Madonna tries to become Cyborg Cowell

Of course, Madonna will have precious little to do with the day-to-day running of Big Shot, some ill-conceived attempt at a cross between America's Got Talent and YouTube, but the involvement of Maverick is enough for her name to add some much-needed sparkle to the idea.

Effectively, you're being invited to upload video of yourself being talented, then deliver your on and offline friends to vote for you, with one winner every day getting a prize. A duff prize, though, because all it is is an audition with a "Hollywood rainmaker", and entry into another talent competition.

The organisers of BigShot are, clearly, very excited at the idea of selling advertising:

"These individuals become marketable talent," said Madison Road partner Jak Severson. "The notion is, as long as you're popular, advertisers want to market around you."

Although if you're popular and smart, you might want to think about sticking your own video on the web, slapping some Google adwords onto the site, and keeping the rake-off for yourself. After all, wouldn't a half-decent Hollywood Rainmaker seek you out anyway if you're that good and popular?

While you might argue that BigShot could deliver an audience that a self-promoted site wouldn't, it's clear that, nope, their business plan is that you're supposed to bring your own eyeballs:

Rather than lure random surfers, "Big Shot" hopes contestants will rally their online peers -- think MySpace friends, etc. -- to visit the site and propel them to victory.

"It's all about an 11th grade kid who already has an online fanbase using his virtual friends" to get ahead, Maverick TV topper Michael Rosenberg said.

So, let's get this straight: you provide the audience that Maverick and Madison Road will sell to advertisers, you provide the content, and all you get is a chance at a shot of entering a talent show? That's not, exactly, the most enticing deal.

Maverick, of course, isn't new to this whole crushing ("nurturing") new talent thing - they were behind the poorly-thought-out screentime wrong that was I'm With Rolling Stone.