I hate reality TV. Am I alone?

[YellowRubberDuckie]

I don't count the design shows as reality tv. I like them. I don't like the game show-y type things. Am I alone in this? I've noticed people are so crazy about the Amazing Race and Survivor. I loathe both.
Anyone else?
Duckie

[babylonsister]

1. Sorry, YRD.

I am a Survivor fan from the get-go. This past season was very weak but I always look forward to it.
What do you like? 'Lost', or 'Desperate Housewifes"? "24"?
I used to watch the design shows but not recently; I think they get old, too, though I must admit, "Monster House" can be entertaining!

[YellowRubberDuckie]

2. I watch ER, Judging Amy, CSI (All of them), L&O (All of them)...

King of the Hill, Futurama, and the Family Guy. I've kinda stopped watching a lot of TV.
Duckie

[Nikepallas]

3. I hate it as well. I get upset when I find myself watching it but I

end up doing so. I hate the way they imply that the only way to win is to backstab everyone.


I would love to see a reality show where their are 2 or three groups who only win by learning to get pass differences and working together. I know I am only dreaming. I probably would not watch it because as I said above I generally hate them.

[lazarus]

4. It's not the only way to win

Ethan won without backstabbing anybody. It can be done.

Heck, the "evil" Richard Hatch from season one never backstabbed anybody.

If you don't like the format of the show, that's cool. We don't all have to love everything. I can't stand sitcoms, because they seem predictable and boring. Hour long dramas have to be VERY well written to satisfy me. CSI used to, it's falling down on the job.

CSI: NY had me for a little while, but they did a major flub this week that disappointed me. I doubt seriously outdoor security cameras have the resolution to let them pick up, from 15 feet away, a reflection from a woman's eyeball.

Lost is probably the best scripted thing on network television right now, because it's the closest to the great stuff on HBO (Carnivale, Deadwood, Sopranos). No need to worry about the plot finishing up a major point every week, no apparent worry about syndication. It could end in a season, or go 2 or 3. Who knows?

It's nice that we all have a range of television to pick from. I just wonder at the visceral dislike of unscripted television.

[lazarus]

5. have you watched them?

How many episodes of Amazing Race or Survivor have you watched, out of curiousity?

[dr.strangelove]

6. I LOVE SURVIVOR

Sorry YRD, I just love Survivor. The first season got me through a difficult summer when I needed something mindless and easy to follow. When the second season hit, I was already hooked. I have since missed only a few episodes, and I look forward to every Thursday night for my only real night of TV.

I have never been a fan of the Amazing Race. I watched the second season, but more because of the crush I had developed for Paige of the brother/sister team. Since then I have not watched it.

I don't follow any other reality shows. I will watch one if there is nothing else on, but no other reality show has stuck with me like survivor. I agree with other comments that this past season was weak, but I will keep watching until it starts to go down. Even in this weak season, it was better than the current remakes of Friends, Law and Order and CSI on every night.

[Chovexani]

7. I'll have to echo Lazarus here

Have you ever actually seen The Amazing Race? I can't speak to Survivor because that's one boat I missed, but TAR is so far above the usual reality shows that comparing it to anything else is like saying crime procedurals uniformly suck after watching an episode of CSI: Miami (which, granted, is enough to turn anyone off crime procedurals what with Horatio Caine and his Sunglasses of Justice). TAR is the only reality show I watch. Until this season its contestants unlike every other reality show were Real People and not just allegedly pretty young famewhores looking to further a career as a model/actor. Even with the awful casting this year, there are some wonderful "everyday people" competing...like the father/daughter team of Gus and Hera. Watching them work together and grow closer as a family on the Race leaves me with a warm fuzzy feeling I just don't get from TV much anymore. Hell, I wouldn't even really call TAR a reality show, it's more of a really smart game show. It's the only reality show I've seen where sheer skill, merit and smart play are the only ways to win. Freddy/KKKendra & Hayden/Aaron's little "alliance" nonwithstanding, in TAR it is basically every team for themselves and no amount of aligning yourselves with other people or backstabbing will ultimately getting ahead. Teams need endurance AND smarts, and no one looks pretty after racing around the world, pulling oxes in muck and going on 3 hours of sleep at a given time.

It's also a really educational show. They go to so many different countries, and I always find myself learning something in each episode, even if it's that there's such a thing as a German soapbox derby circuit. It has the best editors of any show on TV and they do a great job of showing the triumphs and tragedies of the teams. Not to mention the show is just really well thought out. Case in point, in last week's episode the teams spent the mandatory rest period at the pit stop in Dakar, Senegal. Their first task of the day was to go to Goree Island and visit the infamous Slave House, where they were to leave a single rose at the Gate of No Return (the last place African slaves saw before losing their freedom). It sounds totally cheesy, but the way it was handled was so beautiful and moving. Gus and Hera (the only black racers on the show this season) were particularly touched, and Gus, a big teddy bear of a guy, was reduced to tears. To me it speaks volumes about the intelligence of a show that in the course of one episode would go from Goree Island to the Berlin Wall, from one symbol of oppression to another. Gus, in an interview when they were in Berlin, said the experience was a profound reminder of man's inhumanity towards man, and expressed his hope that his fellow racers would come away from it with a renewed understanding of themselves and the world.

I'm sorry, it's just insulting to compare something like that to shows where women degrade themselves for the chance to bag some bland rich boy as a husband, or some has-been D-list "celebrities" compete for a chance to be mocked on VH1's Best Week Ever.

Don't get me wrong, if you've seen the show and come to the conclusion that it's not your cup of tea, that's cool. I've just come across way too many people with knee-jerk reactions to reality shows without having given the cream of the crop a fair chance. I should know, I was one of them until my boyfriend got me hooked on TAR.

[lazarus]

8. I was one, too

Until my best friend convinced me to try Survivor. So I stayed tuned for the premiere of the second season after the Superbowl. I've only missed one episode of the ensuing 8 seasons, and I've seen season 1 three times already.

[Blue Gardener]

9. You are not alone

I don't like them either, and I won't waste my time watching any of them.

[Skittles]

10. can't stand 'em

phoniest shows on TV, real shit

[lazarus]

11. phony?

phonier than scripted television? That's an interesting angle to take, care to expand on it?

[Skittles]

12. people act different for the camera and when money is involved

all too often their behavior is a disgrace

[lazarus]

13. I still don't get it

I still don't get the sheer hatred for this particular genre. I don't see how it's any worse than any other genre.

[Skittles]

14. this fad will either fade out soon

or get worse and worse

[lazarus]

15. Or not

It could just become another genre, like sitcoms and cop shows.

[Ilsa]

16. I don't watch any "reality shows."

I don't think they are "real" but I think they are "pushed" in certain directions. I just don't like them. Give me great acting and decent drama or comedy any day.

My favorites on network:
West Wing
ER
Enterprise
Desperate Housewives

Others I love:
NOVA
Frontline
Now
Some of the drama on BBC - Foyle's War, etc

[bigwillq]

17. I like a few of the shows

Like Fear Factor and the Amazing Race

[Rhiannon12866]

18. No, I really hate it too! I think it's a total waste of the airwaves!

But I used to write about TV, so I have a different perspective. Do you know why reality TV is so prevalent? Because of money. It's incredibly cheap to make, compared with a sitcom or drama, something with a storyline. With a show like "Frasier" or "Seinfeld" or "Friends," you have to pay actors, sometimes big bucks, and good writers and you need multiple sets and costumes. You need creativity and thought to come up with stories that people will tune in to, week after week, and actual characters.

At first there was the proliferation of news shows, which are much cheaper to make. For years there was only "60 Minutes," then "48 Hours," now two of both of them. And there's "20/20" and "Primetime Live" and a "Dateline" on practically every night of the week.

But reality shows? How cheap are they to make?! Just stick a group of people on an island or in a house and let the cameras roll. No actors, no writers, no sets, no costumes. And people are tuning in! It boggles the mind! The last straw was the other night when I saw a promo for the making of a reality show! So they're getting twice the mileage out of the same damn thing!:grr:

Sorry for the rant, LOL! But that's what it's all about, money!

[lazarus]

19. stick 'em on an island?

Yeah, only takes a crew of over 400.

Survivor is one of the most expensive shows out there, and is easily the most expensive reality TV show.

Do you know why reality TV is so popular? Because sitcoms and cop shows just recycle the same plots and jokes over and over and over. We don't need 47 Law & Order franchises, nor do we need three CSIs.

Reality TV (I prefer unscripted drama, or game show) gives you something different. Yes, there's a standard formula for each hour of Survivor. You get used to the 'beats', as it were. But what happens in that hour is quite often totally unpredictable and unexpected. I can't think of the last time I got that from a sitcom. (Of course, I gave up on sitcoms once I had seen all the plots two hundred times).

What perplexes me is this: why does reality TV come in for such abuse? Is it honestly any worse than bad sitcoms or bad newsmagazines or bad dramas?

[Rhiannon12866]

20. Of course not. Bad TV is just bad TV.

And there's just too much of it out there, IMO. It's getting so that I just mostly watch cable news, and that's frustrating, since every show goes over the same story, whatever is the big one of the day or the week. Reality shows are not my cup of tea. But I don't watch "Law & Order" or "CSI," either. I feel that there is a loss of creativity and thought and imagination in what the networks are putting out there. Where's the next "M*A*S*H" or the next "Cheers?" There's nothing of that quality on offer. Is the next generation going to wax nostalgic about their favorite classic episode of "Fear Factor?" I don't think so.:shrug:

[lazarus]

21. Not really

There seems to be a lot of reality TV out there, but the percentages aren't unreasonable. It's just another genre now.

I agree that we're seeing a real lack of creativity. The best series I've seen lately are HBO: Carnivale, Deadwood, Sopranos. The only scripted series I watch on network television is Lost.

[Rhiannon12866]

22. There are nights when a network will show nothing but reality shows

IMO, that's way over the top. Most nights, there's nothing I'm interested in watching on TV at all. For someone who worked with TV for over 15 years, that's disappointing.:shrug:

I kind of got interested in "Dead Like Me" on Showtime, though, in the beginning, it kind of creeped me out. But it was extremely original, well-written and you came to really care about the characters. But that's over for the "season," whatever that's come to mean, these days. As for HBO, what's with Bill Maher? He was on infrequently and now his "season" is over, as well.:shrug:

[lazarus]

23. Maher has a weird schedule

10 weeks on, 10 weeks off, as best as I can tell. He flips with "Real Sports".

As for the schedule, here's the breakdown for this week on the 4 major broadcast networks.

I didn't count newsmagazines as "reality TV", but did count long running shows like Cops. I just didn't list the People's Choice Awards in either category, I don't know what to call that.

13 hours of reality TV, 55 hours of non-reality TV. That's 19%, not too severe.

I'll admit I rarely watch network television at all. Survivor, Amazing Race, and Lost are, iirc, the only things I watch. Oh, Big Brother if it's on and seems interesting.

My DVR is a wonderful thing, though. I watch lots of neat stuff from the niche channels. And I've gotten addicted to these cheesy list shows on VH-1. :D

[Rhiannon12866]

24. Well, I can't follow Maher's schedule

And what's up with "The Daily Show?" I thought that they were gone for good, though I knew better.

I wouldn't count newsmagazines as "reality," either. They're kind of across between news and talk. That's a good point about "Cops." I would never have included them with the "reality" shows, since they were on so long before this genre was born, but you sure can't get any more real than "Cops." However, I do think that there's one main difference. Putting folks on an island was someone's idea, while the domestic disputes and drunken brawls, and subsequent confrontations and arrests, would have taken place whether or not there was someone there to film it.

I guess it's because of all the hype that it's getting that makes it seem as if "reality" is taking over the airwaves. And it just seems to be getting worse. Choosing a spouse, or, even worse, a spouse for a parent, on TV, seems totally exploitative to me. But the promo that's really getting to me is the one where a family is fighting over a will. I don't think this has even aired yet, but I'm sick of it already. How far will they go?! But I already know the answer. They'll put anything on TV that people will watch.

Everyone has their own tastes, and there should be something for everybody, but I do know that these genres run in cycles. Since I worked with the networks, I tend to look to see what they're showing first and I have been disappointed. I enjoyed shows like "Northern Exposure," and there's nothing like that on offer now. But I don't miss the days of "Love Boat" and "Fantasy Island," LOL!

Do you get Sundance? Many of the movies they show are too obscure for me, but they have shown political films like "Unprecedented" and "Unconstitutional." And, for awhile, an hour, each night, of Al Franken's radio show. I really enjoyed that!:D

[lazarus]

25. I love Sundance

Also IFC.

I have to agree with you on something: A lot of these reality shows (primarily on Fox) are scraping the bottom of the Jerry Springer barrel. "Who's Your Daddy" may well be the worst idea for a show ever conceived.

And the hype is a big deal, I agree with that, as well.

When I see attacks on "reality TV", I interpret it as an attack on the entire genre, and I have to say that the top of the genre (i.e. Survivor and Amazing Race) are as good as the top of any other genre.

It all goes back to Sturgeon's Law: 95% of everything is crap.

And I so miss Northern Exposure, too. I miss Newsradio, and Futurama, and good Simpsons, and good SNL. Network television is a wasteland right now. Honestly, I watch exactly four hours of network television a week: Survivor (when it's on), Amazing Race (when it's on), CSI (only the original), and Lost. Last week, all I had to watch was Amazing Race, the others were reruns.


Here's my latest addiction: Those stupid list shows on VH-1. I dunno why, but I find myself watching them a lot lately. I record them on my DVR, so I can zip past the lame "host" segments they could do away with, and skipping entries I find boring. How silly is that? :D

[Rhiannon12866]

26. Sundance is very good

But the networks, IMHO, are sliding into oblivion. The one exception that I can think of is "Scrubs." I'm glad you agree that 95% of what's on is crap. I find this very disappointing, since they used to work so hard to outdo each other to present a quality product. Now they seem to be trying to outdo each other to show the bizarre and the inane.:crazy:

The latest, which would have to fall into this category, seems to be the one where a family comes to blows over somebody's will. I don't think that this is even on yet, but I'm already sick of the promos. This one would definitely fall into your "Jerry Springer" genre, and I think it's going to be on my beloved CBS, the "Tiffany" of the networks, which aired not only "Northern Exposure," but also "Picket Fences," "Murphy Brown" and "Newhart" in its best days. *sigh*:-(

That "Who's Your Daddy," I've never seen, but I've heard it described as child abuse. What a great concept for a TV show!:grr:

I'm not particularly interested in any of the reality shows, but I'll take your word for it that the best of them are worth the airtime. I guess that you have to tune in at the beginning to follow them.:shrug:

I also miss the ones that you mention. I remember when "The Simpsons" made its move from just being a segment on "Tracey Ullman" and I have all sorts of "Simpsons" memorabilia, somewhere, since FOX was working so hard to promote it, and trying to get the world to take them seriously as a network.:-)

I've never seen "Lost," but I voted for it for "The People's Choice Awards" on your recommendation, LOL! I don't know why I bothered, since I had heard of so few of the entries, and I remembered, too late, from when I had to write about this silly waste of airtime, how ridiculous the choices were. Who would you choose: Frank Sinatra, Mohammad Ali or Rodney Dangerfield?:eyes:

Also, the reruns are getting to me. I know that they're saving the new episodes for February sweeps, but they're going to be lucky if they still have an audience by then.:-(

I'll check out VH-1. I have never tuned in before. I mainly just check out the networks, and if nothing's on, head straight for MSNBC or CNN.*sigh*:shrug: