This is a topic that is very annoying, and no self respecting person would possibly admit to, but I still want to know.

Poll Information
This poll contains 2 question(s). 29 user(s) have voted.
You may not view the results of this poll without voting.

Poll Results: Reality TV (29 votes.)

Do you watch reality TV? (Choose 1)
* Yes - 34% (10)
* No - 17% (5)
* You mean those worthless pieces of crap like Survivor? HELL NO! - 48% (14)

Do you like the concept of reality TV? (Choose 1)
* Yes - 24% (7)
* No - 34% (10)
* I already said it was crap, so why are you even asking? - 41% (12)

Well it's not really reality. :p

It's becoming more and more like a talk show. And we all know how bad those are.

I guess it fills up time slots on TV. I mean what other worthless crap are they going to show? ;)

I find gaming far more entertaining than TV.

I saw a reality show on the History Channel called "The Ship!" It was awesome! HC got 30 volunteers to spend 6 weeks on an exact replica of Captain Cooke's tall ship "Endeavour" re-creating Cooke's exploration mission from eastern Australia to Bali.

It was 18th century conditions too! No modern conveniences (they may have been a flushing toilet - but that's it!) A great reality show!

I like Tough Enough on MTV. The new season just started last week ... for some reason that show really pumps me up.

Other than that, I'm sick of Survivor, et al ... it was fun when it started but its getting SOOOO old.

I like the idea advertised in Grand Theft Auto III:

"Liberty City : Survivor" (Yes, I know it's supposed to have the place name second, but methinks that was Rockstar's way of avoiding a lawsuit.)

"The new ultimate in reality television, where we take 30 recently paroled guys, equip them with flamethrowers and grenade launchers, and let them HUNT EACH OTHER DOWN! The action doesn't stop until there's only ONE man left standing!"

Well, it's either that or taking the regular show and removing the food, so they have to EAT the loser each week, or remove the voting altogether and have the contestants run from hungry lions each week until someone gets mauled to death.

No, no, I kid. I DON'T kid because I love, though. I think they should have left Survivor at ONE. The disturbing thing is, it may not be too long before they seriously consider my "ideas" to boost ratings.

I don't watch television at all, and have not for about 3 years. Most television programming is an insult to my intelligence, and reality tv is the worst of the worst.

I was over my mom's one day, and mom, my sister, and sis's boyfriend were watching some stupid show. On this show they starved a group of people for like a month on this little island, apparently to see who could last the longest. Then they "won" a candy bar in some sort of contest. The other people in the room were just fascinated by people's (on the show) reaction to this candy bar, the exstatic reactions to eating it, and they talked about how they hadn't eaten anything but what they could catch or grow for a month. They started talking about one of the other contests where they had to eat bugs. I am not sure if the bugs were alive at the time, but I think they were. I thought it was the stupidest thing I've ever seen on television. These people were willing to humiliate and degrade themselves on television, for money. Not even that, a CHANCE to win money. Apparently, if you lost a contest or something, you could be off of the show and wouldn't win anything.

None of the people watching this show would be able to grasp even a slightly complex movie, like Pulp Fiction or Snatch or something similar. Yet they were all excited about watching someone eating a (possibly live) bug, speculating on who would lose this contest, etc. Sorry, but I don't see the entertainment in it.

I have watched this episode and other bits of s**t like "scariest police chases", where people watch other's lives being put in danger for entertainment, and a "funniest home videos" show where people record thier families screwing things up, and send them in.
I've observed friends and co-worker's reactions to shows like this, I came to the conclusion that either 1)Most television shows actually lower your intelligence, or 2)Most people who watch television are pretty stupid.

Quite a lot of people I know are amazed at my descision not to watch television, and they say things like "well, I don't watch much tv either", but I noticed these people usually don't look me in the eye when they say this, and are always up to date on the latest reality shows and other garbage. Sometimes they point out that there is some programming on tv that's actually educational, such as nature programs and history programs, etc. My response is well, I like sci-fi and comedies, and fantasy. If there were programs in these categories that were intelligent and worth watching, I would still watch television. I gave it up because I am not going to pay $45 a month to watch animals mating.

American television is an insult to one's intelligence. I remember that there was a channel that showed British comedies and movies, and there was more intelligence and creativeness in a half an hour of this than has come out of the American television industry in the past 5 years!

The amount of television commercials also contributed to my descision. When I was a kid, they were intrusive enough, but I saw some figures recently saying the number of these commercials has more than doubled. I don't remember what the actual numbers were, but I can do a little research and come up with figures if anyone disputes this. Both the frequency and length of these commercials really bothered me. It completely destroyed the pace of whatever I was watching. Now I hear that the next big thing is ads during a show that are placed in a small area of the screen where there is nothing going on, such as wall or something. Well great, why not just remove the show entirely, and show hour-long commercials? Oops, they already do that! I find advertising offensive and annoying enough already, and from email spam, to junk mail to commercials, it is becoming more and more pervasive and intrusive. Corporations will not be happy until we have to look at ads every second of every day.

I had a disturbing dream once about my apartment slowly being turned into a McDonalds. It started out with them putting ads on the outside walls, then inside, then they started coming in and asking my guests about thier eating habits. It ended with me being evicted "Because you just don't fit in with the McDonalds image". I was going to expand on this a bit and turn it into a short story. If I do, I might post it in the creativity surge section.

This is off topic, but another thing I can't stand about television is how they cut up a movie. They just chop off little bits and pieces here and there. A scene here, a few seconds there, all so they can fit it into thier time slots. And if it does not fit neatly into that time slot, it's bits and pieces of the movie that get lopped off, god forbid they remove any of the advertising!

[ October 25, 2002, 02:05: Message edited by: Nutrimat ]

Alright, I don't watch reality television, and I believe that it's not exactly the most sophisticated thing on television these days. It's almost (not completely) like the gladiators in Rome, where people would gather to watch slaves and prisoners fight (and of course lose, usually) elephants, lions, and other gladiators. Perhaps the people who watch Survivor and such shows will not be satisified until someone dies on the show.

However, reality television does have some good qualities. Living outdoors and being with nature is what I love; I wouldn't mind at all being on Survivor, just to get back to basics (yes, I'm getting cheesy right now) and live a bit more simply. Of course, Survivor changes everything with Survival games and whatnot, but I think if the contestants want to have fun by living on an island, or in the outback, or whatever, or win a million dollars, then let them do it! Sure, reality television might not be as sophisticated as other shows or movies or novels, but if people enjoy it and can benefit the least from it (even if it's learning that people in Africa drink cow's blood), then we shouldn't complain. Okay, Big Brother and American Idol are stupid, but at least the economy's not hurting from those shows, although those shows do provide watchers with just a hollow joy that doesn't actually lead to anything.

And for American television (I'll try to keep this short so as to not try to spark another match of America vs. the rest of the world argument), I daresay it's got it's good parts. Sure, COPS and Jacka-- are sheer idiocy, but shows like The Simpsons provide deep insight into society, religion, school, and other institutions, as well as make the audience laugh uproariously. Shows like the X-Files and (yes, I will say it) Buffy are intriguing (if not melodramatic sometimes), and often make you think. And the History Channel is indeed educational (it isAmerican, right?); I've learned from watching it plenty of stuff.

[ October 25, 2002, 02:38: Message edited by: C'Jakob ]

I don't watch reality tv.. .but for what it's worth, this recent wave of shows was started by a production company here in Sweden, not the US.. and they've sold the Survivor concept on. Of course, that Mtv show, The Real World or whatever it was called, was the first one, but it never caught on in quite the same way...

As for American tv shows, I think they're no worse or no better than any other country's shows: the difference is that american shows are exported all over the world, so everyone is exposed to those same bad shows, while a mediocre french or japanese show won't get outside the borders of that country. It's a form of nationalism, in my humble opinion.

Just as much as I hate Jenny Jones or Sabrina, my favorite shows also happen to be american: the Sopranos is a great example of just how good an american show can be... no matter how you feel about the plot, the violence and all that, the acting, the script, the photo is all very, very close to movie quality.. you don't see that often in a show that airs once a week.

I encourage anyone who stated that they enjoy this so-called reality TV to try and endure 5 minutes of the Anna Nicole Show then retake this poll.

Of course then we'd be arguing whether or not we could consider that Reality TV or even based reality to begin with. :)

I don't watch most reality shows, but I do admit I really enjoyed 'The Ship.' I've always found tall sailing ships interesting; it was great to see one actually manned for a real journey.