Do you enjoy reality based shows?

[Chris Blount]

Do you enjoy reality based shows?

[Mark Lamutt]

Hi I'm Mark, and I'm a survivor junkie... :D

[Phil T]

I watched the first 2 survivor shows and enjoyed them. Then my office stated a survivor game and I guess I lost interest. Survivor "meetings" were lasting over an hour each week (sometimes daily). The person "voted off" was responsible for feeding the rest of the office. Multi page e-mails about what happened the night before filled up my inbox. If you missed a show it was a sin. It was all anybody talked about!

Then all of the other reality shows started. I watched a few and still catch Survivor occasionally but I guess I have seen enough.

I think Mark's contest is great and I would love to win one of the prizes, but I guess I have had one to many Krispy Cream donuts (what most people would bring in when they were voted off). :)

[Mike123abc]

I find it a hijacking of the term "reality" for most of these shows. In reality who really gets a group of people together to a remote location and comes up with all sorts of artificial challenges for them? It is an artifical construct.

[TNGTony]

I like Reality show. Cops, AMW, Real Stories, Paramedics, Emergency Room.

I despise non-scripted outlined contests that call themselves reality shows and cater to the absolute worst in human nature.

I voted no here because I was pretty sure you were talking about the latter.

See ya
Tony

[DonLandis]

I find my own life far more interesting than watching someone elses on TV.

Survival shows are not the same as reality TV. Survival is a genre based on contest. Reality TV is a real life documentary of other people's lives. I believe MTV started the whole reality genre.

Do I like survival shows?- Once in awhile I find it fascinating what people will do to win. I did 2 weeks training once for jungle survival in the Army. The only thing missing from today's survival shows is no one is shooting at them! Maybe next year when the ratings of survival shows begins to slip. Recall Rollerball? Real blood will be next. Hope you enjoy!

I voted "I don't warch them"

[Capmeister]

I like Survivor and the like, but don't consider them "Reality TV" per se, so much as I consider them to be game shows like Let's Make a Deal and such.

Reality TV to me would be something like Monster House or something like that--not Survivor or The Mole

[freakmonkey]

I hate them never could sit through an entire episode of any of them and I hope they go away already when will this phase pass?

[JMikeF]

I'm waiting for the scandal that verifies that these so-called 'reality' shows are scripted down to the last detail.

[Tyralak]

Do you enjoy reality based shows?


I object to the term "reality" I refer to them as "unreality" shows, and no I don't like them. I hate them with a passion bordering on insanity. They're nothing more than filler from cheapskate networks that don't want to spend the money on talent to produce good quality shows with interesting stories.

[Tyralak]

I find my own life far more interesting than watching someone elses on TV.

Survival shows are not the same as reality TV. Survival is a genre based on contest. Reality TV is a real life documentary of other people's lives. I believe MTV started the whole reality genre.

Do I like survival shows?- Once in awhile I find it fascinating what people will do to win. I did 2 weeks training once for jungle survival in the Army. The only thing missing from today's survival shows is no one is shooting at them! Maybe next year when the ratings of survival shows begins to slip. Recall Rollerball? Real blood will be next. Hope you enjoy!

I voted "I don't warch them"

Actually, when I see these insipid shows I can't shake the image of "The Running Man" and wonder how long it will be before that type of thing becomes a reality. Ratings are king, after all.

[olgeezer]

Everyone may get their 15 minutes, but i ain't watchin

[TonyM]

The only "reality" (and I use that term loosely) show I watch is "The Surreal Life". And that is no where near reality

The ture reality show I enjoy is COPS...Some of the people they arrest are hilarious!

[dtcarson]

If they'd make a show based on The Running Man [the book, not the movie] I'd watch that.
I detest 'reality' shows, both the 'Here's five people/teams doing stupid stuff to win money and not get kicked off', and the 'Here's 10 weirdos in a house with cameras in each room' kind.
I can watch the 'real' reality shows [Cops, Real TV, World's Fastest Chases, When Animals Eat Human Being], and they make me mad sometimes, but that is more due to what I see jerks do on those shows.
One of the things that bugs me most about the 'reality' shows, is that they have to interview EVERYBODY after ANYTHING happens, and everyone has to give his/her little opinion. 'So you just got voted off, what do you think about that?' 'Who do you think is going to be voted off next?'
Also, the old 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire' syndrome--'reality' is a hit, so lets fill EVERY SINGLE BROADCASTING HOUR with slight variations on the same show. It gets old and overwhelming, and I feel the same about shows I like. For instance, I love pizza, but I can't eat it every meal.
I don't *like*, but I can *respect*, most of the homebuilding type shows [I'm thinking more 'This Old House' here.]
I get sick of the Trading Places/Trading Places Family/Trading Places Dorms/Trading Places Prison Cells/Get The Hell Out of My House You Insane Designer type shows, for a couple reasons:
* they're on 73 hours a day.
* my wife watches as many episodes as she can
* the music is annoying
* the people either come up with entirely wacky/ugly things, or they totally disregard the opinion of the residents, or they 'luck onto' a $12000 sofa in the dumpster next door that they then make into the centerpiece of their room, etc.
* they have little to nothing to do with 'Learning.' Much like MTV should change its name, so should TLC.

And yes, I think watching 'reality' shows is becoming so prevalent, that many people are leaving their own reality [family, work, hobbies, etc] to watch these non-real 'reality' shows, and get so involved in who's next off, what the next stunt will be, etc. At least sitcoms [try to] make you laugh, and sci-fi can help you escape, and some shows are actually educational or informative.

Not to mention, some of these shows are downright cruel, and/or disgusting. These shows are nothing new, Allen Funt was doing it ~40 years ago, but he wasn't cruel about it. And no one was eating manure dipped in maggots or whatever.
And yes, I do believe at least some of those shows are scripted, to some extent. They don't pick 'random' people to be on them, they try to get some conflicting personalities and people who will clash. And not to mention edit the footage so the most 'exciting' [ie, ratings-oriented] scenes are shown. Everyone knows American Idol last year was fixed.
Eventually everyone will be on a reality show, or have been on one, and they'll be one lone person having to watch all this crap. And possibly one other, saying 'Please turn that junk off!'
Ironically, the only 'reality' show I have actually watched and enjoyed was BBC's 'The Office', because I could actually *see* it as reality.

Tyralak--Check out the movie 'Series 7: The Contenders". Written even before the first Survivor, it is eerily prescient, imho, as to where we're going with reality shows, in addition to being a very powerful movie and more 'real' than the 'reality' shows. 7 people, I think, are chosen at random. They are found, given guns, taken to a small town, let go, and told 'The last one alive wins.' It's an excellent movie, and the 2nd, I think, deleted ending on the dvd is actually a better ending, imho, than the actual ending, social-commentary wise.