There are some insane new reality shows on TV at the moment. Who comes up with these ideas??

The two silliest that have just hit New Zealand are:

Outback Jack - where a dozen high maintenance (but gorgeous) city girls parachute to the Australian outback to win the heart of this rugged Aussie bloke.

The Swan - where strange looking women undergo massive plastic surgery then compete in a beauty pageant.

These shows have probably already finished overseas but what other weird developments are there in reality TV in other countries that will no doubt reach New Zealand in the coming months?

Vh1 (a music/pop culture channel in the US) has a reality show (I think that the WB network aired it originally) that is along the lines of "The Real World" - it's called "The Surreal Life" and is basically a group of has-been (mostly) celebrities and superstars living in a house together doing (generally) dumb, real-worldy kind of stuff. IIRC, the now-playing incarnation of this show has: Vanilla Ice, Ron Jeremy (porn star), Tammy Faye, Erik Estrada, Traci Bingham, and Trishelle something-or-other.

It's fairly dumb, and actually, I'm not sure that it's even on the air anymore - a testament to these "lovely" has-been superstars and their attempts to regain some shred of the spotlight at the cost of what little dignity they may (or may not) have left.

I don't like these programs at all. These programs are for the people with simular IQ's as the people who are in the shows (no offense intended).

These programs are the reason I don't watch TV anymore, only the news.

Reality shows are IMO most of the time a waste of broadcasting time that could have been used for entertaining ME - although sometimes, when I feel very dumb, they can be amusing, especially when really dumb people (or people pretending to be really dumb, one never knows) or the people whose 'reality' is being reviewed.
@Drugar: Good for you, I have also stopped watched TV recently, only occasionally watching series I used to be into, and catching the odd movie, but has to have piqued my interest from the TV guide or during a previous TV-watching - I don't 'just zap' anymore.
:borg:

@Big Bald Ranger: I don't watch TV at all anymore. I do not have a TV-guide anymore. There is just nothing I like watching anymore. Most of the programs fit in my "to dumb and annoying to watch" category. I watch the news every morning and occasionally watch some CNN for news around the world, but that's it. The only thing I use my TV for are DVD's and for my consoles. Every serie I like I have or am going to buy on DVD.

If I could, I would even cancel my TV-subscription...

Back on-topic now ;)

The primary networks have lost their spark. We watch almost nothing that's shown on the major networks anymore, preferring channels like Discovery, History, FoodTV, OLN, etc. Thank God that TiVo does our searching for us or we'd miss some good stuff that's hidden in all the dreck. There are too many better ways to spend time than trying to find something decent to watch on TV.

Does anyone else find the moniker "Reality TV" ironic? The stuff that happens on these shows has absolutely no bearing on my real life whatsoever. In many ways I could identify with the cast of a sitcom like "Family Ties" far more. Does anyone watching these shows genuinely CARE about who wins or what happens to the contestants on "reality" programs? Conversely, who here (who watched the show, of course) can honestly say that they weren't the slightest bit touched by Dr. Ffrasier Crane's farewell speech to his audience?

I guess my TV viewing is different than most people in my age group. Growing up I wasn't allowed to watch much television. We live on a farm out in the country where there wasn't cable access and my parents didn't get a satilite dish till I was around 17.
I would have to agree on everything Rally says about broadcast tv at the moment. My friends watched "The simple life" with Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie last night and personally I found it so obvioulsly scripted ahead of time I dont know how anyone could call the show Reality.
The reality of life is you get up every day and bust your rear end to make ends meet and to live a better life. If you need a hero or someone to look up to in your life try looking across the dinner table at your parents who have spent their entire life trying to make your life as happy and content as possible.
As for my TV watching. I watch TVLand on the dish cause for me I haven't seen most of the shows. I may be the only 20 year old who likes "Green Acres" in the whole USA. lol. Since I played a lot of sports growing up I tend to watch ESPN or any sports channel I can find. I know thats odd for a female but I love sports. I also spend a lot of time at work watching classic movies since I have so much access to them. Let me sum it up by saying there is more REALITY right here on SP than on most tv shows.

I would have started a new topic for the new reality show that they plan in germany, if this topic wasn't already here.

Believe it or not (for those who speak german: Deutschland sucht den Sperma Star (http://www.spiegel.de/kultur/gesellschaft/0,1518,309901,00.html)), but the new show is called "Sperm Race" and stars a heterogeneous group of guys (the 'biker', the 'computer freak' and so on) who compete in terms of 'who has the fastest sperm'.

The idea behind the show is to educate Germany about the high number (1.6 million) of impotent men and the fate of the accompanying 1.6 million women. The winner of the race gets a virility signalizing sports car.

To cut a long story short this reality TV format really shocked me. The german show is just a spin-off of the american and english show called "Make Me a Mum", in which the winning guy (or sperm) may impregnate a woman. Please, wake me up, I must be dreaming. :jawdrop:

Eaglearrow - that's the sort of nonsense we're looking for! :p Class. What is the world coming to?

A friend of mine just confirmed that they will actually film the 'race' and not only let the doctors tell the test result. An advice for the directors, don't let Michael Schumacher take part or the race will be plain boring. :D

Heard about Outback Jack a few days ago. But I think the ultimate in "Reality TV" would be Japanese gameshows. Only seen footage of a couple but the idea of watching guys sitting in bathtubs full of ice, drinking, and trying not to pee is hilarious.

I watched a little bit of WB Superstar (not sure if that is the correct title) a while ago. It is supposed to be a takeoff of American Idol but they were actually trying to find someone who thought she was the best singer in america but who actually sucked big-time. It was pretty sad watching all those singers who thought they were good while knowing that their whole audience was laughing at how bad they were. Pretty sad.

I swear that within 6 months there is going to be one that is "Who Wants To Be In My Snuff Film".

I think that show on MTV is most sick of all. I don't know the title, but it's the show where they let kids undergo plastic surgery to make them look like their favorite star... how sick is that?

I see this as exploiting frail teenage minds for money and destroying their entire lives... it makes me sick.

Eaglearrow, that's scary news.

I only heard that the next BB season is going to last forever. Yeah, you read right: Forever.
I don't know how they want to get sponsors for this insane idea.

Is TV nowadays too far away from "The Truman show"? When I first saw the movie I thought it was too unrealistic, that no government would go as far as to allow a TV channel to play with the life of an unknowing person just to entertain the mass.

Now, I am not that sure...

Bottom line of it all is that you got to get scared when people really are considering those shows as reality...

I'm actually just waiting until someone decides that a show along the lines of "The Running Man" (the book that is, not the film) or "Series 7: The Contenders" is a good idea.

We now have FitTv and they did a six part story on the training that prospective Navy Seals went through. It wasn't like all these phony reality shows where people are trying to get famous. These guys were sailors and trying to get into one of the most elite groups in the world. It was really good t.v.

Next step - War TV? Turn the news reports on what's happening in whatever war happens to be raging at the time into nightly, half-hour shows?

Personally, I just want to see more Judge Judy. I love it when she rips sh*t out of people for butting in/not listening etc.

Tonight on Reality TV...Celebrity Strip Poker starring:

Gary Coleman: Different Strokes
Janet Reno: U.S Attorney General
Dustin Diamond: Screech on "Saved by the Bell"
Jerry Mathers: as "The Beaver"
William Jefferson Clinton: ex U.S President and all around fun guy.
Sandra Bernhard: Stand up comedianne and ex manicurist.

plus...a special guest appearance by George W. Bush followed by a brief rebuttle by John Kerry.

check local listings for a time near you. Subject to blackout in Washington D.C area due to highlights of the Democratic National Convention...

I agree that most reality shows are bad representations about the worst things human nature has to offer. There are however a few programs that are the exception and actually have something genuine to offer. I've watched a program on the life network called "True Birth Stories" It's about the lives of women who are expecting babys and about their other family members. There is no competition, no back-stabbing, no money grabbing. That is real life TV. I watched the show with my 6 year old boy and I found it a very good way to approach to topic of reproduction and to also prepair him for a future sibling if one decides to come along.

Shows that are on in Sweden (or have been on recently) :

Joe Schmoe Show- They trick a guy into thinking hes on a reality show but the other contendors are actualy actors.

Various bachelor/bachelorette shows- all of them incredibly stupid and boring

Extreme makeover- turn ugly people into not-so-ugly people

Extreme home makeover- remaking of peoples homes


And then there are other shows, like when parents of someone pick their dates, and others, like this new one coming- they hire some fat, ugly, annoying person to pretend like he is the person someones parents have picked to be their good-looking daughters husband.

I detest reality tv shows. They basically all follow the same pattern. Everyone gets along fine for the first 5 episodes. Two teams battling it out. People start having issues with each other. "The big twist" hits when they shuffle the teams. These people get along well. 5 episodes later they all hate each other. Somebody wins.

Now, the reason why these people hate each other is often pathetic. Often they are told hearsays from somebody else who takes it the wrong way and words it differently and everyone starts whinging about it. Someone doesn't pull their weight in an obstacle and the leader has a good yell at them. Slacker calls the leader anal-retentive and the leader calls the slacker a pathetic dweeb.

Or we just try and make people fall in love with each other using various methods of deciet.

What a world. I'll stick to my He-Man cartoons, they are far more stimulating.

Hooray, we get he Joe Schmo Show from tonight! We are so blessed! :doh:

*me goes to find a rock to crawl under for a year*

The sad thing about this is ... people seems to like it or they watch it, if not, it woulnd't be on air.
Local channels (in Argentina) do every program like that but "local version", so you have xxxx from USA and the same but with local people...
I just saw I commercial in Fox about what's next: The reality channel... sad but true...
Also, parents change or something, where the father of X family goes to family Z and viceversa, so the kids have a "new father" and mom have a "new husband" ...

One I just saw was called " Amish in the city". Talk about horrible! They take a nice quiet, humble Amish family and throw them into a modern city to see what happens. On the same side they take a city family and throw them into Amish country to see how they adapt. It's terrible, talk about culture shock. It's like dropping a 5 year old in the middle of a porno studio. Bad things are going to happen and I feel bad for that Amish family. It's all about money and who cares about people getting hurt.

@Sydax - yes, we had something like that on TV a few months or so ago from the UK called Wife Swap. Really kinda funny in a sad way from what little I saw. Thankfully, it was only on for a few episodes - maybe 4 or 5.

I don't know if I can post this here but there are tv shows here that presents former sportsmans (like football referees, ex coachs, etc.) or former wanna be models, that just stand there talking about whatever like they know how to make the world-sport-anything better than anyone, better, they all speak at the same time, so you don't understand anything, and worst, you get no idea what the heck they're talking about, and even better, if they start talking about how x player plays/z girl is nice, in the end they talk about Bush being a nice guy or something like that. So, we have here from 8 to 10 hours/day those shows; I forgot, they also hear people calls, just to no let them say almost anything, it goes almos like:"hi my name is fulano, I call from here"... oh that's nice place; nooo, I went there once and I was... nooo you are wrong... oh man... I hate this shows...
TV is getting nowhere, even Discovery with those "we change your home" shows... That's why I ended up watching BBC, History channel, Cartoon channels, etc....

The only things that I think qualify as REAL reality TV is stuff like cooking shows, talk shows like Oprah or Maury (there's NO way you can convince me that Jerry Springer is real) and news. Stuff like that which shows real stuff that happens, not this UNreality TV like Big Brother or Survivor. I mean, when in reality are 12 to 16 people going to get stuck in a house together with no direct input from the outside world or stuck on an island somewhere with only a little food, having to compete in challenges to get anywhere?

Enough ranting though, I was actually channel-surfing last night and caught about 5 minutes of The Joe Schmoe Show. That aint reality Tv, that's a damn sitcom. What else could it be with so many actors in on it?

Errr, what's this Joe Schmoe Show is about?

Joe Schmoe is about a bunch of actors hired to convince another guy that he's on a Reality TV show and trying to win 100 thousand dollars.

The producers searched out this regular, likeable nice guy and told him the initial lie about the show, then brought in actors to play the other contestants and to give the guy hell while trying to convince him that he really IS on a game show of sorts. It's basically a send-up of all similar style reality shows like Survivor and Paradise Hotel and whatever else.

edit - not that I know or anything.

Jajajaja... thank you Aldazar. Sounds like a show here in Argentina, and by the way, the guy/girl only gets some time in others shows and the chance to be an actor/host to other show... Real actors (those who study to be that, don't get that chance)

In New Zealand we now have 'Living the Dream', a big brother style show where there are 12 people living in flat, but in actual fact, only one of them is a contestant because the other 11 are actors, but the contestant doesn't know that. All the challenges are rigged so to suit pre-determined outcomes but sometimes it still doesn't go according to plan (e.g. the contestant is dumber or smarter than they gave him credit for). It's all a bit like The Truman Show.

@Harbourboy - that sounds exactly like Joe Schmoe. It's actually quite funny when they try to rig a game like "Hands On The Hooker" so that it'll be a battle of wills between the real contestant and the actor portraying an a-hole cop/security guy and the real contestant intentionally loses just to get a room by himself.