Nathan Fielder brought back Canadian Idol for Season 2 of The Rehearsal, but while we gave the show a 10/10 review, one of the contestants from his fake singing competition isn't laughing. Rather, she's saying she lost around $10,000 USD to be a "lab rat" for Fielder's show.
Lana Love is a singer-songwriter based in New York who was previously a contestant on The Voice. She signed up for HBO's Wings of Voice as a way to get exposure for her music career, and it wasn't until the day before her final taping, when she had already made it into the Top 50, that she discovered the whole competition was fake.
By then, the competition had already cost her a reported $10,000 — $5,500 USD on travel to Los Angeles, accommodations, and hair and makeup, plus losing out on around $4,000 in cancelled lessons as a vocal teacher in New York. She was paid $1,250 for one of the tapings. Other contestants were paid background rates for $180.
"I signed up to be a singer, not a lab rat," Love told Variety. She broke her NDA to speak about her experience, but said HBO "[doesn't] really have ground to stand on." Once Love figured out that the show was fake, she spread the word among her fellow participants.
"I felt like there wasn't a basic human respect for people who have devoted their lives to art," she said, but clarified that she bore "no resentment" toward Fielder. "I'm not sure if he's a psychopath or a genius," she says. "He might be showing us our flaws through him."
Before appearing on Wings of Voice, she signed a non-union contract and wasn't allowed onto the studio lot without it; she said there was no time to properly read the contract or send it to a lawyer. "The only abnormal thing is that we auditioned for an airline pilot," she said. "And there were no cameras visible in the room. They were all hidden." Her audition wasn't shown on TV, but she appeared in the pop-punk section of the "Amazing Grace" medley in Episode 4, after which she was eliminated by judges.
Love and other contestants reportedly shared their experiences in a group chat, viewed by Vulture, with one complaining, "We were just an experiment."
Of course, if Wings of Voice helps Fielder to make a breakthrough in aviation safety, all this will have been worth it. The are two episodes left in The Rehearsal's six-episode second season. That still gives Fielder plenty of time to save face.