# End of Reality TV in sight? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 18, 2005, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/end-of-reality-tv-in-sight/285408 "2005-01-18T19:13:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2005, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/end-of-reality-tv-in-sight/285408/21 "2005-01-18T22:18:09Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > I’m not trying to be disingenuous here, honest – but for those of you who hate reality TV, what’s it to you? It’s not like the networks are suddenly going to start airing a lot of shows you actually want to watch – there will be more CSI/L&O clones, more crappy sitcoms with bumbling dads and hot moms – and, next season, a slew of _Desperate Housewives_ and _Lost_ ripoffs that miss the point and are canceled quickly. > > Why do you care what the show is on the other channel that you’re not watching? What’s it to me? As others have said, every hour that reality tv occupies is an hour that could have been filled with something that I _might_ want to watch. There are no guarantees, of course: never have been, never will be. But as I refuse to watch _any_ reality tv, its downfall is totally upside for me. Sure, some, probably many, hours next season will be filled with imitations and ripoffs. But not all of them. Every new show that comes on has a chance to be something new, and different, and original. More than that. A show that works on its own also allows other good shows that otherwise wouldn’t have had a chance at life to have their chance. I watch both _Law & Order_ and _CSI_. The latter wouldn’t have had a chance without the former. (And, no, I don’t watch any of their spinoff series.) I have to believe that any new trend that appears will be more to my liking than reality shows. So it’s hugely important to me that they die. You can have a few hours of reality tv that I won’t pay attention to, **twickster** , but in return I want back those twenty or thirty hours of real programs so I can start watching television again. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2005, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/end-of-reality-tv-in-sight/285408/22 "2005-01-18T22:25:31Z")
> [@](#): > > I, for one, would be happy to see networks at least trying to get some good new shows going. No kidding. How many pilots with the potential of _The Simpsons_ or _Family Guy_ got swept off the desk when Fox decided to spend its budget on long-stemmed roses for some dippy fuck to give clueless pillocks on the newest _must-see_ reality series, _Pestilential Crack-Whore Hydrocephalic Bachelorette III_? ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2005, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/end-of-reality-tv-in-sight/285408/23 "2005-01-18T22:32:40Z")
> [@SNenc](#): > > I don’t know, I think Buffy had kind of run its course. It’s hard to say a show that was cancelled after seven seasons was cut off too early. \*Like \*Buffy. I said \*like \*Buffy. I agree it had come to it’s logical conclusion. I’m just a bitter genre-geek with nothing to watch right now. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2005, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/end-of-reality-tv-in-sight/285408/24 "2005-01-18T22:33:53Z")
> [@Ogre](#): > > _Pestilential Crack-Whore Hydrocephalic Bachelorette III_? Now _that_ I would watch! [SUB]Oh, and… BAND NAME![/SUB] ---
**Author:** ![Mauvaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mauvaise/32/11084_2.png) [@Mauvaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mauvaise)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2005, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/end-of-reality-tv-in-sight/285408/25 "2005-01-19T00:48:44Z")
> [@Link in the OP](#): > > Fox has been caught on the wrong side of audience taste in the past few months. Scripted series like ABC’s Golden Globe-winning “Desperate Housewives” and “Lost” are hot, while viewers seem to have little patience for new reality series. Maybe FOX should have thought of that before cancelling good shows, like Firefly and Wonderfalls, or even Tru Calling without giving them any chance to succed. Fucking FOX. Maybe they’ll give Point Pleasant a decent chance now. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2005, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/end-of-reality-tv-in-sight/285408/26 "2005-01-19T02:45:01Z")
[QUOTE=Ogre] No kidding. How many pilots with the potential of _The Simpsons_ or _Family Guy_ got swept off the desk …? [QUOTE] Probably not all that many. FOX has always gone for the cheaply produced, lowest-common-denominator show. How many seasons was _Married…With Children_ on? ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2005, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/end-of-reality-tv-in-sight/285408/27 "2005-01-19T03:33:33Z")
> [@](#): > > Dude, where have you been? It’s coming back in early May. I thought it was coming back Superbowl Sunday. As for Reality TV… eh. They’ve always been glorified game shows, except you have the same contestants for the whole season. And like any game show, you need a good premise, a good starting point, in order to have anything interesting. And, like game shows, there are many attempts at having wacky, extreme, off-the-wall premises as an eye-catcher. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2005, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/end-of-reality-tv-in-sight/285408/28 "2005-01-19T03:37:22Z")
The clue-meter is still reading zero at Fox headquarters. The problem is not that they’re showing too many reality shows; the problem is that they’re showing too many bad shows. Next year’s cut-rate imitations of _Desperate Housewives_ and _Lost_ won’t be any better than this year’s cut-rate imitations of _Survivor_ and _Real World_. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2005, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/end-of-reality-tv-in-sight/285408/29 "2005-01-19T15:59:02Z")
> [@SPOOFE](#): > > I thought it was coming back Superbowl Sunday. I thought it came back last fall 😕. Speaking of _Family Guy_ . . . eh, it’s a good way to kill 30 minutes, but the humor is too much of a Simpsons ripoff and Chris is the most annoying and unfunny character to ever grace the small screen. What they need to bring back is _Futurama_. ---
**Author:** ![Judith\_Prietht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b19c9b/32.png) [@Judith\_Prietht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Judith_Prietht)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2005, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/end-of-reality-tv-in-sight/285408/30 "2005-01-19T16:16:00Z")
> [@Mauvaise](#): > > Maybe FOX should have thought of that before cancelling good shows, like Firefly and Wonderfalls, or even Tru Calling without giving them any chance to succed. > > Fucking FOX. Maybe they’ll give Point Pleasant a decent chance now. I’m not holding my breath, unfortunately, and I really want this show to have a chance. Although it’s premiering tonight, I believe its time slot is Thursday at 8pm CST, which puts it up against _CSI_. FOX has given it _The OC_ as a lead-in, which will probably get a few people in the door, but I guess time will tell if they stick around. Seth McFarlane is also doing a new show for FOX called _American Dad_, which will premiere after _The Family Guy_ on Superbowl Sunday. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2005, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/end-of-reality-tv-in-sight/285408/31 "2005-01-19T16:30:00Z")
I started at thread called “Whither the great cheesy F and SF shows of yesteryear?” and there are a lot of people who LIKED those cheesy shows and still watch them in reruns. It’s highly unlikely anyone’s gonna watch reruns of reality shows. I mean, I like Fear Factor and they’re rerunning it on some cable channel or other, but I’m just not interested. I guess I never liked it that much. So what’s likely to happen is the networks who went most heavily for reality TV are going to have a huge, gaping income hole down the road becuase they won’t have shows to resell to cable stations for reruns. If they’d been programming cheesy F and SF shows, they’d have a lto more income from that source. Serves 'em right if you ask me. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2005, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/end-of-reality-tv-in-sight/285408/32 "2005-01-19T16:30:40Z")
The thing that irks me about all this “Reality” TV is that is isn’t reality. People do not act real when they have cameras trained on them. Some of them purposely play that up so they can boost their soon to be acting career. Heck all you have to do is get on one of these shows to pretty much guarantee you’ll hit a few talk shows or get to be a guest reporter on Extra or Entertainment Tonight. No real talent needed. Then the media decides we must really want to see these people and they are constantly shoved down our throats. The shows are also edited and manipulated by the producers to get their desired result, so the end product is even further from reality. I’d rather give the product of real writers, actors and producers that has an actual plot a chance than the same warmed over “reality” premise. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2005, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/end-of-reality-tv-in-sight/285408/33 "2005-01-19T16:45:22Z")
What I don’t get is why three separate genres having in common only relative unscriptedness, low production costs, and all getting popular at once, got lumped in together. – Makeover shows – Competetion shows – Documentary shows (perhaps only the Osbornes qualifies?) However, another thing they have in common is _I’ve never turned them on_. I’ve never gotten up and said “hey, a reality TV show is on! I wanna watch Survivor: South Central LA!” I’ve seen enough of them when others have had the TV on to know the only good part of them is the dance theme to QE4tSG (if it recurs, dunno since I’ve only seen it once or twice.) Then again, I’ve only liked 3 or 4 non-public television shows ever anyway, so unless a show is another Simpsons, MASH, Gargoyles, or 1st-season Dark Angel, I’m not gonna watch it. And definitely not if it’s on Fox: I caught one episode of Firefly, but since it was a good show, I knew it was going to get cancelled, so never started watching it. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2005, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/end-of-reality-tv-in-sight/285408/34 "2005-01-19T16:48:00Z")
> [@Evil Captor](#): > > I started at thread called “Whither the great cheesy F and SF shows of yesteryear?” and there are a lot of people who LIKED those cheesy shows and still watch them in reruns. It’s been proven time and again (to me, at least) that the population of the SDMB is not representative of the general population :). ---
**Author:** ![rockle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/73ab20/32.png) [@rockle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rockle)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2005, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/end-of-reality-tv-in-sight/285408/35 "2005-01-19T17:04:31Z")
> [@Evil Captor](#): > > So what’s likely to happen is the networks who went most heavily for reality TV are going to have a huge, gaping income hole down the road becuase they won’t have shows to resell to cable stations for reruns. If they’d been programming cheesy F and SF shows, they’d have a lto more income from that source. > > Serves 'em right if you ask me. Or, they’ll sell their reality reruns to an upstart channel called “Reality Central.” I am not making this channel up. (And I am also trying to get DirecTV to carry it.) Famewhores will ALWAYS watch themselves on television. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2005, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/end-of-reality-tv-in-sight/285408/36 "2005-01-19T17:10:33Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > What I don’t get is why three separate genres having in common only relative unscriptedness, low production costs, and all getting popular at once, got lumped in together. > > – Makeover shows > – Competetion shows > – Documentary shows (perhaps only the Osbornes qualifies?) There are several documentary shows – American Casino, for example, which is being cloned on another network in a show about Caesar’s Palace. There’s a 4th category – the hookup show (Bachelorette, Joe Millionaire). The interesting thing about this category is that it has produced exactly one long-term relationship, in a dozen tries. In each category there are the fairly good and the truly awful. As happened with game shows, when WWTBAM took off – the market gets flooded with the truly awful, and everything gets washed away. ---
**Author:** ![shy\_guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a6a055/32.png) [@shy\_guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shy_guy)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2005, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/end-of-reality-tv-in-sight/285408/37 "2005-01-19T19:46:38Z")
> [@](#): > > It’s highly unlikely anyone’s gonna watch reruns of reality shows. I mean, I like Fear Factor and they’re rerunning it on some cable channel or other, but I’m just not interested. I guess I never liked it that much. Actually, I think Fear Factor is exactly the kind of reality show that’ll do well in reruns. Shows like Survivor depend on you following, more or less, the entire season - Fear Factor just requires a one-hour committment. And not even that, really, you can watch it for 10 minutes to see the guy eat bugs and then shut it off. Given that, I can see it attracting more viewers than, say a _Buffy_ rerun. And cable stations get a lot of mileage out of their reality reruns - TLC shows Trading Spaces and While You Were Out _all the time_ and ditto MTV with Real World, Battle of the Sexes, Pimp My Ride, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Stringer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Stringer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stringer)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2005, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/end-of-reality-tv-in-sight/285408/38 "2005-01-19T22:02:54Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > There’s a 4th category – the hookup show (Bachelorette, Joe Millionaire). The interesting thing about this category is that it has produced exactly one long-term relationship, in a dozen tries. There’s also a 5th category…the drama show (Real World, High School Reunion). AKA Let’s give a bunch of reasonably attractive (but woefully stupid) twentysomethings free alcohol and a place to stay and see who hooks up/fights with whom. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2005, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/end-of-reality-tv-in-sight/285408/39 "2005-01-19T22:19:37Z")
> [@rockle](#): > > Or, they’ll sell their reality reruns to an upstart channel called “Reality Central.” I am not making this channel up. (And I am also trying to get DirecTV to carry it.) Famewhores will ALWAYS watch themselves on television. I desperately want them to make this channel. It’d be great if the reality shows were walled up behind a fence, marroned on big channel that’d never cancel a show I like in order to make another show about idiots trying to get the guy/girl/money/recording contract/money. It would be great. I _liked_ Pasadena, Haunted, Miracles, Wonderfalls, John Doe, and other shows killed off so the networks could parade more “unscripted” stupidity across the dial. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2005, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/end-of-reality-tv-in-sight/285408/40 "2005-01-19T22:26:52Z")
> [@](#): > > People do not act real when they have cameras trained on them. When you spend three weeks living with camera crews, you tend to ease up. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/end-of-reality-tv-in-sight/285408.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/end-of-reality-tv-in-sight/285408.md?page=3)