Reality TV has been around for years. Some people hate it and refuse to watch it but many of us can’t help ourselves. America’s desire to peek into other people’s lives is what’s made the Reality TV industry what it is today. The other night I turned on the TV, scrolled through my TiVo menu and found the latest episode of ‘Bad Girls Club.’ As I sat and watched the group of women screaming at each other, something strange occurred to me – I don’t like any of these people. Why am I watching this?
This epiphany came to me midway through the episode. The normal thing to do would’ve been to turn the TV off or find something else to watch but that’s not what I did. I kept watching. I realized that despite the fact that there’s not one person in this show that I can truly relate to I couldn’t help myself. Perhaps it’s the fact that I can’t relate to them that makes them so interesting to watch.
The whole thing got me thinking about reality TV in general. TV has dabbled with the reality show format for years but the first truly successful show was probably ‘COPS.’ The show, which is still on the air, premiered in 1989 and follows cops and sheriff deputies around as they arrest people. In 1992, MTV aired the first season of ‘The Real World.’ The show centers on a group of strangers whose ages ranged from 18 to early 20’s and shows how they interact when forced to live with one another.
Since ‘Cops’ and ‘The Real World’ there have been dozens of new reality shows in American television. The actual definition of “Reality TV” is somewhat debatable. Some consider any non-fiction or “unscripted” show to fall into the reality TV genre but for the purpose of this article, I define reality TV as any unscripted series that focuses on the people in the show. This would exclude How-to shows and talent competitions because both of those center more on technique and performance more than on the everyday lives of the people involved in the shows. For example, while ‘American Idol’ does show video clips of the more personal side of the contestants, the bulk of the show is about their performance and not what goes on behind the scenes.
Now that that’s out of the way, I’ll break down the genre into subcategories because lets face it; the reality TV genre encompasses a fairly wide variety of TV shows.
Reality Shows About Romance and Dating
Examples – ‘The Bachelor,’ ‘Flavor of Love,’ ‘Blind Date,’ ‘Temptation Island’
This is the one genre of reality TV that I’ve never been able to enjoy. With shows like ‘The Bachelor,’ ‘Flavor of Love’ and ‘Joe Millionaire’ there is an element of desperation among the competitors that I think is just way too unsettling for me to be able to view as entertainment. ‘Temptation Island’ showcases everything that’s wrong in many relationships. Of all of the romance related reality shows, the ‘Blind Date’ types of shows are the only ones I can stomach and even then, its in moderation. Finding love in this crazy world isn’t easy but these types of shows make it seem downright depressing.
Competetitve Reality Shows
Examples – ‘Big Brother,’ ‘Survivor,’ ‘Road Rules,’ ‘Top Chef,’ ‘America’s Next Top Model,’ ‘The Amazing Race’
The competitive shows seem to bring out the best and worst in the people who compete. It is this element that makes them so addicting for regular viewers. I recall a scene in the last season of ‘Amazing Race’ in which contestants Rob and Kimberly had a screaming match with one another while tomatoes were pelted at them. I remember watching and thinking “god, these two people must be so embarrassed to have had this kind of breakdown on national television.” That kind of moment is, in a nutshell, what many of these competitive reality TV shows are all about. The people seem to have their eyes so focused on the grand prize that they are almost unaware that they’re being filmed. This makes shows like ‘Big Brother’ and ‘The Amazing Race’ guilty pleasures of mine. I hate that I enjoy watching them but not enough to change the channel.
With ‘Top Chef’ and ‘America’s Next Top Model,’ there is the usual amount of drama but there’s also the enjoyment of seeing people working towards something more than just a pile of cash. The people who compete in these shows have often been competing for their dream long before they had cameras following them. It’s fascinating to see people with the drive and dedication that many of them have getting so close to achieving their dreams.
Reality Shows Centered on Home Life
Examples – ‘The Real World,’ ‘Bad Girls Club,’ ‘Wife Swap’
These shows focus on the everyday life of their subjects. ‘Real World’ started out with a regular apartment inhabited by regular young adults trying to get along and grow into adulthood. Since then the focus of the show has evolved into something else. Now the house is filled with people with extreme personalities, some of which could be diagnosed with actual personality disorders, eating disorders and other addictions. Mainly they party a lot, fight with each other, sleep with each other and complain about whatever cushy job MTV assigns them to. I knew I’d outgrown this show when I started wondering what some of their parents must think when they watch it.
‘Bad Girls Club’ (another Bunim/Murray produced show) is like ‘The Real World’ except without the live-in guys and attempt to make these women out to be anything more than what they are – bad girls. It’s a lot more openly trashy than ‘The Real World’ and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t find it entertaining.
‘Wife Swap’ is basically different varieties of the ‘American Family.’ It fascinates me to watch different kinds of wives and mothers switch places and have a chance to make a difference in someone else’s household. Whether or not the show has had any permanent effect on the families who’ve participated, I couldn’t say but the optimist in me likes to believe it has.
Celebrity Reality Shows
Examples – ‘Growing Up Gotti,’ ‘Newlyweds,’ ‘The Simple Life,’ ‘The Surreal Life’
Another guilty pleasure of mine is watching how the other half lives. Though I have to wonder whether or not most of the celebrities who’ve had their own reality show ended up regretting it afterwards. Nick and Jessica probably don’t. ‘Newlyweds’ put them on the map. Oh, sure they were around before then but prior to the show, their careers were stuck in the shadow of other musicians. They didn’t truly hit stardom until they aired their dirty laundry on national television.
Whether its watching a hotel heiress make a fool of herself by attempting to do normal everyday things, watching B-list celebs jump through hoops or seeing what the relatives of one of America’s modern-day crime boss are up to, people like celebrities and want to know what their day to day lives are like. I’m willing to bet that these types of shows will be around for as long as there are celebrities willing to participate in them.
Reality Shows Centered on Work Life
Examples – ‘COPS’, ‘American Chopper’, ‘Dog The Bounty Hunter’, ‘King of Cars’
These types of shows are the most interesting to me. When done well, even a show about a car dealership (‘King of Cars’) can be exciting. Then of course there’s ‘Dog The Bounty Hunter’ which gives us an inside look at the life of a man whose job it is to capture rapists and murderers. For anyone who does the usual 9-to-5 job, reality shows like these allow us to view different types of working environments through the eyes of the Dog, Chop, The Teutuls and every other working man or women who is willing to allow a TV network to film them on the job.
Makeover Shows
Examples: ‘Queer Eye For The Straight Guy,’ ‘Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,’ ‘The Swan,’ ‘Extreme Makeover’
The only types of makeover shows I cant seem to enjoy are the ones that involve plastic surgery. I don’t think I’m alone in this because shows like ‘The Swan’ and ‘Extreme Makeover’ never lasted for more than a few seasons before being cancelled due to poor ratings. Seeing people going to such extreme measures to change how they look just isn’t entertaining to me. I did enjoy ‘Queer Eye’ in its first season, though the concept did get old after a while.
The extremely successful ‘Extreme Makeover: Home Edition’ is probably my favorite makeover reality show of all time. What makes the show work so well is that they find families who are almost always entirely deserving of the house they’re presented with at the end of the episode.
Miscellaneous MTV Reality Shows
Examples: ‘Two-A-Days,’ ‘My Super Sweet 16,’ ‘Engaged and Underaged, Made,’ ‘Punk’d,’ ‘Pimp My Ride,’ ‘Room Raiders’
I put this in its own category because MTV (the network that used to be about music) loves reality shows. These types of shows are the ultimate junk food of reality TV. They generally center on different subjects (mostly teenagers or young-adults) in each episode and focus on different lifestyles. I give MTV credit for managing to come up with the concepts for all of their series. Who’d have thought that watching over privileged teenagers getting spoiled rotten with a lavish sweet 16 party would make for good TV? One of their recent series, ‘Engaged and Underaged’ is about couples that are in their late teens/early 20s and getting married. I only caught one episode of it but I found it to be kind of depressing and don’t plan on watching it in the future.
Despite what some people might think, reality TV isn’t going anywhere anytime soon – at least not entirely. Though you can find at least one popular reality show on just about ever network, the genre does seem to be dying down a bit. Ratings on ‘The Apprentice’ and ‘Survivor’ certainly aren’t what they once were, while shows like ‘Top Chef’ and ‘America’s Next Top Model’ only seem to be getting more popular with each season. The genre is evolving and will continue to do so for years to come.
’Grease: You’re the One That I Want’ (NBC) 8:00 pm
(New!) – One of the Danny’s is cut and the remaining contestants perform duets.
’Battlestar Galactica’ (SCIFI) 10:00 pm
The Son Also Rises - (New!) – Lee gets put in charge of protecting Baltar’s lawyer after his first attorney is killed. No Kara in this episode and rumor has it, her name has been pulled from the opening credits.
’24’ (Fox) 9:00 pm
6:00 pm – 7:00 pm- (New!) – Jack’s been captured and has crucial info that he needs to get to CTU. Martha and Charles Logan have a tense reunion.
’The Black Donnellys’ (NBC) 10:00 pm
The World Will Break Your Heart- (New!) – Tommy is asked to host Huey’s wake. Huey’s brother suspects that Jimmy was the one who killed his brother. Seeing as Jimmy was in police custody at the time, it shouldn’t take long for Huey to figure out he’s suspecting the wrong Donnelly.
’American Idol’ (Fox) 8:00 pm
(New!) – The final 12 perform. This is a two hour episode so no ‘House’ tonight.
’American Idol’ (FOX) 9:30 pm
(New!) – The first of the top 12 gets the boot. Without seeing the performance episode, my prediction is on Haley Scarnato or Stephanie Edwards. This is based on popularity, not talent. If it was based on talent I’d say Sanjaya should be the first to go.
”Jericho” (CBS) 8:00 pm
Semper Fidelis (New!) – Hawkins begins to suspect that Sarah is up to no good. The marines show up in Jericho and get the power up and running but their arrival might not be such a good thing for the town.
”Lost” (ABC) 10:00 pm
Par Avion (New!) – Tension arises between Locke and Sayid as they search for Othersville. Claire comes up with an idea to get rescued that causes Charlie to act strangely.
”Ugly Betty” (ABC) 8:00 pm
Icing On The Cake (New!) – Betty brings her Orthodontist as her date to Charlie’s birthday party. Wilhemina tries to drive a wedge between Daniel and Alexis.
”Grey’s Anatomy” (ABC) 9:00 pm
Scars and Souvenirs (New!) – Things with Izzie and George get worse. Callie reveals a big secret and now that the whole Meredith-is-dead story is resolved, the race for chief gets going again.
”Scrubs” (NBC) 9:00 pm
My Scrubs (New!) – Kelso orders the staff to wear brown scrubs. Turk and JD try to help one of Kelso’s uninsured friends.
’Andy Barker, P.I. (NBC) 9:30 pm
Pilot (New!) – This new series starring Andy Richter is about an accountant who is mistaken for a private investigator and decides to make some extra cash by taking a few cases.
Stephen King’s ‘It’ (ABC-Family) 7:00 pm
Ok, anyone who has read the book knows the movie doesn’t come close to the greatness of the novel but on its own, its actually an OK flick. Tim Curry makes an excellently scary Pennywise.
Office Space (Comedy Central) 8:00 pm
If you’ve ever worked in an office, this movie is for you. The Mike Judge film centers on a guy who becomes fed up with the 9 to 5 life and gets a little crazy (or sane, depending on how you look at it).
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