Simon Cowell's DJ competition reality show appears to have a home. It will premiere on Yahoo's online streaming platform Yahoo Screen, which made a large jump into the music sphere with an announced partnership with Live Nation to stream a concert a day live via the platform. Yahoo plans to premiere the weekly show, tentatively titled Ultimate DJ, from the American Idol and X-Factor producer that will pit electronic dance music DJs against each other in a reality show where they will compete to be voted the best one.
Cowell announced a deal with dance music conglomerate SFX last year, which owns Dutch production company ID&T (Tomorrowland, TomorrowWorld, Mysteryland), Made Event (Electric Zoo), Beatport, etc., to help bring the idea to fruition. According to Advertising Age sources, the show will mix pre-recorded and live segments -- like the DJs performing?.
Despite the slowly solidifying plans to go forward, Cowell's show has not been without its detractors. One of Britain's legends at the craft, Norman Cook, professionally known as Fatboy Slim, had some choice comments about the show.
"Simon Cowell was talking about doing a show and everyone in the business, he kind of started approaching us, and we were like, 'F**k off. No -- that's a terrible idea!'" Cook told Digital Spy.
Cook reasoned, "That's the good thing about dance music; it grows organically through drunk people late at night coming up with stupid ideas. It's not something that can be scripted or transported into a TV studio."
He continued: "I get offered loads of TV shows and they're like, 'Can you perform for five minutes?' But DJ-ing takes two hours and an audience. It's not like you can go out there and sing your latest song."
A few details remain unclear. One is how Yahoo was able to secure the show onto Yahoo Screen. It has shown considerable endeavor recently looking to create a rival video streaming service to Netflix and Amazon. Yahoo Screen is making the investment to revive NBC's former show Community while also gearing up to start two original comedies.
Another unknown is how the show will capitalize on social media, which has propelled other reality competitions like The Voice onto the mainstream consciousness. Yahoo owns micro-blogging site Tumblr and may want to integrate that into the show, but how it would do so is unclear.
If the below example is an indication of what the show might become, be prepared for a train wreck:
