OPT Spotlight — Official Rules (Season 1)

Last updated: July 2026 · Sponsor: Optimistic Media LLC

NO PURCHASE OR PAYMENT NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. This is a contest of skill. Entries are judged on merit against the published criteria below. Void where prohibited by law.

1. Sponsor

OPT Spotlight: Upstate New York's Poetry & Comedy Talent Search (formerly promoted as "The OPTtv Open Mic") (the "Contest") is sponsored by Optimistic Media LLC ("Sponsor"), a Colorado limited liability company. Contact: hello@optimisticmedia.net.

2. Eligibility

Open to legal residents of the fifty (50) United States and the District of Columbia who are eighteen (18) years of age or older at the time of entry.
Age verification. Every entrant must provide their date of birth when entering, and the entry system rejects any entry that does not reflect an age of at least eighteen (18). Sponsor may further require an entrant to provide valid government-issued photo identification confirming their age before their performance is published on OPT TV, before advancing to the finals, and before any prize is awarded. Entries with a misstated age or that cannot be age-verified will be disqualified.
Employees, contractors, and immediate family members of Sponsor, and the judges, are not eligible.
Void where prohibited or restricted by law.

2a. Divisions

Season 1 is contested in one market division plus an at-large division. Each entrant competes in the division corresponding to their primary residence at the time of entry, declared in the entry email:

Upstate New York Market: entrants whose primary residence is in New York State, excluding New York City (the five boroughs), Long Island (Nassau and Suffolk counties), and Westchester and Rockland counties. This includes, without limitation, the Rochester, Buffalo, Syracuse, Albany, Utica, Binghamton, Ithaca, Watertown, and Plattsburgh areas, the Finger Lakes, the Southern Tier, the Adirondacks, and the Hudson Valley north of Rockland and Westchester counties.
At-Large Division: all other eligible entrants. At-large entries are judged on the same criteria and compete for distribution and featured placement on OPTtv only; the at-large division carries no cash prize.

Sponsor may request reasonable proof of residency (e.g., a driver's license or utility bill) before awarding any prize; misrepresenting residency is grounds for disqualification. Sponsor's good-faith determination of an entrant's division is final.

3. Contest period

Entries are accepted from July 20, 2026 at 12:00 AM Eastern Time through Monday, August 3, 2026 at 11:59 PM Eastern Time (the "Entry Period"). Qualifying performances will then be published on OPT TV, with public voting from August 4, 2026 through August 7, 2026 at 11:59 PM Eastern Time (the "Voting Period"). Finalists will be announced on or about August 8, 2026. The finals will be held as a live event — OPT Spotlight Live: Upstate New York Poetry & Comedy Showcase — on Sunday, August 16, 2026, at a venue in Rochester, New York to be announced at optimisticmedia.net/openmic; winners will be announced at the event.

3a. The live event & tickets

OPT Spotlight Live: Upstate New York Poetry & Comedy Showcase is a ticketed public event, open to attendees eighteen (18) years of age and older; valid government-issued photo identification may be required for entry to confirm age.
General admission tickets will be available for purchase once ticketing opens; ticket sales details and pricing will be announced at optimisticmedia.net/openmic.
Finalists perform free of charge and are admitted without a ticket.
Buying a ticket is not a contest entry and has no effect on judging or anyone's chance of winning. The Contest itself remains free to enter and is judged on skill; the ticket only admits the holder to attend the live showcase.
The event will be photographed, filmed, and recorded; entry to the venue constitutes acknowledgement of the posted filming notice.

4. How to enter

Record an original performance in one of two categories: Stand-Up Comedy (maximum 7 minutes) or Spoken Word & Poetry (maximum 5 minutes).
Submit a viewable link to the video through the official entry form at optimisticmedia.net/enter, which collects your name, contact information, city, discipline, performance link, date of birth (for age verification), and the required broadcast release. Alternatively, email the same information — including your date of birth — to hello@optimisticmedia.net with subject line "OPT Spotlight — Comedy" or "OPT Spotlight — Poetry", including your division under Section 2a and the statement "I have read and agree to the Official Rules." Entering by either method constitutes agreement to these rules.
Limit: one (1) entry per person per category. Entry is free.

5. Entry requirements

All material must be original to the entrant and performed by the entrant.
Any music, samples, or third-party material must be owned by the entrant or affirmatively licensed for this use; entries containing uncleared third-party music or material will be disqualified.
Every person appearing in the video must have consented to appear and to the uses described in these rules. Nobody under 18 may appear.
Any use of AI-generated material (writing, audio, or video) must be disclosed in the entry email.
Sponsor may reject or disqualify, in its sole discretion, any entry that is unlawful, defamatory, hateful, obscene, infringing, or inconsistent with Sponsor's brand or content standards.

6. Judging (contest of skill; two rounds)

Round 1 — Public semifinal vote. Approved entries will be displayed at tv.optimisticmedia.net, grouped by division and category, where members of the public holding a free OPTtv account may vote during the Voting Period. Limit: one (1) vote per entry per account. Automated, purchased, incentivized, or otherwise fraudulent votes are prohibited; Sponsor employs technical anti-fraud measures (including per-account and per-network limits and anomaly detection) and may, in its sole discretion, discard votes it determines to be fraudulent, disqualify entries that benefit from vote manipulation, or substitute the next-highest eligible entry. The five (5) Upstate New York Market entries with the most valid votes in each category advance to the finals — ten (10) finalists in total, five (5) in Stand-Up Comedy and five (5) in Spoken Word & Poetry.

Disclosed voting-integrity and anti-spam measures. In the interest of transparency, Sponsor discloses the following measures: (a) voting requires a free OPTtv account and an authenticated sign-in — votes are recorded server-side only; (b) the database enforces a hard limit of one (1) vote per entry per account; (c) network-level limits apply, including a daily cap on votes from any single network connection and a per-entry household allowance, beyond which votes are automatically flagged; (d) network identifiers are stored only as salted one-way hashes — raw IP addresses are never retained; (e) flagged votes are excluded from standings and reviewed before finalist selection; (f) entry and application forms use automated spam filtering (including hidden honeypot fields), and suspected automated submissions are silently discarded. Attempting to circumvent these measures is grounds for disqualification.

Round 2 — Live panel finals. Finalists will perform live at OPT Spotlight Live on Sunday, August 16, 2026 (Stand-Up Comedy: up to 7 minutes; Spoken Word & Poetry: up to 5 minutes; material may be the submitted set or new original material meeting Section 5). A judging panel selected by Sponsor will score the live performances using the following criteria, weighted equally: (a) originality of material; (b) quality of performance and delivery; (c) audience appeal; and (d) fit with OPTtv's programming. The highest-scoring finalist in each category wins. Ties are re-scored on originality alone. The panel's skill-based evaluation determines the winners; public voting serves only to select finalists. If voting integrity cannot be assured for any reason, Sponsor reserves the right to have the panel select finalists directly on the criteria above (anti-fraud failsafe). Judging decisions are final and binding.

Finals logistics. Finalists must confirm participation within three (3) days of notification. Travel to and attendance at the finals event are at each finalist's own expense. If a finalist cannot attend in person, Sponsor may, in its sole discretion, permit that finalist to be judged on their submitted video or substitute the next-highest eligible entry. If the live event cannot be held for any reason, the panel will judge the finalists' submitted videos on the criteria above, and winners will be announced at optimisticmedia.net/openmic.

Low-entry failsafe. If the Upstate New York Market receives fewer than five (5) approved entries in a category, Sponsor may advance all approved entries in that category directly to the panel round. At-large entries compete only for distribution and featured placement and are not eligible for cash prizes.

7. Prizes

One (1) winner per category in the Upstate New York Market — two (2) winners total — receives: two hundred fifty dollars ($250) paid by check or electronic transfer; distribution of the winning performance on OPTtv under the OPTtv Creator Distribution Agreement; and featured promotional placement across Optimistic Media channels.
Approximate retail value of each prize package: $250 (promotional placement has no retail value). Total cash prize pool: $500.
At-Large Division: no cash prize. Standout at-large entries may be offered distribution and featured placement on OPTtv under the OPTtv Creator Distribution Agreement.
Winners are responsible for all applicable taxes. Sponsor will issue tax forms where required by law and may require a completed IRS Form W-9 before prize delivery.
Sponsor may, at its sole discretion, also offer any non-winning entrant the standard OPTtv Creator Distribution Agreement. Declining such an offer has no effect on contest standing.

8. Rights in entries

You keep ownership of your work — full stop.
By entering, each entrant grants Sponsor a limited, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to view, host, and review the entry for judging, and to use short excerpts (up to 30 seconds) and the entrant's name, stage name, likeness, and biographical information to administer and promote the Contest.
Streaming of a full performance on OPTtv happens only under a separately signed OPTtv Creator Distribution Agreement — a non-exclusive, revenue-sharing license in which the creator retains all ownership.
If a winner declines to sign the Creator Distribution Agreement within fourteen (14) days of notification, Sponsor may award the distribution and promotional components of the prize to a runner-up; the cash prize remains the winner's.

9. Warranties

Each entrant represents and warrants that: the entry is original; the entrant owns or has cleared all rights in all material and performances in the entry; the entry does not infringe any third party's rights, including copyright, trademark, privacy, and publicity rights; and all information provided is accurate.

10. Publicity

Except where prohibited, entry constitutes consent for Sponsor to use the winner's name, stage name, likeness, city/state, and entry excerpts for Contest-related publicity in any media without additional compensation.

11. General conditions

Sponsor may cancel, suspend, or modify the Contest if fraud, technical failure, or any factor beyond Sponsor's control impairs its integrity, and may disqualify any entrant who tampers with the entry process.
Sponsor is not responsible for lost, late, misdirected, or inaccessible entries or links.
By entering, entrants release Sponsor from any claims arising out of participation in the Contest, to the maximum extent permitted by law.
These rules are governed by the laws of the State of Colorado, without regard to conflict-of-law principles. Venue for any dispute lies in the state or federal courts located in Colorado.

12. Privacy

Information submitted with an entry is used to administer the Contest and as described in Sponsor's Privacy Policy.

13. Winners list

For the names of the winners, email hello@optimisticmedia.net with subject "OPT Spotlight Winners List" after August 16, 2026.