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Why has American Idol been one of the nation’s top TV shows for decades? Stories! In my wife’s words: American Idol is a masterclass for storytelling. Every singer that makes it on the show is extremely talented, but there are also thousands of extremely talented singers who DON’T make it onto the show. Why? Because American Idol screens for stories, not voices. They want the audience to feel an emotional connection. To be bought in. To root for the humans behind each voice. And they do that very effectively. Stories provide American Idol the avenue to connect with America year over year even though the premise of the show is the exact same every single season. In business we can do the exact same thing. We can tell stories, we can connect emotionally, we can stand out from the sea of promotional jargon. With effective storytelling you can keep your audience engaged year over year even as your products and services may remain the same. It’s the better way.

Recent article I wrote! It was so interesting to analyse the portrayal of TV characters in depth, focusing mainly on Viv Rook in Years & Years. If you haven't seen the series, I would definitely recommend it.

Honored to be part of the newest issue of The Modernist Review! The article below discusses how Zora Neale Hurston's "Drenched in Light" serves as a model for the recent TV adaptation, Little Fires Everywhere. I would love to hear your thoughts! https://lnkd.in/dfu7mKiX

For my latest Esquire article, I interviewed the Golden Bachelor and his fiancé, Theresa. The number of single people over 50 is growing exponentially and they don’t want to give up on love and romance. It’s time to acknowledge that we need more programming, role models, and entertainment that show love and romance for those over 50! I hope the Golden Bachelorette is next! #ROARforward into new love in the second half of life. https://bit.ly/3NSynHT

In this episode, Dr. Nader sits down with Dr. Robert Lawrence Kuhn, creator, writer, host and executive producer of the long-running public television series on PBS stations, Closer to Truth, to discuss: Why is there something rather than nothing? The topic of nothing is something that people have thought about since time immemorial. Watch the full video on Dr. Tony Nader's Youtube channel (@DrTonyNader) titled: Reality and the Concepts of Nothing with Dr. Robert Lawrence Kuhn #drtonynader #consciousness

Extract-My hunt for a missing TV episode – and what it shows about being Black in Britain In 1991, Channel 4 launched a documentary series called The Black Bag. It started with an investigation into racist policing, and featured episodes such as Racebusters, which documented everyday racial harassment in Britain. The show was groundbreaking, and stands as a magnificent record not only of recent multicultural life in Britain, but also of the emergent discourses around race that have now entered mainstream consciousness. But here’s the question: if you wanted to watch an episode of The Black Bag today, where would you go? I faced this problem when I was researching my book, Revolutionary Acts, which is a social history of Black gay men in Britain. I was trying to find an episode called Blackout, which looked at the experience of Dennis Carney, a Black gay man living in Brixton, south London, and examined the discrimination Black homosexuals faced from the Black community, and their refusal to be excised from it. Carney had told me about the existence of the documentary, though for months he was unable to locate his VHS copy of it. This, in itself, should not have caused delays; an early-90s documentary on an important social topic – surely that’s just kicking about on YouTube somewhere? But there were no results. Even after searches of Channel 4’s own digital archive and the BFI’s free Black Britain on Film collection, the documentary eluded me. There is another online archive of more than 2m broadcasts from British TV, which goes back years – it’s not there either, though there is one Black Bag episode concerning the Cardiff Three, who were wrongfully convicted of murder in 1990… First of all, community participation in recording our history requires people to see the value in their lives – to not count themselves out of posterity. I say this because when researching and meeting older Black gay men for this book, there was a difference in what each man was capable of offering me: there were those who had kept possession of their life’s work – some carrying dossiers of every pamphlet, flyer and poster they’d created – and those who only had their memories… https://lnkd.in/ek2CKDhd

Some thoughts about how American television should cover Trump's live performances this year:

Several things struck me about this (short) interview with Marc Pos. 1) a good idea is always a good idea. It doesn’t matter how many people say “no”, if you know it’s good, it’s worth persevering. You just need to pitch it to the right person (who has the ability and instinct to visualise a paper idea), at the right time. 2) nowhere does he say “I did it because this other programme worked”. I love that his inspiration was a relatively obscure reference which had nothing to do with tv. I think the best ideas come from looking in the rockpools not on the beach 3) I was delighted he likes “normal people”. There will always be a place for celebrities in entertainment shows, but in formats it’s crucial that there are big shows where the participants are avatars for the viewers. Normal people, just like them. Far more interesting seeing people whose lives will change rather than celebs picking up their latest fee 4) psychology is right. I’m increasingly convinced that psychology - how people will behave, why they behave like that, what caused them to behave like that - is the best adhesive. Congratulations to him, and this show should serve as a lesson that original formats can work, that a different approach can work, and that good new is better than good old.

For my latest esquire article, I interviewed the Golden Bachelor and his fiance, Theresa. The number of single people over 50 is growing exponentially and they do not want to give up on love and romance. Time to acknowledge that we need more programming, role models and entertainment that show love and romance for those over 50! Hope the Golden Bachelorette is next! ROARforward into new love in the second half of life.

Dissecting the pervasive #culturalimpact of the #Bravonetwork, this article highlights the channel's evolution from a highbrow arts channel to a seminal arbiter of #realityTV. The author argues that society is experiencing a "Bravo-ification," wherein reality TV's dynamics parallel real-life social interactions and self-perception. READ: https://lnkd.in/gDUqmYMb