Poll: Do you watch reality TV programming?

now, i know a lot of you hate to hear me admit this, but i am openly a "real world" addict, ever since '96. i've caught up on every season. i watch the specials, road rules for the hell of it, and all the real world/road rules challenges. i am a sad individual who should be locked away. but you need to keep me posted on who's sleeping with who, while lying to the other guy, and getting the other girl in trouble with her boss.

first post?

the minute TV cameras are introduced, it ceases being reality.

word. i stopped watching big brother because it's just�become embarrassing the way everyone plays up�to the audience... it's just a load of fake people doing more and more outrageous things, trying to be the most popular with the public. although, then, i suppose, that's probably the whole point of big brother. but then why call it reality tv? hm. *brain explodes*

this is why we came up with the idea for a real reality show this weekend - drill a hole into the wall of someone's house, and insert a tiny hidden camera.

that's reality. (actually, "that's reality" might be a good title for it, too :)

oy. "Candid Camera" 24/7.

but wait ... isn't that called "spying"?

*steps out of the Reality TV closet*

Well, I admit that I watch a fair number of reality shows on occasion (not counting makeover shows a la Queer Eye and Trading Spaces...though I don't really watch the latter anymore), but only really follow one very religiously. This being The Amazing Race. It's just a great show filled with exotic locales, great tasks, and teams of 2 scrambling to get from Point A to Point B as fast as possible, all the while bickering at each other and fighting for positioning. It's just an adrenaline rush. And it's one of the few reality shows that sorta relies on skill (and luck) and not on who hates who or whatever. In this sense, it's more of a game show than anything else...but alas it falls under the reality programming category. Also, the teams of 2 have a preexisting relationship, so it's interesting watching the dynamics within the teams and seeing how the relationship evolves or implodes, as the case my be. Just something about this show hooked me since the 1st season and now hopefully CBS will renew this show for a 5th one soon. It's just too much fun.

Actually I follow two:� Big Brother, which I admit is totally pathetic but amusing in an I-love-to-hate-EVERYONE way, and Survivor, which satisfies my nature-girl urgings.�� (Because face it, I can't even survive�on Long Hill Farm�let alone in the Amazon.)

I've heard from a�reality addict (think of my�tiny and perky roadtripping sidekick, those of you who know me) that Amazing Race and Mole rock, but I'm afraid to watch any more of these shows�... I need to spend *some* time not following tortuous scheming precarious plotlines.����

I like Amazing Race a lot. It's one of the few shows that actually gets my adrenaline pumping.

Same two here. :) my roommates follow a few more, but those two are the only ones I follow right now.

-- Pauley

And I'm not afraid to admit it. The first Survivor was possibly the most amazing TV experience of all time. And ever since then, the Mole has been ruling my airwave experience. Trading Spaces can be called reality TV. Therefore, reality is the best thing to happen to TV since M*A*S*H*.

I watched most of Joe Millionaire, but it became readily apparent that his choices were being guided by which women would provide the most entertainment. Then there's the editing of what you see to create the most drama possible.

I watched WWE's Tough Enough when it was on, because I was really interested in how it showed that what goes on in the professional wrestling, while scripted is hardly "fake".

Now I don't watch any of the shows. Unless you count something like "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" reality TV (which I don't). Queer Eye totally rules however! And I have to say, if I were gay, I'd be making a pass at that Kyan Douglas. He's a good looking fellow! :)

ugh, am I the only person who doesn't love that show?

Most of their advise doesn't come from being fashionably gay, it comes from being fashionably rich. ($400 rack of lamb anyone?) Plus, half the time their choices are as bad as what they started with (making the surfer look like he-man).

Not to mention the insistance on putting gell into everyone's hair.

*shrug*
I just have the same problem with that as I do with some trading spaces things: it's taking someone and making them look/act completly not themselves, rather than working with their own space. Trading spaces just involves a room that's held up as an offering to the demoness paige (who reminds me of buffy's first college roommate), so I only throw anvils at the tv when they paint over natural wood or bricks. Queer Eye tends to do that all the time (in a metaphorical sense).

Ok, ok, so maybe I love to hate the show, but I still don't see how it's the amazing marvel everyone sees it as...


This rant was brought to you by the letter "T" :-)

ugh, am I the only person who doesn't love that show?

perhaps.���� i watch "queer eye" religiously.� then again, i keep threatening my boyfriend that i'm signing him up for that show (his saving grace is that we're in the middle of nowhere�).� it's kind of a weird sadistic part of me that loves seeing men go through most of the "beauty pains" that women are expected to suffer�(example: the one where they have the guy's back waxed... well, ok, no woman should ever have to get her back waxed. ew.).�

i don't really see it as a wealth issue, but if producers are tossing thousands of dollars at these guys, why not spend it?� i'm going to nitpick, but that $400 racks of lamb was enough lamb to serve 20+ people for a special event.� why shouldn't anyone spend an outrageous amount of not their cash on their friends & family? i mean, i'd like someone to buy me some new furniture & a new wardrobe.�

PS: it's not gel, it's "product"���

That's a good point. The "special event" is where the Fab 5 spend most of the money on the finer things in life.

And most of their "fashion finds", if expensive, can easily be found at cheaper stores. Heck, I shop at places like Banana Republic, Express for Men, and Dillards, but I've rarely, if ever, blown a large sum of money on a shirt or pants or outfit. And then there's the outlet stores. Van Hussen in particular is where you can get some very fancy looking duds for not a lot of money.

And when the do get cheep clothers, they then suggest that you always go to a tailor to get it custom fit.

I think it'd be a much better/more challanging show if they had a small budget (say $100) and had to work with what the people owned. Finding ways to get bad outfit A + bad outfit B to = good outfit C

That was one suggestion on one show. They did not say "always go to a tailor". It was a suggestion to customize your wardrobe.

There is a show on BBC like what you describe although I forget the name of it. Queer Eye is a makeover show, plain and simple.

I like the show because they are bluntly honest about what needs to change. Sure some of their tastes range to the more expensive side, but they do shop at some affordable stores (Bed Bath and Beyond, Old Navy and the BodyShop for examples). The straight guys get everything free anyways so why not splurge on some nice expensive clothes and furnishings. :)

In most cases, in my opinion, they seem to work within a person's tastes and lifestyle too. I haven't seen any too radical changes (although the surfer dude did look funny after his hair cut).

I watch some of the good ones when I happen upon them..... TLC, Discovery, TVFN, etc...

I'm proud to say, however, that I don't watch the trashy ones, like survivor, joe millionaire... or any of the other "who wants to make themself look like a whore for $50 on national tv" ones.

i don't watch tv.� Except!! when i get the >Play tapes.� So.. does that count?� Not that it's reality,� but i wasn't sure whether to vote, Never. What kind of trashy viewing habits do you think I have? because i did in fact watch the >Play Sex Show.. not that it was trashy, but my mom would have thought it was trash tv... if i'd have let her watch it. Or I don't watch television. Cross my heart and hope to die.� Where is the "No, I don't have cable, and i don't want cable, but i do enjoy watching some shows that are sent to me on tape.. like every 4 months."?��� Huh?� Why didn't you think of that one?? Jebus... you insensitive clod (dance for the first time EVER using that phrase)

Hee. "You insensitive clod" originally was tagged on the end of the "Never, what kind of trashy viewing habits do you think I have?" option. But that insensitive clod Woodward took it out.����

Funny, I didn't think of >Play as "reality tv". Nor, for that matter, shows like Trading Spaces and Queer Eye. I guess that means I'd have to consider things like Iron Chef and This Old House, too. The definition's really opening up. How about Crossfire, other pundit-infested opinion/debate shows, and crap like Springer?

Not that I watch any of them either, so I'll stick with my original answer of "Yes, but only one or two."

Yeah, if you open up the definition of reality show too wide I guess SNL is a reality show,�it's recorded live, how more real do you get than that? So I would suggest the intent was more the Survivor and copycats and the locked in a house ones (I don't know the names because I don't watch ANY of them, not even their commercials if I have the remote) I� wouldn't put any of the others mentioned, or others like American Idol as reality shows, they usually have other categories that are thier main focus: talent/educational/informational or in the case of� >Play , entertainment videozine (or something)

For myself, I'm pretty addicted to anything that shows me how to do stuff, with or without a budget or time limits. Cooking, home fixing, creating stuff out of junk, anything like that.

Arbie, you should subscribe to "Ready Made" a fantastic small press DIY magazine that comes out quarterly, in one issue they tell you how to make a couch out of grass.:D

heh heh."For those apartment dwellers who miss all that yard work, we have a couch made of grass". Yeah I could just see that sales pitch :-)

oh dude.. i only really like 1 reality show... Paradise Hotel.. i just find it amusing... mom and i watch it together on mondays and wednesdays.. i think Keith is really hot.. and andon was hott too.. but thats about it.. ooh.. and Matt.. hehe.. i'll shut up now

Yeah, I watched all the episodes of "Boy Meets Boy," which was completely evil. I am not a violent person, but I wanted to see someone drag host Dani Behr into the outback and leave her there.
And I do love "Queer Eye" -- what's impressed me most is that even in the most godawful apartment (and there have been some remarkable contenders), the guys find one or two items that are worth saving, that say something about their owners' personality, and that can become the focal point of something that makes visual sense. So it's out of reach for most people to go to a spa on a regular basis, and couture seems kinda wasteful if you work minimum wage. But if a TV show budgets money to make you over, and you're amenable, why not?

Are we talking Survivor-types, or something more likely to be seen on the Discovery channel or TLC?� "Reality" tv is pointless anyways.� Give me my cartoons!� The Simpsons, Southpark, Futurama, and Aqua Teen Hunger Force rock!

Yay for toons!! loony or otherwise.