Tom Shales says that the idea of letting TV viewers cast a Broadway musical is a bad idea made worse by the hackneyed efforts of cynical Hollywood executives. “What a lot of trouble to go to, and how phony it all seems as it plods its ugly way along… To call this ‘reality television’ is truly stretching the term to the outer limit of meaninglessness. To call it ‘good television’ would be to risk being struck by lightning.”