risk of going home. The three that are deemed the worst for that week will be asked to sing in front of Ryan Murphy, who will ultimately decide who stays and who goes.
Of course, it wouldn't be a reality-type show without some drama mixed in. As the participants interact with each other more, tempers flare and conflicts arise. I don't need to go into detail, but you've been warned.

So far two episodes have aired and both are available for free viewing on Hulu. (First episode, second episode.) Otherwise, you can catch this show 9/8:00 p.m. est on Oxygen.

What do you think?