Well…, what is it like, how best to describe it… This is really hard, you know? Would you like an honest answer, me describing as it is? Or do you prefer the official legend, as in splendid opportunities, new horizons, chance of a lifetime, and bla, and more bla,…?
The truth. Okay… That is one big word, you know?
Let’s try the facts, then. An average of 1.117 applications, per week. Not that many, considering there are some dozens of millions of refugees, if you trust sources like UNHCR. Quite a lot, if you take into consideration that to be able to apply, you need to be in a camp, officially registered, have access to a functional phone with sufficient data volume to provide the required set of three pictures and one video, and pretty good English. We are totally missing out on non-English speaking talent. Breaks my heart, because hey, that’s so not inclusive at all!
No, of course I can’t ‘read’ 1.117 applications. No manual processing involved at the first two stages. Central casting sets the parameters, for age, gender and region of origin – bit of a proxy for race, that one, but psst, no mentioning of this aspect, big bad dirty secret, and then the software does it’s job.
Stage one, the software sorts the applications according to the parameters. We typically get loads of young men, and hardly any old women, meaning the latter get a much better chance to move to stage 2. Can you do me the favour to spread the word? I’d really appreciate a better selection of at least middle-aged ladies. The older, the better, actually. A granny would be cool to have, on the show, but they seem to rarely make it to the camps or manage to apply, for whichever reason.
Sorry, I’m digressing…
Stage two, the software does some advanced sorting, of the pictures. It’s a special algorithm, trained on audience preferences, that delivers a likeability score. You need high and low scorers, for emotional involvement. Officially, the algorithm is very secret sauce and high tech. If you look at what it delivers, you see the usual: Symetric face, good teeth, nice skin and hair = high score. Asymmetric face, bad teeth, pimples and bald spots = low score. Pretty obvious, like for the heroes and villains movies, just look at those teeth to guess who’ll be the bad guy, in the end.
Stage three is my job: I get presented with perhaps a dozen of promising candidates and call them to check if they’re anything like their applications. More often than not, I can’t reach them, or they’re fake in one or more respects. I often go for days without meeting any valuable talent.
That’s as much truth as I can come up with. Will that do, or would you prefer anecdotes? You won’t believe the kind of stuff I get to see in the application videos…