Fox network announced today that it will headline its lineup of fall programming with "America's Next Top Bard."
In the pilot, contestants are asked to memorize and recite a soliloquy from Hamlet, to write a bad sonnet on a quotation to be disclosed from Susan Sontag's literary essays, and to take part in the "Instant Haiku" round. Veteran poetry impresario Bob Holman, poet Amanda Gorman, BAP series editor David Lehman, and writer Margo Jefferson will join host Bob Dylan as judges.
Forthcoming episodes will focus on competitors representing elite colleges, corporations, and television networks. The celebrity competitors in the pilot are Kate Mara, Josh Charles, and Elisabeth Moss, pictured at top left. Moss, a Los Angeles native, will turn forty on July 24 of this year, making her a Leo with Cancer rising and a water dog in Chinese astrology.
Julie Angstrom, a spokeswoman for the network, said that Dylan, who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2016, says that ever since he feels an obligation to American poetry. He said he memorized Frost's poems as a young man in Minnesota and recommended him without reservation. "But I never liked Ezra Pound. In fact I never read him."
Ms. Angstrom explained that the thematic unity of the pilot derives from T. S. Eliot's characterization of April as "the cruelest month."
"That's as much as I can say right now," said Angstrom.
Subsequent episodes will follow the format similar to other "America's Top" reality programs: a large pool of aspiring poets will be winnowed down over the course of a season to one standout winning bard. Participants will be matched with poetry mentors who will advise them on developing a "voice," adhering to poetic forms while inventing new ones, writing a convincing bio note, and applying makeup for an author's photo. The winning prizes will include publication in The New Yorker "Page Turner" blog, an off-site reading at an upcoming AWP conference, and lunch with an esteemed poet of the winner's choice.
Judges will come from the ranks of former guest editors of The Best American Poetry. Rumors have circulated that Bill and Hillary Clinton (pictured at left, sharing a laugh with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger) will be reunited with former White House guests Rita Dove, Robert Pinsky, and Robert Hass to judge the crucial fifth elimination episode. Wesleyan graduate Matthew Weiner, creater of the popular Mad Men series, who recently disclosed in a Paris Review interview that from ninth grade on he "wrote poetry compulsively," is likely to anchor at least one episode as a judge.
Watch this space for more details as they come. Click here for the official press release.
April Fool's Day?
Posted by: Emily Fragos | April 01, 2022 at 08:44 AM
Bob Dylan reciting Frost and saying, "I never liked Ezra Pound. In fact, I never read him."
Thank you, Stacey. You made me smile on this first day of April.
Posted by: Emily Fragos | April 01, 2022 at 08:54 AM
How do you enter to be a contestant?
Posted by: Sidney Ghoti | April 01, 2022 at 12:38 PM
Do they know the answers in advance?
Posted by: Bruno Anthony | April 01, 2022 at 01:34 PM
Ha, I got sucked in, but I'd love a show like that! Judy D.
Posted by: Judy Durrant | April 02, 2022 at 04:57 AM
If only...
Posted by: Terence Winch | April 02, 2022 at 08:57 AM
More details, please!
Posted by: Peter Fortunato | April 02, 2022 at 09:11 AM
Best April fools gag!
Posted by: Betsy Retallack | April 02, 2022 at 06:21 PM