8:53 p.m. - 16 March 2003
O is for Obnoxious
O is for Obnoxious
I admit it: I watch reality television. I watched The Real World for seasons 2-4, back when it was the only reality show around. I thought the premise of Survivor was interesting, so I've been watching that since the very first episode. I love and adore The Amazing Race, which blows everything else out of the water.
But I find most of the new "reality" shows utterly obnoxious. I half-watched the first episode of Joe Millionaire and didn't bother to watch the rest of it because a) the women were unspeakably cruel and b) Evan was an idiot. I've never watched The Bachelor. I've never watched Fear Factor. I watched Big Brother only because of Miss Alli's recaps, but I refuse to watch Married by America, even though she's recapping that, too.
I just don't see how people can go on national television, act like jerks, and then expect to be treated with respect. They can say "It's the editing" all they want, but the editors can't create what isn't there; i.e., the raw footage speaks for itself. And yes, I know that sometimes people really aren't as evil as they appear to be – the Guidos from the first season of TAR have been unfailingly helpful and polite over on the Television Without Pityforums. But some of these people are obviously living in a world that is vastly different from the rest of us.
And really, partly I blame the network executives who think these things up. They KNOW that people, for the most part, will do anything to be on television. I think we're all exhibitionists in one way or another (yes, pot, I hear you over there) and the executives are exploiting that tendency. Plus, reality shows are cheap to produce: they don't have to pay any pesky writers or actors; or at least, they don't have to pay them much. On Survivor, for example, the prize of $1 million sounds like a lot to give away, but advertising rates are high enough that they can make that much on a single episode. Factor in the even more exorbitant rates that are charged during the finale, and Mark Burnett is laughing all the way to the bank.
And once, just once, I'd like to see a reality show cast that actually reflected the physical averages of America, not just one or two token people who aren’t stick figures. I was never a size two, and it would be damn near impossible for me to ever be that small, but my legs are incredibly strong. That's not a liability, and just once I'd like the casting directors to acknowledge that.
This has been an entry for AlphaBytes. I'm working my way through the alphabet backwards just because I can.
