Unreal TV

[the_siobhan]

I KNOW there are people on my f-list who watch reality shows. Can't fool me, I know you are out there.

So I ask you, what shows do you like? Which ones do you hate? Which shows do you love to hate?

And Why?

Let's call it research.

(And it just occurs to me now - are there communities devoted to such things?)

Comments

[lil-m-moses.livejournal.com]

The only one I watch is "The Biggest Loser". I quite enjoy it because I see people with the same sorts of problems as mine fighting to overcome them and winning, and with very positive and visible changes both physically and mentally. I hate the politics aspect of voting people out, but sometimes it does make the team stronger. I also appreciate that in the finale they usually bring everyone back together and give everyone who got voted off early the chance for a lesser consolation prize for whomever did the best at achieving their goals even without the assistance of the trainers and isolated environment for most of the time. It's unfortunate that those who start out with less weight to lose usually get booted first and really don't have a good shot of winning because their total % weightloss capacity is inherently smaller, but I think the producers are now compensating by trying to get a little more uniformity in the group in terms of relative obesity.

None of the other reality shows have that positive spin on them - they're just bickering dramafests for the most part. The Amazing Race has potential, but the selected contestants are usually self-centered ignorant asses, and I don't want to watch them traveling the world, bickering constantly (travel is stressful!), and giving Americans an even worse name by their poor behavior.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

So The Biggest Loser is a weight-loss competition?

That's a bit... worrying. Do they have any controls in place? Like if somebody started developing bulemia or something, would they catch it?

[spacekadt.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah... they have two trainers there all the time and they're pretty heavily "watched". It's all about teaching them to eat right and how to exercise. It's actually a pretty good show.

[lil-m-moses.livejournal.com]

Yeah, like Spacekadt says, it's all doctor monitored and under the suprvision of two professional personal trainers. They are working out more (3-4 hours a day) and eating a smidge less than might be considered a completely healthy and maintainable loss rate, but those are guidelines at best in the first place. Several people have started the show finding out they had diabetes, and were clear of it by the end. That kind of thing is encouraging.

[kest]

You think *that's* worrrying? You know there's been more than one plastic surgery reality show, right?

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I've heard of the The Swan. There were others?

[otheronetruegod.livejournal.com]

I've always hated the term "reality TV". I prefer "documentary competition", myself.

That aside, the shows I like:

Survivor. Though each season is quite different, the relationships that develop between the players and the dynamic in the face of starvation and paranoia is very fun to watch.

The Amazing Race. This is an example of film editing at its best, and it's usually quite exciting to watch. I like this because there's no voting off unpopular people -- the last team in for each leg gets the boot, so it's all skill.

The Apprentice. I've not watched it much this season, but it's a facinating microcosm of business. Sometimes I wonder how smart these applicants are, but it makes for interesting watching.

Beauty and the Geek. Holy fuck, Shaddenfreude at its best. I don't watch it much, only occasionally, but it's what I would call a guilty pleasure.

Shows that aren't on anymore but I enjoyed:

The Mole. This was -great-. One contestant was working for the producers. Everyone gets tasks to do, and the mole works to make the tasks fail as much as possible without getting caught. At the end of each episode, there is a quiz asking questions about the mole -- their hair or eye colour, if they're male or female, what they did during the tasks, that kind of thing. The person who scored the worst was eliminated.

The Joe Schmoe Show. This technically wasn't a reality show, but it was freaking hilarious to watch. Take a guy, tell him he's in a reality show, but really all the other players are actors following an improv sketch. Every contest is rigged, and we get to see behind the scenes of it all. Much fun.

Shows I hate:

Anyting that involves marriage or mass dating. Anything that involves singing or dancing. This includes, but isn't limited to: So You Think You Can Dance, American Idol, The Bachelor(ette) and Who Wants To Marry a Millionaire. Blech.

There are LJ communities for all of these shows.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I haven't caught Survivor yet. I watched an episode of The Amazing Race and was surprised how much I got into it.

Shows that aren't on anymore but I enjoyed:
The Mole.
The Joe Schmoe Show.

I don't suppose you have tapes of any of the episodes?

[otheronetruegod.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I don't. I watched them live or recorded them on the PVR and promptly erased them.

More info here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mole
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Schmoe_Show

You can the first season of each from here:
http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B0007GAEXK/imdbca-20/
http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B0001XAODO/imdbca-20/

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I knew it was a long shot. :-)

Thanks for the links.

[otheronetruegod.livejournal.com]

Oh, I've also been enjoying Top Chef, which is a cooking contest modeled after Project Runway, a fashion design contest, which I've also enjoyed a lot.

[lil-m-moses.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah, I forgot. I have also watched and enjoyed Cooking Under Fire, an elimination competition for chefs that they run on PBS. They travel around the country cooking in different restaurant kitchens and attempting different types of assignments (team/individual, specific cuisines, specific ingredients, specific timeslines, etc.). Losers get eliminated by the judges, and the end winner gets a chef job in a top restaurant. It's hosted by PBS show cooks, including Ming of Simply Ming.

[a-carnal-mink.livejournal.com]

Hate them as a rule, including all the reality doco things like COPS (which the hubby has a weakness for). The three exceptions have been...

The First 48 - this is a US follow-the-cop doco thing that follows homocide detectives on the first 48 hours of their investigations. Actually very well done. Whoever makes it obviously has some talent for story-arc and narrative and creating character from dialogue and setting. Hits my writerly buttons.

So You Think You Can Dance - umm, yeah. There was heaps of things I despised about it (including the fact it was the US one, so immediately got me Bolshi about why it should even be on our tellies, heh), and D & I only came in when it was already down to 10 people or so, but damn if we didn't get sucked in to that thing! It's one of my Beeg Seekrits[tm] that I'm a bit of a dance nerd. Believe it or not. I even have a favourite choreographer, if ya can believe such a thing. :) It appealed to my dance nerdery, but also to the muchly lacking sports appreciation bits of my nerdery, too, because (another beeg seekrit here) I actually consider dance as a sport. Nerd-a-rama! *cackle* Yes, I watch gymnastics, too. ;D

Australia's Strictly Dancing. It's hosted by an ex-flame of mine. Heh. :) See dance-as-sport nerdery above. It's a ballroom dancing competition show where the dancers don't know what they'll be dancing to until the music starts. AND it allows same-sex couples to compete, which gets the big thumbs up from our household. It even has deadpan "sports commentary" of the ballroom technique! What's not to love. ;D It's doing for ballroom dancing what Pot Black did for snooker in the '70s.

Oh! And I like Jamie Oliver shows. Do they count?

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Oh! And I like Jamie Oliver shows. Do they count?

That sounds familiar - are they cooking shows?

[a-carnal-mink.livejournal.com]

He's a chef, yeah. His earliest shows were all cooking (which I wasn't into - Dom is, heh). Then he got full-on into working with youth in Bwitain - took on the school dinner system in British schools and proved that kids could be given good, nutritious foods for bugger all money. Then started up a restaurant called 15 in which he gave homeless and chronically unemployed kids a chance at a cook's apprenticeship. That's what really won me over - he was fantastic with those kids. Firm and fair and no-nonsense. He's back to his full-on cooking shows now, but I'm a fan. :)

[greylock.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, I did dip in and out of Jamie's Kitchen and the first two seasons of My Restaurant Rules.

I found them compelling for different reasons - Jamie's Kitchen because it had pluck and drama (street urchins make good, or not) and MRR because it was the lead in to Lost, and because the struggle to get a restaurant of the ground, and the need to operate a business, was compelling.

[pfrank.livejournal.com]

The only one I ever watched with any frequency was the first season of Amish in the City. Which was awesome. After the first episode it became a large group activity to get together and watch this thing. It's not that it was awful, though it was, just not in the way I had expected. The premise seemed to me, before I watched it, to be to make fun of the stupid hick Amish when they were confronted with the big city, but as it turned out it was the city folks that were shown to be shallow and idiotic. Which was probably all by careful design, but I DON'T CARE. It was great. hehe.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I remember reading about that one, but I don't think it aired here.

[lilactime.livejournal.com]

The Amish show did air here, but the schedule got all fucked and people missed half the episodes.

[spacekadt.livejournal.com]

I watch damn near all of them... it's sickening, really.

Most of them are from this overwhelming sense of morbid fascination... some I enjoy watching the competitions.

Favorites would probably be Survivor, American Idol and Project Runway.

I had completely forgotten about The Mole, but that was a DAMN good show.

[sonjaaa.livejournal.com]

I really like NOVA and other kinds of documentaries... are those considered reality TV?

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Afraid not. :-)

[greylock.livejournal.com]

I have, traditionally, watched Australian Big Brother.
Less frequently in the past two or three seasons, but in the early years I was fascinated by the fly-on-the-wall aspect, and the fact that people went a bit crazy towards the end.

As they have narrowed the range of contestants ("you must be this bi-curious and this spunky to appear on this show"), I've been less interested.

Briefly, I did watch the early episodes of Season 1 of Popstars, but only because it was an interesting take on what people would do to be famous, and how the music industry worked.

[jeliza]

I used to claim to hate reality tv. I started watching America's Next Top Model, which was justifiable as research (and I have actually put my notes about lighting and tmakeup techniques used on the show to work); also, I have a TiVo, and tend to fast forward over the drama and just watch the photo shoots. I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with ANTM now. The research excuse was utterly tenuous when it came to Project Runway, but I love that show. Same with "The Agency" (which is fly on the wall at Wilhemina modeling agency.)

Everything else I only watch occasionally, but if I had more room in my life, I could totally see watching The Amazing Race regularly, becuase it seems the least manipulated-for-drama, and tends to have cool people as contestents. The Biggest Loser and Celebrity Fit Club I occasioannly watch, and feel terribly guilty that I'm participating in supposrting a sizist culture.

Survivor, Big Brother, and other shows where there is massive drama-farming and manipulation by the producers piss me off way too much watch. (It was my least favorite thing about Rockstar: INXs, which came from the survivior team, but I only watched that becuase I'm an INXS fan, the sequal I've ignored.)

In general, I like talent based copmetitions becuase I like watching people grow and succeeed. I hate the drama farming, and would say that without my Tivo, I would not watch reality tv.

[chromeangel.livejournal.com]

I despise them but enjoyed top chef for some reason

[girfan.livejournal.com]

I don't like or watch most of them, but there are exceptions.

I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here-I only watched the one with John Lyndon (Johnny Rotten) for obvious reasons. He was fab and used the "c" word live.

I also watched bits of Celebrity Big Brother, mainly to gape in horror at Pete Burns' plastic surgery, Tourette's Pete (liz_swarf's mate) and others. I dislike the non-celebrity ones.

I watch the America's and UK's Next Top Model and the UK Project Catwalk the former due to Tyra Banks.

[50-ft-queenie.livejournal.com]

Confession time - I'm hooked on America's Next Top Model. M and I don't have a proper TV set, so every Wednesday, I go my friend's house next door and watch it. We have a blast making catty comments and predicting who will get booted off this week.

It's a complete guilty pleasure. It's just SO tacky and trashy and low-brow. I love it in the same way that I love Cheez Whiz on toast. I also watched the first season of Canada's Next Top Model, which kinda sucked, but the next season should be way better cause they've got a new host. Ooh, and I watched the first two seasons of Britain's Next Top Model on YouTube.

Are there communities?? Are there ever! The ANTM community is topmodel. I think the CNTM community is canadasnexttop.

[melete.livejournal.com]

So I suck and forgot to mention that I also do watch Top Model (damn, that sounds like I'm at an AA meeting).

I love it in the same way that I love Cheez Whiz on toast.

And there it is exactly. It is total crack. I don't know what the compulsion is about but I certainly feel the need to tune in if I remember it is on.

[50-ft-queenie.livejournal.com]

Also, does Irom Chef count as a reality show? It comes on after ANTM and I sometimes stick around to watch it. One time, the secret ingredient was goat cheese. Several varieties of it. Alton Brown explained the differences btw the cheeses while the chefs cooked like crazy and M and I drooled all over ourselves.

[ravensee.livejournal.com]

I like watching Surreal Life on Muchmoremusic or I Love New York also on the same channel.

I also love makeover shows on TLC.

[ravensee.livejournal.com]

Hit post too soon.

I like these shows because I can shut brain out. It's like candy that sort of helps escape everything and thank the heavens I am not the people in the show.

[lilactime.livejournal.com]

I was on a roll last year where I called the winners of American Idol, The Amazing Race, Hell's Kitchen and Do You Think You Can Dance from the early episodes. This year, both the Idol and the Race are a bit tedious and I've lost interest. I think it depends on there being a contestant that you like enough to root for.

We watched Top Chef, but also lost interest near the end of Season 2.

The one I'll never miss is Hell's Kitchen, but that's mostly because I love that Gordon Ramsay.

[elixxir.livejournal.com]

Hrm, I loved both RockStar seasons because I got totally sucked into rooting for my favourite singers. Strangely though I only watch American Idol for the horrible auditions because I can't believe how many people truly believe they have talent, but once they're down to the 'good' singers I completely lose interest. I guess their format has never really had me develop any favourites to make it worth watching.

I also watch Dancing with the Stars but that's more because it's my mom's favourite show and it gives us something to chat about. :)

I used to be a huge Survivor fan but somewhere after season 10 I totally lost interest. It FINALLY got boring for me.

The ones I really hate are the dating shows like The Bachelor where you really see the ugly sides of chicks when they're making complete asses of themselves competing for some idiot guy.

[bellafiga.livejournal.com]

Shit I forgot Rockstar!!! Damn I suck..

[iamjw.livejournal.com]

I watch Amazing Race, Survivor and Rock Star. I have watched American Idol but the music's crap. And sometimes Big Brother but it tends to annoy more than amuse so it's an occasional thing.

Amazing Race I like for the fact that it is straight out competition and you get to see part of the world while you're out there.

Survivor I turned on the first time to mock then got completely hooked. There hasn't been a season as good as the first one, IMO, and now I'm at the point where I can skip episodes without worrying about it, but I still like trying to figure out what everyon'e strategy is. And, of course, the yelling at idiots who can't see they're voting out the wrong person aspect.

Rock Star I like for a number of reasons. The music is actually good music - Stones, Beatles, Nirvana, Radiohead. The competitors all have established music credentials, are able to play an instrument, write and perform their own songs and can really sing. And the back up band kicks butt.

As for the question about whether there are communities for these shows...you're kidding, right? Honey, *everything* has a community these days. There is an LJ comm for Rock Star that I went to last year when it was on. It was kind of fun as a couple of the posters were attending tapings, so we all got kind of an inside glimpse at what was happening.

[bellafiga.livejournal.com]

Hrmm alrighty. American Idol. Mainly because I'm a singer and I know exactly what those kids are thinking/feeling. It's their shot at the dream and watching it lets me live vicariously through them.

So you think you can dance. I love watching people dance plain and simple. I don't care in what venue or avenue it just excites me. I actually find myself awestruck some times I just can't get over how they make their bodies work.

The Amazing Race.. Ohhh how I love this show. It's just sorta thrilling to see people scuttle around the world at break neck speed. It's one of those shows i could never do but I admire the fuck outta the people that do:P

Ohhhh America's next top model!! Love that show. I love the photoshoots the best, and the reveal of the pictures. I think it's cause I harbour delusions of being a model. So it's kinda cool to watch these girls actually do it. I guess it's all about dream chasing for me. I just adore seeing others do it, cause I'm too chicken to do it myself.

And then I watch a bunch of reality based shows on Mtv.. They aren't competitions, more following people around in their day to day lives. I'm just a voyeur at heart I suppose. I enjoy watching other people doing stuff i don't do..

[bellafiga.livejournal.com]

I hate the bachelor type shows. It's just antiquated and stupid. It never actually works out as planned so I have no earthly idea why they still produce the damn show..

I could go on ad nauseum. I'll stop now;P

[dethany.livejournal.com]

The only one I've ever seen is Wife Swap, is it really a reality show?

It is so godawful, I can't not watch it. ;) I never watch it with my eyes though, I just have it on for noise in the studio. So I watch it with my ears.

I just love seeing the spats. Love it love it love it.

[sweetfuckall.livejournal.com]

I forgot to add "Wife Swap/Trading Spouses" to my list of offenses. So awesome. Almost made me want to become a God Warrior.

[50-ft-queenie.livejournal.com]

OMG I saw that episode. She was fucking crazy!

[panic-girl.livejournal.com]

I like:
America's Next Top Model. It stands for everything I should hate, but I can't stop. I love it. I think it was all that FT I watched as a kid. They had a Canadian version last year, which was terrible. This year's will be 1000x times better. If you like that sort of thing.

Beauty and the Geek: When they made the "beauties" learn all about aerodynamics, I bust a gut.

Top Chef is pretty cool. I don't keep up with it, but I'll watch if I see it's on. Iron Chef too.

I never watch any celebrity reality shows. They're boring. I couldn't give a shit what Jessica Simpson, or Aaron Carter eats for dinner. BOOOOOORING. It sort of flies in the face of "reality" TV since these people don't lead "real" lives. I guess that's why I like the others. "Normal" people, not famous anyway, in situations that are alien or challenging to them. Though I find Survivor pretty tedious.

There are likely communities for every show out there. Can't imagine there aren't.

[elusis.livejournal.com]

I despise any of the shows that are about mocking people for their inadequacies, or promoting behavior I find problematic (weight loss, backstabbing, looks-ism, etc.) They really offend me on a deep level.

I have no interest in singing/dancing talent contests, or in anything that features plastic-looking women.

I consistently watch Project Runway and Top Chef because while there can be the personality conflict stuff (that, frankly, I find distracting and annoying), ultimately the show is about cultivating an actual, demonstrable skill that most people do not have. I like seeing the creative process at work.

I watched Amazing Race for a couple of seasons because I did like that it wasn't about voting people off, it was about who got to the checkpoint first or last. And a friend and I were seriously considering entering as a team. But the more they pushed the "manufactured personality conflict" aspect, the less interested I got. I skipped the season where they involved 4-person family teams entirely, because watching one ep made it clear that the kids-are-annoying factor was going to ruin it for me, and I just never went back.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I watched The Amazing Race for the first time this week, and I was amazed at how much I got into it.

Mostly because I really wanted the homophobe to lose.

for research purposes only!

[sweetfuckall.livejournal.com]

My sister and I watch a number of "reality" shows. I am deeply ashamed; it just happened! I blame my sister mostly, for turning them on. I blame myself next, for not having the strength to turn them off.

I watch:

1) American/Canadian Idol (only when they're in the tryout stages, cuz it's funny)
2) Dancing With the Stars (only last season, because I used to have a crush on Mario Lopez... Turns out that I still do)
3) Intervention (I watch this occasionally. It's like a car wreck; I can't turn away)
4) Do makeover/home renovation shows count as "reality" shows? If so, I'm guilty. I have no real excuse for watching these, besides being a loser.

[melete.livejournal.com]

I have a soft spot for The Amazing Race. Heck, I have a soft spot for travel shows in general. I love watching how the pairs interact between themselves and also what they do when they are dropped in a really foreign place and have to find a way to negotiate their way around. I think, in general, the casting is well chosen. There seems to be a minimum of casting people because they'd be assholes and stir up drama. I also like it because, in general, those that do well do so because they are nice and cooperate (damn, that makes me sound like a hippie) - so again it minimizes the asshole factor.

Travel under normal circumstances, in my experience, seems to put people at their worst and their best, often simultaneously. I think the show, which adds an incredible amount of stress and sleep-dep to it, captures that really well.

Oh, and Phil (the host) has the best job ever. I seriously want to steal it from him.

[marchenland.livejournal.com]

I like Drawn Together (http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/drawn_together/index.jhtml)...

Actually, I didn't even like that one; I just liked it better than anything else of that sort.

[porcinea.livejournal.com]

I've watched a few seasons of Big Brother, and might again depending on my mood and the show's hook.

I'll watch Hell's Kitchen again, anytime. Love that show.

Survivor, definitely, and sometimes the Amazing Race.

The one I loved and miss: Eco-Challenge. Now that was a heck of a race.

Oh! Does Wife Swap count? (Or Trading Spouses -- whichever one wasn't on Fox.) And Nanny 911 (or Supernanny, whichever one wasn't on Fox)?

The PBS ones were excellent -- Manor House and the one on the Prairie. And the early American colony one.

Why do I like them? Hm. People say the darndest things. People are *fascinating*.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I'm finding out that there are way more shows out there than I ever imagined!