I would not include Pawn Stars in the category of trashy tv. It has some educational value with the bits about the history of the items. And it doesn’t have the drama/violence that you need for really trashy viewing. I’d even give American Pickers a pass on that score. Storage Wars is pushing the bottom of the envelope, I think. They manufacture mild controversy/conflict more than the other shows, and offer less background on the items featured.
I turn to “The World’s Dumbest” for background noise on occasion. But that show id more about the snark from the comedians than anything the victims / subjects actually do. (Tonya Harding is a hell of a lot funnier than I would ever have given her credit for.)
My Reality TV watching tends more to the American Pickers / Pawn Stars / Storage Wars look-at-the-valuable-junk-we-found genre. The Wife like Hoarders, inspirational Undercover Boss / Secret Millionaire shows and most of the weight-loss dramas.
I watch trashy TV for the ads.
I find the minimum legally required auto insurance for less, convenience stores offering a balanced diet, great rent-to-own deals and can’t miss career opportunities in information technology.
If you have time and are so inclined, dig up a recording of Jerry Springer as a guest on NPR’s Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me in March of 2011. I really like that show, and when they announced him as a guest, I thought Peter Sagal’s cheese had done slid off his cracker.
Jerry Springer was funny and charming, and seemed like a nice guy. And he explained himself, at least partly. It was a surreal experience. My sister came over the day after I’d heard it, and I said, “Um, did you hear Wait Wait yesterday?” and she said. “Yes. I KNOW. How weird was that?!?!”
That said, I’m not signing up to be on his show, and I still don’t watch it unless I’m at my in-laws’ house (answer to the OP, finally). But it was very, very interesting.
Completely unrelated aside: I know a car salesman named Jerry Springer. He said it’s made him a lot of money over the years. No one ever forgets his name.
And ambulance chasing attorneys. “Hurt in a car? Sue 'em! Guaranteed payout!” :rolleyes:
I know, right? A friend of mine dated him when she was in college (he bought her breast implants for her 18th birthday. Awwww…) Knowing that he’s a nice guy makes me hate him more. He’s not some imbecile who doesn’t know any better, he’s a smart, funny, charming guy who for the love of money and fame has created a horrible genre of television exploiting stupid people*. In other words, an ass.
*I don’t believe they’re *all *actors. I think that’s a lie viewers tell themselves so they can go on believing the country isn’t really full of people like that.
The exploitation for drama is too thinly veiled for me, I can’t do it. And I’ve traveled independently on several continents so the competitive travel leaves me utterly baffled. There appears to be nothing that can’t be made competitive including weddings, baking, and repoing cars!
So of the shows like the repo cars and exterminator I usually find as I’m idly flicking through channels. And, I confess, the first couple of times it’s interesting, as I know nothing of vehicle repo, exterminating, crab fishing, evicting people, interventions, etc. But once you’ve seen it, or parts of it, a couple of times, what’s left to see? All interest evaporates, at least for me.
Perhaps because I grew up around a lot of drama, but it’s just not that appealing to me. It doesn’t stimulate my interest so much as repel me. Manufactured drama, where contestants are preselected for their dysfunction and potential for train wreck drama, makes me feel like a fish on a hook, I find I cannot watch it.
But I am glad to have had a peak into the lives of bounty hunters, crab fishermen, iceroad truckers, exterminators, pawn shop owners, etc. I’m just not seeing the need to watch a whole season is all.