Am I the only one who hates reality TV with a passion?

Nope you aren't alone- I think its awful. Everything is scripted, has been from the beginning. Cheap and stupid scripted drama posing as reality.

Yes, OP, you're the only person on earth who hates reality television. Just you.

OP is so pretentious, I just want to barf.

Life is too short to be wasted on watching that garbage. I can't believe people spend hours every week watching reality TV. It's like brain freeze.

Wow, OP -- you actually OWN a TV? Well, it takes all kinds, I suppose. Of course, [italic]I[/italic] wouldn't have one in [italic]my[/italic] house. Why should I stare at that thing when there are so many great books to read?

I was too jealous when MTV started 'Real World'.

The actors made much more money than me and they simply sat around bitching at one another for an entire season - in lofts that did not have roaches, orange carpet or junkies living next door.

Now, streaming has opened up to where I don't have to make NPR type excuses for not keeping track of reality programing.

My TV conked out a few years ago. A real relief. I do miss seeing CNN election coverage or the Japan earthquake but all in all, I feel liberated and better off with no TV.%0D %0D

they are called docu-series and if you say otherwise Gayle will hunt you down and go all ghetto on your tired old op ass

I've always thought that Reality TV was a way to make people with absolutely no redeeming qualities believe they were something other than brain-dead consumers and, just maybe!!!, they -- with no skills whatsoever -- could be on a TV, too!

I mean that if anyone can become a TV star, then everyone can -- including (perhaps especially) those people who can'y seem to go one day without looking at a television set.

Sarah Palin is the exemplar of the Reality TV Age.

Personally I love some reality TV, scripted or not. And of course I realize that most of it scripted but I still enjoy it. I have friends that watch TV a lot but look down their nose at reality TV because it's scripted. Hello, the shit you watch is scripted too. What the fuck difference does it make if it's scripted and people enjoy it?

Most reality shows are a loathesome waste or just boring, but I've watched a few that involve contests of skill. Things like "Project Runway" and "Iron Chef" show masters of their craft at work, which can be worth watching.%0D %0D But even shows have all this awful manufactured drama, and outright sadism to the entrants.

I hate it too.

Never watched it, never will.

I actually look down on people who watch it.

I only watch reality shows, game shows and news. Sitcoms don't interest me. I did watch a couple of episodes of White Collar last fall. First, there are gay people on reality shows unlike most scripted shows and I like to root for them and see what they experience. Second, I can't take the phony heterosexual bs on scripted shows. Heterosexuals don't live the way they do on scripted shows and they are not kind to or saviors of gay people. Third, I prefer the real emotions on reality shows compared to scripted shows.

Elder Gay thread.

Most reality shows about people's "real" lives are full of nasty people screaming at (and even hitting) other people. I try to avoid those people in my own life, I'm not going to devote time to them on television.%0D %0D Shows about people's occupations can be mildly interesting for an episode or two, but I don't really need to follow garbage pickers and parking meter attendants over multiple seasons.%0D %0D I used to enjoy some of the competition shows like Idol and Project Runway when they first started, but am now bored with them. I also don't want to make the time commitment any more to watch those shows.%0D

The only worthwhile one is that one where fatsos try to squeeze themsleves into wedding dresses.

I cannot stand them. Tried watching American Idol and it was just painful to watch. I can't handle listening to people singing badly and I found it boring. Shows like The Real World are the worst. If I wanted to see that kind of drama, I'd pay attention at work.

R7, I do not understand people who choose to live without election coverage and coverage of the Japan tsunami/earthquake.%0D %0D I just do not get it.%0D %0D Why would you want to live without vital coverage of politics and world events?%0D %0D I understand that newspapers and magazines and the internet provide coverage - but TV coverage of world events is full of such vitality and crucial information.

Based on the fandom here for RHONJ, I tried watching. I didn't last five minutes. When I come across them channel surfing, they never hold my interest. Back to police procedurals for me.

R5 = LOL !!!!!!!!

Maybe instead of turning on your TVs, you should be turning on your Kindles. Just a thought. I donated my TV years ago and have never looked back.

I call bullshit, R13. You've never watched any pageant or sporting event or documentary or game show? All reality TV. And OP- how can you hate something you've barely tasted. Watching one episode of Idol and one episode of something else gives you the authority to call it all boring and worthless? I can't stand it when people claim to hate something they haven't watched.

[quote]Shows about people's occupations can be mildly interesting for an episode or two, but I don't really need to follow garbage pickers and parking meter attendants over multiple seasons. I agree with you for the majority of the shows but for some reason the lives of pawn brokers and Alaskan truckers are compelling to me.

Most people who claim not to like 'reality tv' really do not know what reality tv shows are like.%0D %0D There are so many different reality shows these days - and surely the people rejecting them have not watched all of them and have not sampled most of them.%0D %0D I don't like the MTV show about the New Jersey shore young people - but just because I do not like that show, it doesn't mean there are not other reality shows that are a lot of fun.

I'm not sure what R20 doesn't get. Most of the coverage of live events is also streamed on the web. If you go to CNN.com, for example, you find clips taken from the television shows there.

with netflix and a computer competing for attention, why watch regular television?

Reality TV keeps the dumbed down masses, dumbed down. And it does a very good job.

Love reality shows especially Big Brother!!

Nope you're not the only one. Blame that stupid ass "Survivor" show - it was around that time that this "reality" tv shit took off. Gone are the days of a good sitcom. I don't even watch TV hardly anymore because it's all so shitty.

You don't have to be pretentious to abhor reality t.v. But it really is trashy entertainment for people who don't like to think.

I don't watch Idol or the Housewives/Kardashians,etc., but shows like The Amazing Race/Top Chef/Project Runway/Next Food Network Show are considered reality and I'll watch them even though I know some aspects of them are set ups and over the top fake drama.

From up here, I watch these shows and actually question my omnipotence. You people clearly don't fear me. Who in hell do I have to write to ask for better examples of housewives and talentless girls with big badonkadonks? And what's with all my gays parading as Bachelor hound dogs?

I like funny reality shows, or at least the funny parts of them.

For example, I love watching the first few weeks of American Idol, because of all the talentless freaks who get shown. But once the talented people get to Hollywood, the show becomes too boring for me.

I also love mock reality shows where one sucker isn't in on the joke, such as My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiancee and The Joe Schmo Show.

Such trash.

R31- "Modern Family" is a GREAT half hour comedy. Check it out.

How lacking in knowledge that R31 thinks that TV consists of mostly nothing except reality shows and sit coms.%0D %0D There are all kinds of documentaries, human interest, psychology exploration, addiction, news analysis, world events analysis, book discussion, real crime documentaries, history channel, discovery channel, scientific exploration - the list goes on extensively.

TV is obsolete. Stick a fork in it.

The only reality television I ever enjoyed was the Survivor series. Everything else is just mind-numbing minutiae, completely devoid of anything good.

A popular form of pretension is to loudly proclaim that all reality tv is 'scripted'. See r1. Part two of the claim is that the masses are too stupid to realize it (except for our brilliant, eye-rolling speaker).

Never mind that that it makes no sense at all. It would be vastly more difficult and expensive to come up with scripts for Survivor or Big Brother or Intervention or Top Chef than to simply allow people to say what they will and record it. In addition, you have to add a whole complex layer of conspiracy between those writers and all the participants for any number of years. Finally, for the shows that award a prize, it would be patently illegal.

I don't care much whether you love or hate reality tv, but please don't go around thinking you are all high-minded and above it all because you 'know' it is scripted. That is, in fact, an incorrect and rather stupid opinion.

R41 = dumb as a box of rocks.

Hello?? Who said OP hates reality tv because he thinks it's scripted?

He hates it because it is mindless drivel, scripted or not. Who wants to sit around and watch a bunch of idiots talk about absolutely nothing? Or, eat bugs? Or, whatever the fuck it is they do?

Who said, r42? r1, as I pointed out exactly. I did not say anything about the OP.

You're a fucking idiot. Really, really dumb. Your last questions are particularly stupid in light of the very premise that reality tv is popular. And your last sentence is not a question and should not have a question mark.

Yes, I think you are very, very dumb.

You sound a bit angry, R42. This was a civil conversation; there is no logical reason for why you are overreacting so much.

R1 is the one who said reality TV is scripted. I agree that it's not scripted. If it is, they found the writers living in a cardboard box, underneath a bridge, somewhere.

I like it.%0D %0D Am I mingin'?

R41, also carries a sarcastic, angry, bitter tone.

It is not scripted however 'suggestions' are made by the director as to the direction of comments and conflict and often played out with glee by the participants.

I think we have the angry couple who bickers from different floors of the same duplex pluggin' this morning.

Yes, if you put the dish in the sink you SHOULD rinse it first and wipe down the granite.

It amazes me that people still think Reality TV is all real.%0D %0D It may not be scripted in the traditional sense, but the producers control the direction of the shows without a doubt. It's what is known as "Partially scripted". %0D %0D Shows like "Dancing" and "American Idol" have been plagued with rumors of voter tampering for years. %0D %0D The Osbournes have admitted that most of everything post season one of their show was staged for the cameras. %0D %0D Irene from "Real World" Seattle has talked extensively about how the producers manipulated everyone into getting into fights and created drama for the sake of good television. %0D %0D %0D %0D

"Reality TV" which is not actually real, is the #1 psychological mass-control tool being used today, blinding Americans to what is happening to their country. Wall Street, wars, denial of public healthcare..... all decoyed by Americas "Bunny Rabbit in the Headlights" obsession with reality TV.

Almost everything you see on TV is, more or less, "scripted", from, Vancouver riots to Libya to whatever the hell else the mainstream media reveals.

We live in a controlled society, and by controlled, I mean, we're only allowed to have access to what the PTB want us to see and know about. Reality TV serves as a cheap way to keep the masses distracted. It also serves to dumb down the masses even further. Kids today are clueless, and that's the way they want it.

Take the TSA superhero doll just released. It's all brainwashing and mental conditioning. That's the only way to control society in such a way that it preserves the illusion of freedom.

There are degrees of scriptedness, of course. On "Project Runway" the producers will manipulate events to some degree, and then there's the crap like the Kardashian stuff. %0D %0D Everything is plotted out, and they carry on the charades off camera, having their publicist send scenarios to the rags and so on. How can a person live like that, and still have any idea of who they are and what they want?

I hate reality TV in general, but I have to admit I watch some of it. It's like slowing down to watch a car wreck, it does get addicting. At times, I have to mute the TV because I get so uncomfortable hearing people belittling and insulting each other to their face.%0D %0D The thing that bothers me is that these losers become pseudo-famous off this garbage.%0D %0D I honestly thought this reality trend would have run its course by now.%0D %0D I hear that Sarah Ferguson's friends believe that she is worse AFTER she did her Oprah produced reality show than before she started. I saw a preview of Dr. Phil giving it to her good and once again I watched.%0D %0D Shame on me.

[quote]Wall Street, wars, denial of public healthcare..... all decoyed by Americas "Bunny Rabbit in the Headlights" obsession with reality TV.

That's exactly what the neocon controlled news media wants you to think.

I don't like TV in general, reality or not. We have cable because my partner likes it, but I never turn the thing on myself except to watch a DVD. Cheap reality TV and loud sitcom laughtracks just depress me. I can, however, waste hours and hours on the computer.

As far as fame goes, let them have it. The more I find out about the famous, the more I find out how much they don't deserve it...at all!

It's the ones behind the scenes who deserve the credit, for the most part, and the assholes who catch the spotlight

" . . . with a passion" ???

MARY !!!!!!!!!!!

Reality tv shows... Total Divas ..Kardashians...Donnie Loves Jenny... stupid or what!!! Waste of time and brain power..I believe these shows were based around men's minds up and below. They are disgusting.... that's all I gotta say!!

R59, you type very old. That's all I gotta say!!

A quarter million of Americans have cancelled their cable packages. You are definitely not alone.

I was at my sister's the other day and she was flipping through cable. She stopped on that Donnie Loves Jenny show and I was speechless. A half hour of those two idiots talking about farting and fucking.

The Real Housewives of Name Your City, Honey Boo Boo, The Fucking Daggers, The Fucking Kardashians, etc., etc. are the decline and fall of civilization.

Kill Andy Cohen and Ryan Seacrest for giving us so much of this schlocky, disgusting bullshit.

LOL, r63, you haven't read the 'mos fawning over the Corrections in the Franzen thread. That's the real "decline and fall of civilization", gays sucking up pretentious middlebrow bullshit like hogs at a trough in an effort to feel cultured. There is nothing intellectual about that kind of shit, either.

There's a special hot corner in hell waiting for you, r64.

Can't stand it. Only the shows where someone actually has a talent - Idol, the Voice, shows like those of course. But Teen Moms and Real Housewives - they should be put out of my misery. Oh, and shows like Pawn Shop and shows about people with really boring jobs, I hate them too.

How vicious, r65! Just what part of my post deserved that? BTW, be sure to give my love to Rose and the cows the next time you go back home to that BF town in Minnesota you're from for Christmas with the family! My extra special love, remember!

Hate reality TV, never watch that crap.

I LOVES it. NENE Leakes is mah hero huntayyyyyy. Wit that ramen noodle wiiig...mmm hmm sista gurl slays them otha womens wit her shade.

The only one I watch is RuPaul. I don't always like it, but there usually is something entertaining going on.

All others are mind numbingly stupid. How anyone who functions with an IQ above 40 could partake is a mystery.

So no, there are millions who HATE reality TV. Most straight men hate it. It seems to appeal to low intellect gays, sexually frustrated and/or fat, lethargic housewives, or women who think they are glam/fashionistas/attractive. Smarter well educated people do not watch it.

Reality TV is mostly scripted. It sucks.

No you are not. There is no such thing as reality TV...it is as scripted as any other tv. If you want reality, hide the cameras and don't tell anyone they are there.

OP, if I didn't have a boyfriend already, I'd ask you out.

I have never become involved with the genre. It has destroyed a piece of my deep appreciation for a medium that I always loved. I especially hate how no-talent nobodies have become celebrities without earning it. I am hoping that it just goes away, but unfortunately it seems to be here to stay. I just chalk it up to TV having something for everybody and if I don't like it, all I have to do is just ignore it.

Scripted TV shows are better than they've ever been.

There's so much quality stuff to watch, bitching about shitty E! show is pointless.

No you are not OP. I am proud to say with the occasional exception of Chopped on Food Network which I'm not even sure is a reality show, I have never watched one and never will. That includes the DWTS and other shows like it.

If networks want my valuable time they better damn well go to the trouble of writing real scripts and hiring real actor.

I think the networks are shooting themselves in the foot with all this shitty "reality" TV. None of this content has any evergreen value to it - who gives two shits about watching re-runs of Anna Nicole's show, or whatever fucking past season of Big Brother? It's becoming all the more reason to get rid of cable all together. If they want to win people back at this point, they are going to need to start producing quality shows again. I'm not paying $100 a month to watch 20 spin offs of the Kardashian bitches and all this Real Housewives garbage, not to mention the non-stop commercials.

Why on earth should I waste the mental energy to hate something that, with little effort, I can willfully avoid? No one is forcing me to watch those shows and most of them are fairly innocuous. I really don't understand people like the OP who cannot seem to enjoy the things he does like because there is something he doesn't like out there in the world. You sound like a religious extremist, OP.

Don't watch any of it except occasionally Shark Tank or The Profit with my bf who is glued to CNBC (he's big into the stock market).

I have never seen an episode of the Kartrashians or Housewives.

The problem is they aren't "reality" at all.

OP, "reality" TV is so popular because it plays to the lowest common denominator in terms of intelligence -- also because it's so much cheaper to produce than scripted TV and other kinds of shows.

If you think AMERICAN IDOL is bad, have you ever watched the even more idiotic shows where the cameras are supposedly following people in real, unscripted situations, like any of the REAL HOUSEWIVES or THE BATCHELOR or SURVIVOR? Those are true insults to anyone who possesses even a single brain cell.

The lowest common denominator for intelligence is correct.

How can anyone have a life that is so empty, that they spend time and energy to hate reality TV "with a passion"?

That's like hating Pepsi Light or Mountain Dew with a passion. A normal person would not take time to hate a drink of soda with a passion. They simply wouldn't buy it. They would simply not reach for it.

With reality TV, a normal person wouldn't turn it on. But OP takes time and energy to hate it "with a passion." That's pathetic.

[quote] Scripted TV shows are better than they've ever been.

And, that's still only so-so.

[quote] "reality" TV is so popular because it plays to the lowest common denominator in terms of intelligence

What would you suggest instead? I'd love to hear all of your highbrow recommendations.

r82=Cohen's impressionable young intern

You don't have to be "high-brow" to realize reality shows are stupid and fake. I watch all kinds of things but manage to avoid most "reality" shows.

I do too, but somehow have a soft spot for Mob Wives and RHWOBH.

I work in reality TV. When people ask me whether or not it's real, I tell them it's case by case. When there is a cash prize involved in a competitive show, it mostly plays out the way that it actually happened. Most contestants would say that a small percentage of footage makes it on air. There will always be inside jokes and lesser feuds that didn't make the cut. They will tell you about endless rehearsal of the group walking into a room and standing in the right place for a challenge or elimination. The acting part comes into play during the interviews. They usually are done the same day as the event, but sometimes contestant are asked a few more questions days later and have to put the old outfit on and remember their emotional state on that day. They might also be interviewed for 45 minutes and see only one or two sentences of that interview on air.

When it's a non-competitive show without any money involved, the cameras don't just follow you around. Your day is scheduled as tightly as the President. Nothing is spontaneous. Also, non-competitive subjects are far more likely to ask the producers, "What do you want me to say?"

In all circumstances, every location is pre-approved. Every face you see is with that person's written permission. I've seen real emotional moments restaged because no one was facing the camera during a hug or the microphones got crushed by the hug.

I have never seen anyone edited to be shown worse than they truly are, but I have seen people edited to be better than they are. Anyone who compares live internet feeds of Big Brother with aired episodes could tell you that. (I never worked on that show, by the way.)

[quote]What would you suggest instead? I'd love to hear all of your highbrow recommendations.

Turn off the TV or is that too highbrow for you? Have you ever read a book?

I wouldn't say that I hate all of it, and I'd go so far as to say that I even enjoy some reality shows to a certain extent. None of them are anything that I'd ever consider to be appointment viewing, or even anything that I'd feel remotely compelled to sit down and pay very close attention to, but I kind of like having some of them on as background noise. I find it moderately comforting in the same way that indulging in a bit of junk food from time to time is.

That being said, there ARE some that I will not even put on as background noise because they're just so fucking awful. The Real Housewives shows now fall into this category for me, although they didn't used to. I used to really enjoy them in the beginning when they were just these fun little docu-soaps about the lives of the idle rich (and the posturing pseudo-rich burying themselves under mountains of debt, of course). There was always some amount of petty drama over stupid shit, but it wasn't the entire focus of the show. Now it's just a bunch of psycho cunts who are literally out to completely destroy one another. Just about every single scene is centered around the wives' obsessive, psychotic rage towards one another, and it's always over the most minor bullshit thing that happened six months earlier. That's not fun for me to watch. It's just headache inducing.

Miss r87's insecurities are showing. I bet the only books she could even suggest are those that have been carefully selected for her by the NPR book club.

Never watch reality TV- never- it is perhaps the most emphatic comment on how mediocre our culture has become and is thereby too depressing to watch.

By the loose definition here, which seems to include quiz shows and competitions (as opposed to strictly those shows that follow people's daily lives), TV has NEVER been without "Reality" shows.

im so sick of these idiots saying they hatereality tv. all they want is scripted stuff. well guesswhat there are no new stories. there are no new ideas. its over, alz we got to look forward is what the fuuk are the kartrashiansup too. and how big rob will get. now that big thick choc bar has been taken away. how buce will become that ladywe alwayys knew he could be. and how big of a peen will kris grow. how long alkie scott will stay with lesbo kourt and how many more men can fatasskhloe bring. as"friends" to her bro. and how swwet kim will raise her bae with her hubby and his lifetime friend all under the guise of a producet whose only beard is one he must pay, all allegedly and my opinion

Of course not. Reality is fake and cheesy, manipulative and mind-killing, and it's a tragic use of precious human time. Really, who lies on his/her deathbed saying, "I'm so glad I watched back-to-back episodes of 'Real Housewives' for evenings on end"?

I'm with you, OP. Reality TV is a complete waste of time.

R94 Reality TV IS scripted.

Yes, OP. You're obviously superior to all those reality TV watching drones.

R97 - I thought one of reasons why reality TV blossomed is there were no scripts. So the shows weren't impacted by the writer's strikes.