Bravo (Sundays, 9 p.m. ET)
It's hard to sympathize with pampered stars, but consider the stark statistic that leads off each episode of this worthwhile series: Of approximately 100,000 actors in New York City, only 2 percent actually make a living from their vocation. The rest scuffle for any gig they can get.
Such wanna-be-working actors are the focus of The It Factor, which began its 13-week run Jan. 6. Cameras follow a dozen real-life subjects—chosen from more than 2,000 candidates—as they pound the pavement, go through auditions and face rejection. The participants range from Daisy Eagan, who won a Tony Award in 1991 at age 11 and now finds herself back at square one, to Kevin Bulla, a sometime model with good looks, a positive attitude and apparently slender talent. You'll especially root for Miranda Black, who cleans apartments for subsistence money while hoping for the golden opportunity to deliver one line on Third Watch.
Twelve subjects are too many for this half-hour show to track effectively. During the first five episodes, two of the actors seem to drop off the radar screen. But The It Factor is one reality series that definitely passes its audition.
Bottom Line: Good casting
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