Our office has various celebrity gossip magazines strewn about the lunchroom. When I go downstairs to grab my lunch from the fridge and make a cup of coffee with the Keurig machine, sometimes I will leaf through them. I stop when the coffee is done or when a sufficient number of brain cells have committed suicide, whichever comes first.
One of the magazines I’ve noticed lying around features a couple on the cover who have, apparently, broken up. I gather they met on “The Bachelor,” and Brad (the erstwhile bachelor in question, it seems) is responsible for the demise of their relationship. (I didn’t bother to read the article, since my coffee had finished brewing before I noticed the magazine.) Upon scanning the cover, my only thought was “of course you broke up. Your relationship was forged under the most contrived circumstances imaginable!”
Which led me to think about what kind of person agrees to be on a reality show in the first place. It seems unremittingly awful to me. I’d rather superglue my eyelids shut than subject myself to the intrusion of a camera’s constant presence, to say nothing of allowing the American viewing public to scrutinize and gossip about my manifold foibles. The only reality show I’ve watched and thought it might be fun to do is “The Amazing Race,” but even then the pleasure I’d get from all that free world travel would be crushed under the weight of knowing that a million people were watching me melt down from sleep deprivation or missing an important flight, etc. No, thanks.
Which leads to this week’s three-fold question — why on earth do you think anyone agrees to be on a reality show? Do you think agreeing to (or, more accurately, wanting to) be on such a show is a de facto sign of a personality disorder? And is there any reality show you’d want to go on?
Reminds me of the intro to a “This American Life” episode i listened to a few weeks ago:
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/458/transcript
What a fun question! I think people do it for money. I really can’t think of any other reason other than maybe wanting to be noticed. I heard Snooky, from the god awful show Jersey Shore, receives an insane amount of money just to show up at a bar, get severely intoxicated and act like a floosie. It’s publicity for the bar because people watch the show, therefore making this a possible reality. People watch the show. So the laws of supply and demand provides a constant supply of people willing to exploit themselves for money. However, they must have an innate need to be noticed, on whatever level they can. What does that say about the constant demand for it though? The demand for such raunchy entertainment gives us a world where some girl can be glorified and be extremely compensated for becoming severely drunk in public and throw herself at as many “men” as she chooses. I refuse to watch and support such garbage. However, if anyone came to me and asked me to film what it is like to be a single mom with a child who has a disability and two other children, I would take the money. Hopefully, I would be able to stand having cameras in my face long enough to buy them a house and maybe bring about a little awareness. The sad part about that is that people would rather watch shows like Jersey Shore.
Actually, Kristin, one of the moms of an older kid with my son’s syndrome (she was also a single mom; I think she also has three typical kids) got on one of those home makeover shows in a different country. She was sort of embarrassed about it, but swore she didn’t cry or make an ass of herself – and she got a rebuilt house! So I was into that.
Nice! Thanks. 🙂
I’d be on Top Chef. Relatively minimal drama, and I totally adore Tom Colicchio. Except they always have a butchering episode and I have to get my husband to even cut up the chicken.
If I had the requisite skills to be on a show like Top Chef or Project Runway, I’d consider it. But since I am a decent cook but no chef and can barely hem pants, I’m pretty much out of the running.
Australian MasterChef, if you can find it online somewhere, is AMAZING and exceedingly short on overwrought drama (while extremely long — over 80 eps in the first series — on cooking instruction).
I much prefer competition shows to reality shows, even though nowadays most of the former are filmed like the latter. I watch Project Runway, America’s Next Top Model, etc, and fast-forward through the drama-llama parts so I only have to get the “people being confident and creative in their field” parts. :->
Dance Moms is the worst because the moms act like petulant brats in front of their children. I think they do it for the money. Extreme Makeover doesn’t bother me because decent people in a bind get help.
Face Off is fun (makeup artists, it’s on the Sci Fi channel). I can see being on that one because even the “harsh” judge is actually just brutally honest, and I feel like all the contestants actually learn stuff on that show. Master Chef was similar (in comparison to Hell’s Kitchen, which is just an ongoing train wreck, Ramsey and Co. are actually interesting to hear on Master Chef).
Most reality shows are just an ongoing public humiliation for everyone involved, but the ones with craft involved aren’t bad.