Wow. Doesn't anyone have cable or satellite out there? I can't remember the last time I watched a network show. Between HBO (Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Sex And The City, Bill Maher), Showtime (Penn & Teller, Out Of Order), Comedy Central (MST3K), the Food Network (Iron Chef), the Cartoon Network (Adult Swim), I get all the weekly programming I can watch.

I never understood "Reality Programming" (unless it's educational or informative). Let me ask you...would you sit in your neighbor's house for 22 weeks in a row watching his interaction with his girlfriends? Or watch home movies of local college kids who go bungee jumping? Yet millions tune in every week to do essentially that. Mystifying.

Sitting in your neighbor's house for 22 weeks watching interaction with single people = Friends, Seinfeld
Sitting in your neighbor's house for 22 weeks watching interaction with families = Everybody Loves Raymond, King of Queens

I don't see why people have such hatred for reality shows in particular. You can dismiss any show if you reduce it to some simplistic description like that.

Would you sit in a funeral parlor with a nutcase family for 22 weeks? Talk about men with four aging sluts? Watch other people watch a movie? You do essentially that. Mystifying.

It is an extremely cheap way to make a program, but at a cost. while reality shows are cheaper to make, they cost more to market. For a scripted show that runs throughout a season the marketing campaign doesn't have to be so hard since you can pick up the audiance in due time before the season ends. for marketing of a reality show you need to hit it hard since they tend to last only a month or two.

Stations also run out of idea's and so the use of reality tv is not one they want to over saturate because if a scripted series does indeed fail during it's first year, they need something to fall back on as a mid-season replacement. this fall, stations are cutting back on reality tv.. somewhat. they realize that there is a backlash of reality tv and some homes are not liking it. Not to mention the ad companies do not always want their family target items placed on reality shows so Ad companies wants also dictate what gets shown. since the bucks for the show does come from the ad's.

I've been following this sort of trend closely as I am very active in broadcasting and what the eb and flow is going on right now in the industry with buy outs, how much control a company can have.. etc. etc.

http://www.thehollandsentinel.net/st...42203074.shtml

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/...in554609.shtml

http://www.cnn.com/2001/SHOWBIZ/TV/05/01/reality.tv/

ABC pretty much said after the Reality Bombs they had (hot or not, family, etc. etc) and will focus a lot on family comedies such as the G. Lopez show and those other shows they have. But like anything, if a show is doing low in ratings, they will always fall back to reality shows and other little hot items such as ABC's little "Bloopers and outtakes" crap. Either way, Reality tv is always something that is there to fall back on since it is cheap and quick to make.

So yes, their will be plenty of reality shows, and with a new cable REALITY network, hopefully they will fall into that. but as it shows.. viewers dictate what is on by tuning in and seeig the ads... stations dictate what will be on by advertisers they have... advertisers decide what will stay alive by paying for ad space.


Also note.. ad placement is taken to a new level. Now a days it's going back to the older fashion of shows being brought to you buy the advertisers. Pepsi's "SMASH" and American Idol's Coke product placement is a newer fashion of how plugs can be made.

You must have really interesting friends. Mine don't race each other around the world, nor are they all comics competing against each other, nor do they live on an island with only the basic necessities, etc. etc. etc.

Why would anyone watch Six Feet Under? You can just go down to your local morgue.

Why would anyone watch CSI? You can just go talk to your detective friends.

Well, since I haven't watched any of those shows you guys are referring to (Amazing Race, Last Comic Standing, though I did watch the first season of Survivor) I can't speak against those. I was referring to the "Let's put everyone in a house and watch them mate" type shows.

And yes, if I had "friends" who spewed an endless series of one-liners and pithy observations, you can bet I'd be sitting there with them for 22 weeks or whatever and having a ball. Or if my local mortician led as interesting a life as the ones on SFU, and I had full access to it, including visions and dreams, then I'd hang out there too. Unfortunately, "reality" doesn't work that way.

Are you comparing the dialogue and drama on award-winning scripted television with what you get from the girls on "The Bachelor"?

No, but my analogy was no worst than yours.

Personally, I don't like the Bachelor.

Yeah, with a hotel around the corner, and corporate sponsored clothing, it must be rough.

it's the illusion that makes it interesting. Actually, I'm not a fan of that show either...

That was my guess... I think you hit the nail on the head. He was probably in the line to be one of the 100 employees and didn't make it past the first interview.

I like some of the reality shows - they're like game shows with some creative flair to them... instead of average joe answering stupid questions, they're bunjee jumping or living with each other and getting into fights or dating to win money or some other stupid thing. It's better than 99% of terrible sitcoms they put on the air. Usually I'm watching movies or cartoons or news or whatever rather than tv shows.