Lest anyone think that I am unduly prejudiced against this 'genre' of television, I offer the evidence that I did watch a few episodes of American Idol (granted this was because I was tied to a chair, eyes propped open with toothpicks, for this subjegation to endless bad auditions and ear-splitting singles - sounds like torture worthy of Guantanamo) and a former roommate of mine knows the latest winner. However, I do believe that reality television should be publicly flogged for several reasons. 1. The name is misleading - there is nothing real about any of these television shows. You tell me, do you think you'd act the same all the time if you knew a camera was following you around? And what is real about shows that make a person jump off a 50 foot building to overcome their fear of heights (FearFactor - I don't know if this has ever actually happened on the show, and if it hasn't, I'm sorry, but I'm just using it as an example)? Question: has anyone had an employer treat him or her the way Donald Trump treats his possible future employees? 2. They lull us into a false sense of participation, vicarious at that. Get up off your couch and go do something - don't just watch someone else do it. 3. These shows have produced some of fortune and fame's worst stories: anyone remember Richard Hatch? 4. I don't know what to blame it on - does anyone know what the original 'reality show' was? Was it MTV's Road Rules? Well, MTV wins some and loses some (so much for musical television - what happened to the videos?, but thumbs up on Napoleon Dynamite - your mom goes to college). 5. True proof that reality television went to far: the show where an adopted woman attempted, by process of elimination, to figure out which of 12 men was her dad. I blame Springer and Geraldo for that one. 6. Speaking of Springer and Geraldo (his career before becoming a journalist), have we really become the kind of people who want to know every detail about every sordid part of everyone's life?
We as a society have gotten so caught up in and dependent upon the sordid details of everyone's lives that we've neglected our own lives. I could (wouldn't, but could) sit and watch 12 hours of someone else's life and never get off my couch and do anything I wanted to do because I'm so worried about whether Jim Bob is going to be chosen to marry someone I don't even know. The points are: 1. don't air your dirty laundry on television and 2. real life is out there - go find it.
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