ALL-ROUND CHAMPION? ALL-ROUND TURD PILE...

The quality of programming appearing on BYUTV continues to surprise and delight me.  Certain programs I strongly feel could compete on a national scale against major networks.  In most respects, I think BYUTV has a lot to be proud of.

However, I recently finished watching the first season of a new program and I'm flabbergasted by the total mess it was and how it was handled.  The show I'm speaking of is All-Round Champion and in the interest of keeping my rant to a bare minimum, I'm going to assume you're aware of it and the premise. 

If not, you might want to head on over to the BYUTV page and take a minute to read up before I get going.

I was excited about this show and looked forward to seeing the premier.  This is a reality show and it's a competition with an eventual winner, so I knew going in, I'd eventually pick a favorite player.  I didn't realize I would do it right off the bat.

The first week was Diving and the kids spent most of the episode in their bathing suits.  But there was one kid who seemed self-conscious and a little out of place.  That kid was Daniel.  During resting scenes, he stands with his arms folded and in group shots, he's always hanging back behind everyone.

To me, this kid wasn't comfortable with his body and since that was me when I was his age...  I immediately sympathized with him. 

As the episode goes on, a lot of the kids spend their practice time in the water goofing off and ignoring the coaches.  But Daniel was more determined than some of the others and he took advantage of his practice time.  I admired his work ethic and moreso, his commitment to the contest.

Before the episode was over, I was 100% TeamDaniel!

And he didn't disappoint.

Over the next few weeks, I discovered I'd picked the player who not only stood the best chance of winning the entire event, but was quickly pulling away from the pack.  Daniel was consistently earning points each week on the podium.  Not always in the Gold Medal position, but the Silver and Bronze both came with nice point hikes.

He was quickly adding to his weekly total and by staying near the top of the pack in each sport, he was competing more effectively than most of the other athletes; and by the time the group entered the final week of competition, he'd been on the podium more times than any of the other players.  They called him the most decorated player of the game because of the number of medals he won.

It was easy to admire his efforts because he didn't seem to squander his training time and he always tried to win.  That mindset could also been seen in the way he conducted himself on screen.  When he was interviewed or had a chance to make a comment, he always used phrasing that didn't disparage or put anyone down, he didn't gloat or treat other players poorly and he found ways to keep his comments positive and complimentary towards the other players.  In fact, I can only think of one thing he said that might be considered mean; but I don't think he intended those words to be hurtful.  

He approached each sport with determination and even if he didn't feel completely confident in his ability to compete in that sport, he went out and gave 100%.  It was during one of the more demanding workouts that Daniel revealed he suffers from patellar tendonitis and Osgood-Schlatter's disease which severely weaken his knees and makes intense activity on his legs problematic and extremely painful.

Fortunately, none of the other sports in the competition were physically demanding enough to cause him major concerns or put him at a disadvantage.

Daniel rises to the top of the Leaderboard and dominates it for almost the entirety of the series.  One of the most impressive achievements about Daniel's score is that every single one of his points is earned through competition.

There were special award points that were handed out each week to athletes demonstrating characteristics the coaches felt deserved recognition.  And initially, they seemed to go to the contenders for genuine reasons like practicing hard, having good sportsmanship or challenging yourself.  However, as the competition progressed, it was obvious to the viewers at home that certain athletes were in weekly competition for those points in addition to the points they hoped to get with a podium win.

Some of them displayed repetitive behavior specifically designed to evoke sympathy from the guest coach.  They would "overcome" a fear or push themselves to the point of exhaustion.  To a guest coach, seeing something like that would inspire them to single that individual out for a special award.  Sadly, this type of attention grabbing often eclipsed competitors who actually deserved to be recognized.  It got to the point you could actually watch players setting up their situations and narratives in an effort to win the points.  In one episode, two players attempted to play the "overcoming-a-fear" tactic and started the show off despondent and withdrawn in an effort to draw the coach in so they could reveal their secret fear.  When it became apparent they were both playing the same card, they changed up.  And in one particularly disgusting display, one player, realizing she doesn't have a chance of earning podium points that week, takes advantage of a situation then doubles down to convince everyone how serious she is just to make sure she earns points.  In fact, at the end of the episode, she literally calls herself out on it during an interview.

Now, the point structure of the contest was built in such a way that each athlete has an equal chance from the outset to win the available points.  Part of that structure plays out when the athlete who's sport is the focus of that week's competition, coaches the other athletes and doesn't compete for a podium position or points.  By the end of the season, each of them would have one week where they couldn't earn points, so the available amount of points to each player remains the same across the board.  And it remained so right up until a guest coach awarded their counterpart special points for coaching.

Sure, you can make an excellent case for awarding exceptional coaching, but it still creates a point imbalance...  And even though it's only 10 points, it's 10 points that player was never meant to have.  It does become an advantage.  Obviously, this wasn't what the shows' creators wanted, but without a specific rule in place to prevent it, they had to stand by and allow a professional athlete to give points to their assistant coach.  The bias is unavoidable and should be curtailed in future seasons.

There are other examples of unfair point manipulation throughout the series.  During skateboard week, there was a second podium awarded because the producers felt the competition was too firmly split between the boys and girls.  Since all three podium spots were taken by the boys, the girls were given their own podium and the medalists were given the same point values they would've received if they'd actually won.

Reasons why this move was totally unfair and offensive? First, the professional athlete for that week was female.  By bringing in a female skateboarding champion in as a coach, the producers wanted to show that anyone could compete in it.  But, by having a second podium for just the girls, the producers undermined their message.

When you have both boys and girls competing for the same title, giving the person in 5th place a gold medal and full points just because they're female completely ruins the integrity of the title itself.  If the All-Round Champion is a single person potentially male or female, you can't give bonus points to one gender just because the podium that day looked unbalanced and traditionally, girls aren't interested in that particular sport.

Huge gender bias.

Finally, you can't dole out favoring points to one gender when the podium is dominated that week by the other gender unless you do it every single time it happens.  There are examples of other weeks that boys took all three podium positions and the girls weren't given a special podium.  Bad form.

Another reason why these "Extra-Bonus" points are so unfair can be seen when you contrast those points awarded with points taken away.  Consider the Swimming episode.

During the competition race, Daniel makes a mistake when he starts one of this laps with the wrong stroke.  He's quickly made aware of it and is able to adjust to the correct stroke and finish the race.  He clearly placed second and should have received the Silver Medal and 20 points.  Instead, he's informed at the podium that he's disqualified because of that mistake.

Unlike the skateboard week where the girls were given huge bonus points for losing, Daniel actually finished the long and grueling race and earned his time.  

It's funny, but every time competition actually does start, the announcer tells the kids if there are any mistakes that will disqualify them in that event.  In kayaking, overturning during the course run was an automatic disqualification.  However, there was no prior warning given about making a mistake on your stroke in swimming.  A more appropriate and fair action would have been a time penalty leveled against his overall time.  There wasn't much separating him and the Bronze medalist.  It could have cost him the silver.  

Instead...  this is what we see at home...  Daniel is so far ahead on the Leaderboard, most of the other kids have given up hope of beating him.  In fact, they've pretty much accepted he's going to win.  Some of the kids even mention it during their interviews.

In order to create a more tightly contested overall event, I think the producers and judges decided to penalize Daniel an entire week and allow some of the other kids not far behind him to "catch up".  Seeing them disqualify him was incredibly uncomfortable when they'd handed out free points only a couple of weeks prior.  Certain players were definitely benefiting from these impulsive points choices being made.  And others were suffering.

For his part, Daniel maintains his composure and accepts the decision with as much dignity as he can muster.  

Gross misconduct and favoritism by the judges.

From this point on, it seems like all of Daniel's efforts are undermined by the show and in the absolute worst case of foul play, at the end of the competition, the host announces a final day of track and field events with no coaching, no training and no practice.  Full points given to the winner in each event.

Wow.

So here you have a kid who has worked his butt off the entire season and done an amazing job and your big surprise ending is five track and field events that his disease and condition make almost impossible for him to complete.

Unbelievable.

These five events favor a very select few of the athletes and leave all of the others at a huge disadvantage.  Now, to be fair, you could say that about every single sport they've competed in since competition began.  But...  This is different because 1) it's 5 events in the same category.  2) each event has a potential win of 25 points.  Unlike any previous week, a sweep of the Arcathlon could earn one athlete 125 points in a single day.  That's 90 more than anyone could earn previously and that's assuming the Gold Medalist was also given a special award.

Based on the fact that certain competitors have severe limitations in the area of track and field, the contest is now massively skewed towards the players who are strong in this area.  And the event plays out exactly as you imagine it will.

Essentially, the few athletes with enough points to challenge Daniel are the strongest in the Arcathlon events and they split the points among themselves until they get enough to pass Daniel.  How convenient.  

Ok, let's pick a sport Daniel can't be competitive in, give them enough possible points that someone actually has a chance of taking this from him and then continue to screw him over until one of them goes far enough to knock him off the top of the Leaderboard.

Once again...  Free points to certain people.  Here ya go!

I felt physically sick watching this episode.  To add insult to injury, the final event, the Tug Of War...  They claim the teams were randomly assigned...  And yet, the track stars earning free points all day are all on the same team opposite Daniel and they have a strength advantage.  

Of course, Sydney is on Brodie's team...  

Of course.

Then, in one of the most appalling and gross miscarriages of sportsmanship I've ever seen, Daniel's team loses a member because of an Asthma flare up during the 800M race.  Already at a strength disadvantage, and with the winning athletes all on the other team, Daniel's team has to pathetically fight to prevent the other team from sweeping The Tug Of War.  But wait, what's this???  Surprise!  All of the teammates on the winning side earn 25 points for that event.

It's hilarious how blatant it all is.  Everything is designed to make sure Daniel loses and everything magically works for both Sydney and Brodie.  In the end, one of them is  handed the title.

Daniel, the true All-Round Champion is stripped of the title he's earned and it's given instead to an obnoxious twit.  The utter unfairness of the final event and the horrible way points were awarded and stolen from the players can only be summed up by watching one of the very first online videos I saw for this show...  The Balloon Stomp.

It starts off fair and fun but when it gets down to the final players, instead of a fair contest, someone outside the game makes a choice and Daniel is unfairly eliminated and Sydney is declared the winner.  

Sydney wins because someone influenced the game and took Daniel out.  So Sydney didn't earn the victory or prove anything.

As annoying as that clip is to watch, that's how frustrating and annoying the show ended up being.  It's ridiculous and sad that because of the poor behavior of the show's producers, the contestants, the blatant favoritism and flagrant abuse of points awarding, a show I was so excited to watch became something that made my sick.  And destroys the concepts of hard work and good sportsmanship.

Now, I'm willing to admit I may not have all the information and you could probably make all kinds of arguments as to why I'm wrong about everything I've said in this blog post...  But here's the thing...  As a viewer of the product you created, I've simply given you my impression of your show.  So if this wasn't your intention...  You missed the mark.

You should be ashamed of what you put out.  In fact, I'm embarrassed for you.  And for the first time in a long time, BYUTV gets a huge, resounding "BOOOOOOOOO!" from me.