Two things have been well documented here on our blog:
- A lot of reality television is viewed in our house.
- Neither Carter or I watch by choice.
You can find past references here and here.
A few weeks ago I was complaining about summer programming and how there doesn’t seem to be anything new on television. This lead to us recording a million episodes of Law & Order and watching them periodically throughout the week. But something happened in the magical world of television recently, namely the return of reality shows for the summer. Here is a brief list of what makes it onto our tv these days:
- Shear Genius – I can’t even comment to be honest with you. I will spend quality time with H and watch her silly shows but this is the one I just don’t get. The contestants are not interesting and the judges are just blah.
- So You Think You Can Dance – H loves this show, I mean LOVES it. How do I know this? Once in a while she will watch a performance and then rewind it and watch it again. I’ve told you already I think Cat Deeley is the best reality television host out there based on her personality and looks but the wardrobe department puts her in some interesting outfits from time to time. Anyhow, the contestants seem cool enough, and I get to see a few cute girls dance around some stage while teenagers shout every time one of the dudes takes his shirt off.
- Big Brother – I don’t get Julie Chen. I don’t get the crazy messed up people they stuff in the house. I just don’t get this show period. What could make it worse? We currently subscribe to Showtime for the first time in our lives which means we get three hours of programming a night of the house guests hanging, smoking and talking about nothing. Just to recap here – we had four hours of original Big Brother programming on our DVR last night.
- Project Runway – Heidi is hot and it just goes to show that it doesn’t matter what you sing, if you are a singer hot chicks will like you. Nina Garcia scares the crap out of me but I could watch Tim Gunn walk into a room and say “Hello designers” all day long. The people on the show are at least interesting to watch and have some talent, unlike our friends on Big Brother who are there because …. hmmm I am not sure what goes into being selected for Big Brother.
Which brings me to my pet peeves, all of which are perpetuated on reality television. They occur in every day life, but you see them more often than not on television.
- People giving more than 100% – By definition the most you can give is 100%. Not 110%, not 125%, and not the over the top 200%. The most you can give is 100%. Period. So please don’t sit in your confessional or approach the reporter and say “Man, I just wanted to give it all I got, and I did. I gave 110% and left it all out there”. Buddy, you are lying to yourself. You gave maybe 100%, mayyyyybe, because I don’t buy anyone doing their very best in life just so they aren’t eliminated on a television show.
- Referring to yourself in the third person – There is nothing I can’t stand more than people that do this, and reality television takes it to a whole new level. On tv it happens in one of two places: (1) the confessional room when someone is giving their diary entry to the camera or (2) when someone is explaining themselves to the group. Here is an example of #1: “… I mean I’m Diedra and one of the best designers here. Ain’t nobody going to come into this house and tell me otherwise, and if they do Diedra is going to step all over them”. Seriously? What do their parents think when they see things like this. Personally it makes me cringe and look away from the television, so I can only imagine what happens when the people that changed their diapers see them acting this way in front of millions of people. Example of #2: Picture a group of contestants standing outside arguing about some insane issue … “Are you kidding me? Why would I not try to win? Huh? Tell me that! It came down to Randy, Jake and me. Why shouldn’t I win? Why shouldn’t Steve get a win under his belt?”. Ugh ….
Of course the worst thing that can happen is a combination, such as: “What you see is what you get. I didn’t come all this way to lose so you can count on Ginny giving 110% every time out there”.
- Tasteless product placement: I know someone has to pay the bills, but what happened to the good old days when they would flash a logo at the end of the show that read “Such and such provided by so and so”? Nowadays you rush your models to the Tresseme hair salon, makeup is done in the L’Oreal studio and chefs have two hours to cook with the latest Sears Kenmore appliances.
So this is what my summer has come to as three of the four shows mentioned just got underway …
Yeah, reality shows suck.
Ha ha- I have not watched any of the “reality” shows you listed… but I consider myself a reality show “junkie” for Survivor and Biggest Loser.
But you really should check out “Greatest American Dog” – KCBS on Thursday (tonite).
There’s a dog on there that rides a skateboard, and at one point another dog attacked the skateboard and was chewing it to pieces- exactly like my Isis would do- I wish I had the clip…
But most reality shows really blow- bad!
haha could you really listen to Tim Gunn saying “hello designers” all day long??
i’ve had to listen to just that phrase about a million times in the past two weeks.. it goes something like this..
“hello designers, hel, hello des, designers, hello design, hell, hello designers….” over and over and over and over again..
thankfully it’s moved on to Tim Gunn saying… “holla at cha boy” which i think is hilarious. i can definitely listen to that all day
Haha I saw that in the preview last night Alexis!
I think it’s funny that he just enters the room, utters his phrase and everyone freaks out. “Make it work …”
Do they do editing for all Bravo shows in your building?
yeah, they still do the editing in my building and it seems that they want everyone in the building to know because they keep the volume at the max. we’ve got to know the contestants voices so well that during last night’s show i knew which designer was gonna go home because i haven’t heard his voice in any of the future episodes.