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Do you watch reality shows?
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Posted by: phone1

Judging from the threads here (not to mention ratings), many of us do. Personally, I can't stand them, but I have a friends who watch them all without fail.

I think it's just a way for TV producers to save money on real actors, real writers, etc. I'd hate to see already marginal quality programming overrun by this junk. Is this a fad or a trend?

Please check all that apply and feel free to tell me why I'm wrong (or right).. :)

Posted by: phone1

The poll was supposed to be multiple choice - maybe a mod will change.

Posted by: ronsch

I would add a check to viewers will get tired of it. Just like Who Want's to Be a Millionare. Oversaturation will eventually kill them. Since I don't have enough time to watch all the regular shows I record now, let em live on a while.

Posted by: dthmj

I watch many reality programs...

Survivor
Big Brother
Joe Millionaire (though I didn't think I would like it, and I could have took it or left it)
The Amazing Race
The Mole (first I watched was the Celebrity edition)
American Idol (is that a reality show?)

I watched the first "I'm a Celebrity", and tried to watch the second episode, but it was too stupid to even think about watching again, though it would be fun to watch Melissa Rivers through another fit.

I also tried to watch UPN's fight over a house show, but they pulled the plug on that show not just once, but twice for good measure...

Anyway, for now those shows hold my interest, but who knows for how long....

Posted by: kdaveler

I have watch snippets of Survivor the first season, Joe Millionaire and Fear Factor. I really can't seem to really get into them. Then I fall behind and am not interested anymore.

Off topic, but as far as watching a show that grows on itself. I watched 24 last season from 1-24 but have not watched a minute this season.

Ken

Posted by: laria

I love the reality shows that I watch, but don't really care for ones like Joe Millionaire, the Bachelorette, etc.

I watch:

Survivor
The Amazing Race
The Mole
American Idol
Eco-Challenge (on once a year)
True Life (more like a documentary show on MTV)
A <fill in the blank> Story (TLC shows...A Baby Story, A Wedding Story, etc)
Trading Spaces (not sure if it's really reality)

Posted by: WinBear

I watch a few of them. The Emmy awards created a new category for "unscripted/competition" for the current crop of "reality" shows.

Posted by: Cathy/Vik

I didn't choose any of those options. For me, it *totally* depends on teh show. I think they're getting WAY over done, but I loved Joe Millionaire and Celeb Mole. Oh, and also Surreal Life! :D

However, no Survivor or that one where they're all in the house and get voted out... Bah.

Posted by: zaknafein

I watched The Mole. During the first season, it was very much the thinking man's reality show. Subsequent series have seen it degenerate to essentially the same old schlock.

Posted by: Fustanella

Closest I come is the documentary about Cirque du Soleil.

Posted by: DaveLessnau

Reality shows make me ill. Unfortunately, they're probably the wave of the future.

Posted by: choco

It depends on the quality and premise of the show, how well the cast interacts with each other, etc. My favorites are The Mole and The Amazing Race.

Posted by: pmyers

I watch:
Amazing Race
Mole
Survivor
Surreal Life
I'm a celebrity..
Real World
Real World/Road Rules challange
Road Rules
Bachelorette
Joe Millionaire
Big Brother
Trading Spaces (if this really counts)
And more I can't remember. Bring em all on...I love em!

Posted by: Chippy

I've watched many different reality shows:

The Mole
The Amazing Race
Fear Factor
Joe Millionaire
Survivor
Lost
Boot Camp

I guess the biggest reason I started watching all these reality shows is that very few of the regular, traditional TV shows really captivated my interest. I didn't care that Ross and Rachel, a couple of fictional characters, were "on a break." But I DID care that Jerri didn't win $1 million for being a lying, backstabbing, conniving little fox. And I DID want to find out who The Mole was, to see if my guesses were correct. And watching the crazy, gross, scary, wild things people will do for $50,000 is a lot more interesting to me than Grace trying to decide whether to go to the Nutcracker with Will or Leo.

But that's just me.

Oh, and I agree with ronsch. I also think that reality TV is just a fad. People are going to get tired of the shows, and the shows themselves will get mundane and stale as producers run out of fresh ideas. There is only so much they can scrape from the bottom of the barrel (i.e. Are U Hot?).

Posted by: tanstaafl

It's really hard to talk about reality shows in general. Survivor, Joe Millionaire and American Idol are all considered to be "reality shows" but all three are really very different and probably attract different viewers.

Lets see if we can come up with some broad categories here:

In the End, There Can Be Only One - Eliminate players or teams; last survivor gets the big prize.
Probably the largest category, this would include such shows as Survivor, Big Brother, The Amazing Race and The Mole
Looking for Love in Several Wrong Places - Romance themes.
Similar to the first category but in this case the prize is romance. The Bachelor/Bachelorette, Meet My Parents, Temptation Island, Love Cruise, Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire or Joe Millionaire fall into this category.
Someday I'm Going to be Famous - The search for fame and fortune.
While some people are on any reality show to be noticed, these are shows for which that is the only purpose. American Idol, Star Search or Hot or Not.
Life Under a Microscope - The interactions of a diverse group of people.
No real contest, just "watch and see what happens". The Real World or Surreal Life.
Hey... Isn't This Just a Game Show? - Reality show or game show?
These seem to be more related to game shows in format They usually do not have the same people continuing from one episode to the next. Fear Factor, Dog Eat Dog and such unlamented entries as The Chair and The Chamber.
Why the Heck is This Considered a Reality Show? - The urge to categorize runs wild.
I've seen some things lumped in the "reality" category that just don't seem to belong. I've seen Trading Spaces, While You Were Out and other similar shows listed as "reality shows" but I don't consider them in that category myself. YMMV. (If we include these, is This Old House a reality show? How about Junkard Wars? Where do we stop?)

This is pretty much how I split up the shows. There is probably some overlap between the categories (for example, Big Brother is somewhere between a type 1 and a type 4) but this seems to include most everything.

What does anyone else think?

Oh, for the record, I mostly watch type 1 shows myself with some type 5 thrown in. I love both The Amazing Race and The Mole, like Survivor but can't stand Big Brother.

(Edit: Fixed rogue formatting tag.)

Posted by: DLiquid

I only consider shows that have the "Life Under a Microscope" element to be "reality shows," so I wouldn't call any of your category 3, 5, or 6 shows reality shows.

Posted by: phone1

LOL, sub-categorizing reality shows is about as useful as classifying different lint varieties... ;)

I define "reality" shows as those that are thematic but don't use professional actors and are unscripted. Theoretically game shows could fall into this category, but they already have a clearly defined one.

Documentaries don't fall into this category, because they "document" events that would take place with or without a camera present. (Or are supposed to. We're finding out that a lot of early wildlife documentaries were carefully staged.)

This makes a program like "Eco-Chalenge" one of the first so called reality shows, as the event was created so it could be televised, as are PBS shows like "Prairie House."

"Reality show" is probably not the best term for this stuff, but if you called it "Throw-away TV" nobody would watch it. :D

Posted by: tanstaafl

quote:
Originally posted by phone1
LOL, sub-categorizing reality shows is about as useful as classifying different lint varieties... ;)

Yeah, I know that. The only reason I started the categorization is that I tended to have conversations like:

"You like reality shows?"
"Well, yeah, some of them"
"So, who do you think Trista will pick?"
"Sorry, I don't watch The Bachelorette."
"I thought you said you liked reality shows?"

I was just trying to point out that "Reality Show" is actually a pretty broad category. I would rank the term at about the same level as "Drama", "Action/Adventure" or "Comedy".

quote:
I define "reality" shows as those that are thematic but don't use professional actors and are unscripted. Theoretically game shows could fall into this category, but they already have a clearly defined one.

I'd pretty much agree with you there.

quote:
This makes a program like "Eco-Chalenge" one of the first so called reality shows, as the event was created so it could be televised, as are PBS shows like "Prairie House."

Did you know that Mark Burnett, the creator of Survivor was the creator of Eco-Challenge? I always found that interesting for some reason.

quote:
"Reality show" is probably not the best term for this stuff, but if you called it "Throw-away TV" nobody would watch it. :D

Given some of the shows that are popular, I wouldn't be too sure... ;)

Posted by: jsmeeker

I voted for the first option, as it is closest to what feel. It may not be my *favorite* genre, but I do watch them. Not all, but there are several I like.

Posted by: Chris Roberts

I only watch Survivor (and even that I wouldn't miss if it were cancelled). Its more of a tradition to watch it together with my roommate.

The term "Reality Show" is poorly used though. These shows have little to do with reality. They are more like unscripted dramas.

Posted by: jamesbobo

I do not watch any reality shows, but there are a small number that I sampled to see what all the talk was about, and didn't like what I saw so I never went back. These were:
The Osbourns
Jackass
Are You Hot?

I will admit that I used to watch the original Candid Camera with Allan Funt, but at the time it wasn't called a reality show.

Posted by: phone1

quote:
Originally posted by tanstaafl

Did you know that Mark Burnett, the creator of Survivor was the creator of Eco-Challenge? I always found that interesting for some reason.

Yes, I did indeed. I used to watch Eco-Challenge, but the last one was as contrived and artificial as Survivor. It's likely the last one I'll watch (does he have others in the works?)

Posted by: walters

I just don't understand why people can't just ignore them if they don't like them. I'm not crazy about sports. There are multiple channels (which I'm forced to pay for in basic cable or satellite tiers -- and they get the largest per-subscriber rates). There's an entire section devoted to it in the daily newspaper. It often interferes with the start time of programs I do want to watch. But I don't go around complaining about it or asking "how can anyone watch this crap?" in every sports-related thread.

Hopefully sports is just a fad and oversaturation will take care of it. ;)

Posted by: choco

quote:
Originally posted by jamesbobo
I do not watch any reality shows, but there are a small number that I sampled to see what all the talk was about, and didn't like what I saw so I never went back. These were:
The Osbourns
Jackass
Are You Hot?

It seems like you sampled the lowest common denominator of reality shows. You might want to give The Amazing Race or The Mole a try sometime. They're really shows of a completely different caliber.

Posted by: phone1

quote:
Originally posted by walters
I just don't understand why people can't just ignore them if they don't like them. I'm not crazy about sports. There are multiple channels (which I'm forced to pay for in basic cable or satellite tiers -- and they get the largest per-subscriber rates). There's an entire section devoted to it in the daily newspaper. It often interferes with the start time of programs I do want to watch. But I don't go around complaining about it or asking "how can anyone watch this crap?" in every sports-related thread.

Hopefully sports is just a fad and oversaturation will take care of it. ;)

It's not the same thing at all - sports and other entertainment programming have co-existed for years. But how would you feel if broadcasters started replacing decent drama and comedy programs with sports? Suppose you had not only Monday night football, but Tuesday night soccer, Wednesday night basketball, etc? If producers continue the rush to make these cheap "reality" shows, what little quality TV is left will be fast disappearing.

Posted by: walters

No, I hear what you're saying: limited resources being consumed by something you don't like. We're saying the same thing, with the exception that I just accept it as the way things are.

Posted by: phone1

quote:
Originally posted by walters
No, I hear what you're saying: limited resources being consumed by something you don't like. We're saying the same thing, with the exception that I just accept it as the way things are.

But I've never viewed sports as encroaching on other programming the way these programs seem to be. Pretty soon prime time will be all "reality" shows. :(

Posted by: walters

That's just a bit dramatic. According to http://epguides.com/grid/ only about 17 out of 126 hours of primetime programming is reality.

One reason it feels like they're taking over is the sheer number of them, but they usually don't last an entire season or have reruns, so it takes 3-4 of them to equal one "real" show.

Posted by: laria

quote:
Originally posted by phone1
Yes, I did indeed. I used to watch Eco-Challenge, but the last one was as contrived and artificial as Survivor. It's likely the last one I'll watch (does he have others in the works?)

Yes, there is one every year. And while the editing may be done for drama, the race itself is not contrived or artificial.

Eco-Challege 2002 was in Fiji and will air on USA in April.

Posted by: whitson77

quote:
Originally posted by walters
I just don't understand why people can't just ignore them if they don't like them. I'm not crazy about sports. There are multiple channels (which I'm forced to pay for in basic cable or satellite tiers -- and they get the largest per-subscriber rates). There's an entire section devoted to it in the daily newspaper. It often interferes with the start time of programs I do want to watch. But I don't go around complaining about it or asking "how can anyone watch this crap?" in every sports-related thread.

Hopefully sports is just a fad and oversaturation will take care of it. ;)

Walters you are right to a point. But the thing that is really bothering us is the reality overexplosion in prime time. If you don't want to watch Monday night football on abc you can got to any other major network and find something that isn't sports. That is becoming a problem for the reality tv hater. There is way too much of that out there. And one network is adding 8 new reality shows next season. Good lord. So that is why you are seeing people with their arms up. Of course, this fad will die like any other. But you can't really blame people for trying to kill this wildfire before it spreads.

Posted by: DaveLessnau

I really don't think the Reality thing is going to fade away like the hoola-hoop. My understanding is that these things are relatively cheap to make. Coupled with the audience size they apparently get, I can see them taking over a large segment of all new shows. As sort of an aside, I recently saw a show talking about the making of Infomercials. Apparently, they're dirt cheap to produce and generate millions of dollars in income. If people start following the economics of these things, pretty soon, the only thing we'll have to watch are Infomercials and Reality shows.

Posted by: walters

quote:
Originally posted by whitson77
If you don't want to watch Monday night football on abc you can got to any other major network and find something that isn't sports. That is becoming a problem for the reality tv hater.

Oh, come on. You can't come on a TiVo forum and complain that there's not enough good TV to watch in order to avoid bad TV. That's just not a credible argument. ;)

Posted by: Chris Gerhard

I once watched a few minutes of the Osborns if that is to be considered a reality show, it seemed way too bizarre to be real to me. Never seen even a minute of any of the others, although I have friends that are addicted. I watch mostly movies, news, some old TV shows, and sports. Too much time watching TV already to give the reality nonsense a chance.

Chris

Posted by: mrcoaster

I watch a few of them....
Joe Millionaire, Bachelor(ette), American Idol, Celebrity Mole.

Some of them are amusing, some are not. Just as some dramas and sitcoms entertain me, some do not. I have seen very few new sitcoms start up the last few years that I've cared about in the slightest. But I haven't felt like TV was being ruined by bad sitcoms like the anti-reality folk seem to think.

It's a fad. Give it time and a huge hit sitcom and we'll have copy cats of that. Heck, this year we had a ton of new crime/medical dramas and there's a genre we could sure see a lot less of on TV. It's oversaturated. Same with reality. I watch some, but if it was gone, I wouldn't be worked up about it. Things will cycle in due time. Meanwhile, if you don't like it, there's the channel changer, eh? I don't watch what I don't want to. 'Cept for Will and Grace. My girlfriend likes it and I always happen to be in the room. Stupid show! :D