Reality TV

[Glom]

What is the current popularity of reality TV?

In Britain, reality TV became hugely popular for 2000 to 2002, but now seems to be (thankfully) dying out. They don't seem to be offering entertainment because of their content, but the fact that they're on is entertaining. They're a big joke. Graham Norton constantly makes jokes about how boring Big Brother is and I remember his jokes about Fame Academy's low ratings.

There is an old joke: A reality TV show is where a small group of people are wittled down to just one viewer.

[nebularain]

What's the difference between reality TV and a Soap Opera?

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:-k Beats me!

[Musashi]

I don't think the problem is with reality tv as much as it is the glut of reality tv. The media doesn't know anything about moderation. They see one or two reality shows doing well, so the next season there are 20 reality shows. Problem is, there are only so many good ideas for that kind of programming... blah! I don't know where I am going with this, just that the networks are run by morons.

[Glom]

Enterprise is on for a third season... you're right.

[kucharek]

I prefer to watch reality.

[Musashi]

Aye, I forgot about that. Most "reality" tv doesn't even deal with reality! When, in the real world, do you run into 12 people crammed in a house, who cannot leave and each week someone gets kicked out?

[The Supreme Canuck]

If reality TV portrayed reality, wouldn't it be called a documentary?

[Mr. X]

Does World's Wildest Police Videos count as reality TV? I like that somewhat. Can't get enough of John Bunnell's tone, attitude, dramatic pauses and lame punchlines...

"This petty criminal ...[dramatic pause]... thought he could get away...[dramatic pause]... but the only thing he managed to get ...[dramatic pause]... was a one way ticket ...[dramatic pause]... to jail."

Is it just me or should this guy be the one that gets a one way ticket to jail for talking like this?

I don't really like COPS. Not enough action. It's more painful than anything, and the few action sequences of COPS end up being showed on World's Wildest Police Videos anyway. The few gunshot wounds and bodies we see are offset too greatly by massive amounts of boring traffic stops and domestic disturbance calls.

[The Supreme Canuck]

Well, that's what makes COPS more of a reality show. They show reality. Traffic stops and other non-violent encounters are what police actually have to face everyday. It's real.

[girlgeek]

Personally, I like to watch TV to escape from reality....

Comedy Central does parody commercials on reality TV shows. Stuff like switching babies at birth.....Who's the real mom. :P

girlgeek (who prefers living in reality herself)

[Musashi]

My favorite thing about COPS is the stupid people.


Cops pull up to a truck parked under a bridge ona side road away from everything. There is a man and a woman inside the truck with the windows rolled up even though it is 80 degrees in the shade.

Cop: "What are you guys doiing out here?"
Man: "We just came out here to eat our lunch."
Cop: "Why out here? This is a hangout for druggies."
Man: "Really! We didn't know that" Woman is getting squirmy.
Cop: "Mam, what's a matter?"
Woman: "Nothin. We just wanted to eat our lunch."
Cop: "Well, it looked to me like you guys threw something out of the car when I pulled up, and I found this needle right by the door here, is it yours?"
Man: "No, sir!"
Cop: "Well, I'm going to have to search your car."
Lady: "Just tell him."
Man: "Shhh"
Lady: "We came out here to shoot up. IF we just give you all the stuff, can we go back to work?"


People are dumb.

[The Supreme Canuck]

No. Druggies are dumb. (For more than one reason)

[Musashi]

"What are you doing hanging out with a know prostitute?"

Incredulous look, "What, man she aint no prostitute! Really?"

More COPS.

[The Supreme Canuck]

Fine, fine. I was wrong. It's not just druggies. All criminals are dumb!

[Musashi]

[Mr. X]

Cop: "Just right now sir, it's called aiding and abetting prostitution"
Man: "She ain't a prostitute!"
Cop: "Did you not just sollicit sexual favors in exchange for money?"
Man: "No I didn't! I ain't done nothing wrong!"
Cop: "Everything you said and did was being recorded. That woman is an undercover police officer."
Man: "Whatcha talkin' bout she just my friend here!"

[Musashi]

Those ones are the best. I am actually opposed to stings of that nature, but they make funny tv.

[kucharek]

Glom, another thread to be marked PG...

[Mr. X]

Man: "He was like that when I got here!"
Cop: "He was stabbed four times in the back before you got here?"
Man: "Yeah man!"
Cop: "Any link with that bloody knife we found in your pocket?"
Man: "No man! I was trying to help him with my knife!"
Cop: "Help him with your knife?"
Man: "Yeah man!"
Cop: "How's that?"
Man: "I was trying to take out the bullet he had in his back already!"
Cop: "He had a bullet in hid back already?"
Man: "Yeah! I was helping him! He was like that when I got here!"
Cop: "Doesn't seem to be any gunshot wound."
Man: "You can't see it it's all bloodied up! But it was there!"
Cop: "There's no shell on the ground"
Man: "No man... he got shot from far away... like from a helicopter or something!"
Cop: "And where is the bullet you took out of his back?"
Man: "I threw it. In the river! Cause it was hot you know!"
Cop: "We are in the middle of the desert..."
Man: "Yeah I threw it in a river in Cape Cod!"
Cop: "3000 miles from here?"
Man: "Yeah on my last vacation!"
Cop: "In a river?"
Man: "More like in the ocean!"
Cop: "And you did all this tonight?"
Man: "Yeah!"
Cop: "Are you aware that there are still 5 syringes in your left arm, and 8 in your right arm?"
Man: "Yeah! They got stuck on my last bloodtest! Can't remove them y'know?"
Cop: "What about the wallet. The dead guy's wallet... we found it on you."
Man: "It fell in my pocket as I was trying to help him out here!"

[Musashi]

I'm the only one who ever watches that garbage?

Do the dating shows count as reality TV? I watched elimidate pretty hardcore for a while just to see how much crap the girls would put up with to go home with some dumb guy.

[gethen]

I just don't get "reality" t.v. Who in the world would really want millions of people to watch them behave like morons once a week? Who really wants to watch those morons mug for the cameras once a week? Not me to both questions.

[ToSeek]

I've never had the least bit of interest in reality TV.

[informant]

I've watched reality TV a few times, out of curiosity/laziness to do something more productive. Not very often, though, because I don't get many channels at home.
I didn't get into it, though.
As a matter of fact, I find it a little depressing that these shows are so popular. Have you imagined how many people in the world - and we're talking about the industrialized world, where life is supposedly sweeter! - have such empty lives that they need to fill them with the lives of others?...

Added: No offense to any local RTV fans, but this is the way I see it. 8)

[Pinemarten]

I sold my TV to buy more RAM.

[xbck1]

I live out in the boonies an therefore don't get TV, so I just watch videos and DVD's. It's so much better that way.

Am I the only one here who thought that Survivor was (and still is) stupid?

[Archer17]

...Am I the only one here who thought that Survivor was (and still is) stupid?

No! I would watch it if they put everyone on an orbiting shuttle and every week someone had to leave

[mutant]

I have no idea why a cable company expects me to shell out between $50 and $80 a month just so I can watch idiotic programs that reality tv promotes. That and the fact that 1/3 of the programming I have to pay for is commercials. If this trend continues I believe television as an entertainment medium is dead. Altho that rather humble prediction could be just a bit post mortem. We havent had cable in over 4 years and I am kinda hoping our antenna blows down any second now. I have learned to love yardwork and fresh air. Even the news programs are competing for ratings points now.
Whew.......sorry about that...........got too excited. Excuse me while I go take a pill. I will be a new man any second now.

[gethen]

Yeah, I really resent paying cable fees for home shopping and the screaming preacher channel, but without cable, where I live, you get one (1) station--Fox. ( Eeeeeuuuuuhhhhh!) And I do like to catch the news and the occasional sporting event (hockey, Tour de France) so we pay through the nose.

[Colt]

The History Channel is good. TLC has too many of those home-improvement, paint your neighbor's house black, shows that annoy me.

The first Survivor was alright because it was new and original. All of the other ones aren't good. I don't get the point of Big Brother.. No interest at all. The only real interest the Survivor shows hold for me is that I wouldn't mind being on one and running off and living in the woods like a hermit.. Yes.. Have roast boar my first night and a jacuzzi. All with my loincloth and a good knife. -Colt

[Humphrey]

I hate reality T.V.


The funny thing is, almost all of the "Reality shows" (survivor, real world, joe millionare, etc.) are all not even close to reality. Many of the scenes are reshot for the camera and they are "guided" in what to do.

There was a big thing in the news when Survivor Africa was on because it was found out that one scene in the show was shot twice becausde the camera ran out of film (or a similar camera mistake. I can't remeber exactly).

The Real world is a farce. There is no way they act like that ion real life. I know real college students, heck i am noe. Nobody i know (from frat kid to supreme geek) acts like some of them.