Subject:  The answer is simple really..... |
Author:
Katie
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Date Posted: 05:22:40 04/29/03 Tue
Author Host/IP: ip073254.fscwv.edu/129.71.73.254
In reply to:
LovesToLaugh
's message, "Re: Does anyone watch reality tv?" on 20:46:43 04/28/03 Mon
First off, I used to hang around here more often but lately I've been busy. My name's Katie for you new people who came here from the WB board. :) But back to my reasoning.
Because we've become an idiotic, degenerate society that finds pleasure in watching other people's suffering. Did you know there's a study out saying watching too much reality TV makes you dumb?
Well reality TV has been around way longer. Go way back to the show "Candid Camera" which was back in the black and white days, then I remember being into America's Funniest Home Videos big time. And Fox came along with Cops and we watch fat old officers chasing drunken shirtless guys through the dark.
But the major reality movement began of course with "Millionaire" and its rip-offs but then ABC overdid it by putting the show on 4 times a week. ABC hadn't had high ratings in years mainly because while they once dominated the market of family sitcoms, that quickly changed with the advent of shows like Seinfeld, Friends and Fraiser.
Then came Survivor and that's really where it all began. For the first 2 seasons of Survivor, it was dominating the ratings and then everyone did their rip-offs "Lost" "The Amazing Race," "The Mole," "Big Brother," and of course who could forget Fox's "Boot Camp."
Then came Nine-Eleven and if one good thing came out of that tragedy, it almost killed reality TV. After watching the reality of planes smashing into the world trade Center, that was enough reality for everyone and quickly, "Millionaire," "Weakest Link," and the Survivor ripoffs were axed. The third Survivor came out and it's ratings while still good were only half of the second installment and a quarter of the first so people thought it would be dead by the 4th installment but the 4th installment had the same ratings as the 3rd meaning the show had found a steady audience.
Also at the time, there were a string of blind date shows beginning with Fox's disastorous "Who Wants to Marry a Multimillionaire?" Then ABC tried out "The Bachelor" as a way of trying to correct what Fox did wrong. First of all having a bachelor who was young and attactive compared to the old, ugly, idiot Rick Rockwell. Plus as many know at the end of the first installment, he didn't ask the girl to marry him. So that works, so the networks all do their carbon copies: "Bachelorette," "Joe Millionaire," and "Mr. Personality."
Then came "American Idol" which does what reality TV is sort of meant to do for people who go on, hopefully make stars out of them. I'll admit, I watch this for the really bad singers and everyone gets mad because Simon tells these horrible singers that they suck. I'm someone who believes in being frank and truthful even if the truth hurts. But as before, all the other networks decided to rip it off. They brought back star search and there's that talented kid show and these aren't as bad. It gives those aspiring actors their chance, they wouldn't have otherwise.
So here we are in a sea of reality shows. I believe it is just a trend and soon people will tire of it and something else will come along. If you remember during the 80s there was a ton of family sitcoms on and then when Friends was really big, there were a ton of shows about singles in New York.
But the one reason so many reality shows dominate the airwaves is because network TV has been slipping in viewership, almsot everyone has cable or satelite now and we have more choices. (think about it: would "I Love Lucy" and "The Honeymooners" do as good today with so many more channels to compete with as opposed to their day when there were only 3?) But reality shows are good for ratings and they attract the oh-so-valuable 18-34 demographic and they're cheap to make however they have no rerun value. Nobody watches a reality rerun unless they missed it.
This is why I don't watch much TV anymore. I hate reality shows and I love comedy but there's no comedies on anymore except the old ones that have been on for ages now. (Friends is never going to go away) Networks have been hanging onto older sitcoms for lack of new ones taking off. People don't want to laugh anymore. They'd rather watch human suffering.
The reality TV I do watch is on TLC what they call "Real Life TV" and they have the most realistic of realtiy shows. They're more like short documentaries. "A ---- Story" is a group of shows (Makeover, Dating, Wedding, Baby) that simply follow real people through whatever it is they're doing. Then there's a slew of other shows as well including the popular "Trading Spaces." And "A Dating Story" is the nice version of the blind date shows where people are set up by friends instead of the producers so the date doesn't end with either the couple hating each other or having sex. Watch TLC to really see real Reality TV.
I'll end this long message with this. A couple years ago, I wanted to be a stand up comic but as a comic, you're dream of success is usually hoping to land on a sitcom (hopefully your own). However there are no sitcoms anymore. It sucks to be a comic right now. You can hope to get into movies, and there's always SNL but not much else except maybe having a talk show or hosting a game show. That's why I gave up being a stand up comic.
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