Op-Ed: 'Glee Project' to Bring Fresh Faces to Summer Television

Is The Glee Project just another voice competition to add to the mix? Or is it a better fit for the contestants involved?

The biggest problem with high school television shows is that they tend to get stuck. At best, there's a four-season cap before the actors start looking more like the teachers than the students. And yet, Ryan Murphy, creator of Fox's runaway hit Glee, has a different plan in mind for his cast. "We didn't want to have a show where they were in high school for eight years," Murphy tells Ryan Seacrest on E! Online. "We really wanted to be true to that experience ..." And what better way is there to find a new cast member than to have a show about it? Enter The Glee Project, Oxygen Channel's new competition series geared toward finding that perfect next character. While all of the singing and dancing and acting may lend the show more towards an American Idol-esque series, I'm very happy with the control that Murphy and the other top dogs at Camp Glee are holding over who exactly becomes their next superstar. After all, it is their show. Overall, the entire experience of watching these contestants is fantastic. It's not about who has the best look, or the best voice, or the best dance moves. It's more about the personality that they can project to the judges. When looking at a member of the bottom three, for both weeks, Murphy has asked, "But can I write to you?" During the show, the contestants will get a high-impact sample of what life on Glee is all about. They record with Glee's vocal director, Nikki Anders, they learn the moves from Glee's choreographer, Zach Woodlee, the host of the whole thing is Robert Ulrich, Glee's casting director, and the final judges are Murphy, Ulrich, and Woodlee. There is no middleman. The winner of this show will receive a recording contract and a seven-episode run on Glee, but not an exorbitant cash prize. Some critics are the show are wondering if the purse is enough. But what will these kids do with half a million dollars? They're not looking to retire, they're looking to launch a career, and The Glee Project will give them the experience they need to fulfill that. For where they're at, the experience is more valuable than any amount of money.