Most importantly, the reality competition -- once planned to precede Glee's second season -- has been delayed to summer 2011. Though Oxygen is planning to have the winner appear on Glee, even creator Ryan Murphy has said that he would prefer focusing on the original series rather than this one, making it an unwanted spinoff at best, annd at worst, a second-rate derivative meant to build up American Idol-level hype around a brand that could have been taken more seriously had it not been ground down into reality spin-off goo.
It's all part of Twentieth TV's plan to put Glee roots down at Oxygen, hoping that the cable network targeting women 18-34 will be able to build its own Glee fanbase with other specials related to Fox's breakout. Whether this means that Oxygen will soon be announcing a reality show chronicling real-life glee clubs or a Make a Glee Wish series in which Matthew Morrison travels cross-country in a Fox-skinned Focus teaching teenagers from rural high schools about the art of theatricality, is uncertain.
ยท Want to Join the Glee Club? Audition on New Reality Series [NYT]