Oh, I couldn’t watch more than one episode of Parking Wars for that very reason.
I used to watch Storage Wars every so often and got a kick out some of the “cast members”, so to speak. Didn’t care if whatever they found had been deliberately put there. I stopped watching it because there’s only so much I can take of the producers fiddling with the perfectly good format. I didn’t bother watching The Amazing Race this past season, for example, because of that idiotic “Blind Date” twist. I stopped watching Storage Wars when Barry got his own show because, frankly, the rest of them need a Barry to make the damn thing watchable.
Yeah, many of the first Season were like that, where the Boss discovered shenanigans. waste, etc. They then switched to the all “heartwarming” epis. :rolleyes::mad:
Yaknow, ya gotta watch some of the worst dumb crap that BBC makes- but doesnt import to us. Like a 'comedy" where the big gag was the “veterinarian” blew up a pet turtle by too much gas. Hilarious. :rolleyes:
I loved American Idol in its first few years. They had genuinely talented individuals who didn’t fit a mold or had none of the right connections and needed nothing more than a chance to be heard for the world to recognize their talent. After the first few years, it became all about how many ‘votes’ were cast and no longer about the talent. Winners were chosen on looks and/or appeal to the tweener texting set. What had started out as a genuine talent contest became nothing more than a popularity contest.
I still enjoy SYTYCD. I have seen some incredibly skilled and moving performances on this show, and the show still remains more about talent than personality. There is a demonstrable standard that contestants have to meet to make it onto the televised portion of the show. They don’t get put through solely on the basis of personality. Plus, I adore Cat Deeley. IMO she is everything a host of this kind of show should be. She is genuinely kind and supportive of the contestants, warm and deferent to the ‘jidges’, and cheerfully acknowledges that while she has opinions, she is by no means a dance expert.
I agree on the decline of Top Chef, another show I enjoyed very much in the beginning. Seeing creative people be creative is both fun and educational. I have learned things from the cooking contests I’ve watched, some of which I’ve actually used in real life. I love to cook, but I’m not a ‘fancy’ cook, so much of what they do and the ingredients they use have been new to me.
My favorite was always Iron Chef, which appears to have been cancelled. Super skilled people doing what they do at a top level was compelling tv. I didn’t like a lot of the ‘add-ons’ they put in during the last year or so, and once the original ICs left the show, it wasn’t nearly as compelling (I mean Geoffrey Zakarian and Alex Guarnaschelli?? ok tv, but not chefs on a par with Mario Batali or Wolfgang Puck.
And it shames me to admit it, but I loved Celebrity Apprentice. Has-been celebs, for the most part, doing things they weren’t good at and shilling for money while stabbing each other in the back. Good stuff! And they did bring in some impressive dollars for their charities over the years. And The Donald, shamelessly pandering to his favorites and drooling over the pretty women…just made me laugh out loud! The whole show was what used to be known as high camp.
They tried this for a few episodes and they were awful. A bunch of weakened people laying around complaining about food and barely able to compete in challenges. It sucked.
There just was a survival reality show on that people signed up for knowing what they were getting into, and it was surprisingly boring. Set aside the mysterious fact that when they most needed it, large juicy protein sources wandered right through camp (pig, cayman). Whenever someone was having real survival issues, they just radioed in the medivac team on a boat.
It broke my heart when Junkyard Wars went down this path. People are building monster trucks and airplanes and cannon and rockets from junk in three days and you want to focus on the drama between team members?
I didnt mean have them starve, I mean show more of the survival aspects. They always fish, gather food, etc- show more of that.
The Island, but no- the Island already had those things but they had to introduce another caiman to replace the one killed. In any case, they killed the caiman on the next to last day, so that was not when they most needed it.
Of course, you can’t just let people die. But you can let them get *very *uncomfortable. Have you seen the bug bites on some of the Survivor contestants?
The only “reality” show I ever watched was Overhaulin’. It was blessedly free of invented interpersonal drama, because the process of rebuilding a car for a deserving person in a week was compelling enough. That, and Chip Foose is so awesomely talented that it is fascinating to see him re-design a car. Chip with a pencil is more entertaining than 99% of the stuff on TV.
My brother used to watch American Hotrod, and it was packed with all the worst features of “reality” programming - invented feuds, bogus deadlines, etc. When I found out that Chip was the guy who actually designed the cars that Boyd Coddington put his name on, and found out about Overhaulin’, I switched.
The Island. I only saw the last episode and it was embarrassing. Bear Grylls has a chance to redeem himself tonight with the return of his celebrity version of Man v Wild Running Wild. Last season was excellent. First guest tonight is Kate Hudson.
Don’t forget awkward product placement! If you thought the storyline acting was bad, wait until you see these people “casually” interact with their sponsor’s product.
The original reality show (“Orange County Choppers”) had all of this to the max…I always remember the long camera sessions showing the stupid clock, while papa chopper raved at his sons.
I have to admit I’ve watched enough reality shows that I’m seeing repeat appearances. I watched a lot of Food Network before it became the all “Triple D” or “Chopped” network.
Hashtag Prick guy from Network Star had been on Cutthroat Kitchen and Asian guy with a scarf fetish was on season 7 or 8 of Top Chef.
I watch very little of the Housewives shows, but if I click pass them their sheer inanity sucks me in. So I’ve learned that the chef in one of the Hollywood housewives restaurants was on Top Chef and Cutthroat Kitchen.
It must be an actual career path people are choosing. “Rather than actually train as a chef and apprentice in restaurants I’ll just shoot straight to the top by being on TeeVee!”
The worst by far is “Alaskan Bush People”
Totally fake.
There is a website where locals talk about how the Bush People actually live in a lodge in town, and the bush home was built by contractors.
Garbage show!
In the case of Overhaulin’ they have a legitimate reason to talk about the sponsors products, as they are using them in the car they’re building. Presumably if Chip Foose didn’t think Edelbrock made a good motor, they wouldn’t use them in the car they were building.
Bachelor/Bachelorette were a guilty pleasure of mine, until 2 things happened:
The current bachelorette is an utter twit, who very obviously chose the winner in week 2 and has been playing out the string ever since;
And I started watching UnReal (Lifetime network), which is a scripted show about behind-the-scenes on a Bachelor-esque reality show. If it truly does reflect what goes on (and I believe it has some credibility), these people are despicable.
Oh, that’s understandable…I’ll even give a pass to shows like Restaurant Impossible that give close-up, lingering shots of paint cans during the redecorating parts. I’m thinking of shows like Tanked where they interrupt their already awkward little skits to show everybody enjoying some seemingly random food product that has no other bearing whatsoever on the episode’s plot.
