 |  |  |  |  |
I’ll be the first to admit that one of my guilty pleasures is reality TV. It is a
TV phenomenon that has really boomed over the past few years. It’s not
something I’m proud of, but it has turned me into a regular “appointment
television” guy. My Tivo is set for certain shows every week, and reality TV
takes up about 90% of it.
MTV gets credit for starting reality TV with The Real World. I hate that
show. I think it’s a bunch of whiny brats who have nothing in common thrown
into a house to drink, get sexed up, and start crap with each other. There’s
nothing real about this show. They aren’t competing for anything. The cast
is just looking for their 15 minutes of fame by being followed around with a
I don’t really credit The Real World with starting the boom that is reality TV.
If I had to peg one show that did it, it would be Survivor. This is the show
that got me hooked. I was very leery about this show when I saw the promos
for it. I figured it would be another Road Rules or something watered
down. But I gave it a shot anyway. They had me on the first episode. The
game is brutal, and you never know what could happen. I picked Richard
Hatch to win right from the beginning. He was the only one who really went
into the game with a strategy. He knew it was going to be a game of
backstabbing and he played it to the T. Despite offending many people with
his nakedness and openly gay persona, he was the million dollar winner in
the long run because of his strategic tactics. Hatch can be credited with the
tactic of forming alliances on reality television. But despite Survivor being
The Bachelor and Bachelorette may be the worst of the reality shows. I
simply can’t watch them. If I were the bachelor, I couldn’t fathom dating 16
gorgeous women at one time and narrowing it down to the love of my life
within a few weeks. I just don’t see it happening. I see all these girls getting
giddy over a guy thinking there’s really a love connection there, and they
end up getting booted anyway. Then they go off on the guy saying he’s
missing out, they didn’t really have any feelings, and trash the remaining
girls by calling them sluts and whatnot. Hey, if he doesn’t like you that way,
then you are better off going and finding real love. I think only one couple
from this show has actually stayed together and gotten married.
The Apprentice was a show that eventually grew on me. Now it’s one of my
Tivo appointments every week. I had my doubts about it because I’m not a
big Donald Trump fan. He’s just a little too egotistical for me. Fortunately
for the show, he’s not the focal point. The contestants on the show and the
challenges make it exciting. The premise of the show is that it is a 16 week
job interview to become Trump’s apprentice and run one of his companies.
They start as 2 teams and each week, the losing team has a member fired.
They have a few “corporate restructurings” when needed. When it gets
down to 3, they compete individually and Trump eventually hires one. I think
the first 2 seasons had a clear cut winner and both are guys that I’d want to
run a company for me. The jury is still out on the 3 remaining contestants
from this season. Apprentice comes closer to being reality TV in the fact
that these are business savvy individuals who are vying for a job to work for
America’s most successful businessman.
Rebel Billionaire and The Benefactor were “rivals” to The Apprentice,
but neither delivered for me. Rebel Billionaire was a show with Richard
Branson, CEO of Virgin Records. He had contestants compete in all of
these outlandish stunts. The winner would inherit Virgin Records. This
show was way too outlandish. The Benefactor was hosted by the owner of
the Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban. I gave it a shot but could only stomach
I do not really consider Fear Factor a reality show, so I won’t go into it. I will
comment on a reality show spoof, however. Spike TV came up with a genius
idea called Joe Schmo. This show consisted of all actors and one guy who
thought it was a real reality show. Matt Kennedy Gould, the Schmo, thought
he was on a reality show called Lap of Luxury. The show really played off
some of the stereotypes that many reality shows have. Gould bought the
whole thing hook, line, and sinker. Even when the cast screwed up, they
covered it and the show went on. The end result was showing what a good
Spike also capitalized on its WWE wrestling audience by showing Ultimate
Fighter after Raw on Monday night. This show was sponsored by UFC and
contestants vied for UFC contracts in two separate weight divisions. This
was a good show and the fights were great, for the most part. The downtime
in the show was a bit boring, so one could watch just the last 15 minutes of
the hour long show and feel perfectly satisfied. The finale was shown
primetime on Sunday night in a PPV format, but on cable television. It was a
great show with one of the best UFC fights I have ever seen. The match was
so close, that Dana White, CEO of UFC, offered both fighters a contract.
Three great fighters got contracts that night and I can’t wait to see them fight
on a PPV.
I saved the best for last. The Contender is about as real as it gets. The
show is hosted by Sugar Ray Leonard and Sly Stallone. They got 16 of the
world’s best middleweight boxers who haven’t gotten a shot yet. They
compete with each other and the winner will receive a million dollars and a
title fight. I had my doubts about this one, too. It seems that not too long
ago, Oscar de la Hoya had a show with a similar concept. Contender is
real though. The boxers were divided into 2 teams, East and West. They
compete in challenges every week to see what team gets to pick the fight.
The part that makes this show very different is that they bring in the families
of the fighters. It shows a side of the boxers that makes them seem more
One thing is certain, if Mark Burnett produces a reality show, it is going to be
good. He produces Contender, Survivor, and Apprentice. I’ll keep
watching these until they run themselves dry. In the meantime, I’ll still keep
looking for the next great reality show to spark my interest and keep
avoiding the trash that MTV puts out.
Until next time, keep throwing up a T for…
T-BONE!
