Whether we admit it or not, just about every one of us has dreamed about being a ‘star.’ Remember watching movies in the family room as a kid and being floored by Marilyn Monroe’s beauty, the freshness of ‘pretty woman’ Julia Roberts, the stunning handsomeness of Cary Grant or Brad Pitt, and thinking “that could be me?”- the blonde with the sparkling diamonds, the redhead hot-tubbing with Richard Gere, or looking as debonair as Cary in his tuxedo or as carefree as Brad with his golden locks flying in the wind in Legends of the Fall. We're seduced by the mountains of money, the admiration and attention that come with fame. You can almost feel drunk thinking about the benefits of stardom; which brings us to the popularity of reality talent shows.

The X Factor, American Idol and The Voice have all held top places in the Nielsen ratings. In fact, The Voice scored #1 Nov. 10 in the 18-49 demo, capturing nearly 12.1 million viewers who watched aspiring singers battle it out. The wannabe stars are indeed talented and are judged by artists who, by all accounts, are exceedingly talented themselves. Gwen Stefani, Adam Levine, Pharell Williams and Blake Shelton are hot properties with multimillion dollar record sales and bank accounts to match.  

The X Factor was the baby of creator and A&R guru Simon Cowell. His judges get viewers to watch, too. Music Executive L.A. Reid, Britney Spears, and Demi Lavato boosted ratings when they were on the show back in 2012. However, as successful as the show originally was, it was cancelled in the U.S. The British version will still be produced, and, of course, the talented auditionees are still legion.

The quest to be a star is not the only selling point of TV reality talent shows. Participation in reality shows is a viable promotional tool for judges, who use the platform to propel their own careers. Take Khloe Kardashian, for instance. She was somewhat known for her work on Keeping up with the Kardashians and Khloe and Lamar, a former reality show about her life with her basketball-player husband. However, her stint as an X Factor judge made her more marketable, in spite of the fact that she was not especially successful as a judge. She is slated to host a prime-time talk show, Kocktails with Khloé, on the FYI network shortly. 

Jennifer Lopez made the decision to be a judge on American Idol. Along with Steven Tyler of Aerosmith fame and producer Randy Jackson, she achieved unprecedented popularity on Idol. She was able to showcase a soft side of herself that served to catapult her career into the stratosphere. With two years of Idol under her belt, J Lo, whom People magazine dubbed “the most beautiful woman in the world,” now can pick and choose multiple movie offers; not bad for a dancer who began her career in Brooklyn as ‘Jenni from the Block.’

The stats show that whether you are an unknown looking for fame and fortune or semi-known like Khloe or a full-blown celebrity like JLo looking for more, you really can’t miss hitting it out of the park if you appear as aspiring talent or a judge on a reality talent show.