Which is the Best Reality TV Show?

[HFishbine]

Of the competitive reality TV shows (excluding the likes of The Osbornes, Punk'd and Simple Life), which is the best?

(Feel free to choose "other" and post your favorite. There are a lot out there, but the poll is limited to ten choices.)

[Bertha Venation]

1. "best reality TV show" = oxymoron

JMHO

[HFishbine]

6. LOL!

Maybe I should have said "better."

[Bertha Venation]

8. LOL perhaps

I think they're all ridiculous, but the ones that stick in my craw are the dating and marriage ones. Yes, we faggots & dykes make a mockery of the sacred institution of marriage, but anyone can marry anyone on TV, as long as one person has a penis and the other a vagina. :eyes:

[Bronco69]

2. Last Comic Standing.

:-)

[Insider]

25. Last Comic Standing.

[LynneSin]

3. The original one is still the best "Real World"

:D

[Mr.Green93]

4. CSPAN

[southpaw]

5. The last episode of the last reality show ever...

Actually, I liked Animal Planet's "King of the Jungle" because it had something all the others lack: reality.

[skypilot]

7. This probably won't be a popular thread.

DUers seem to have a profound aversion to anything described as a reality show. It's too bad too because not all reality shows are the same. I sort of fell into the kneejerk "reality shows are evil" mindset which caused me to miss the first few seasons of "The Amazing Race". I caught the last season of the show somewhere in the middle. I just watched it out of sheer boredom but it turned out to be a really good show. I wish so many people at DU would not just dismiss ALL reality shows out of hand. You have to pick and choose like with everything else.

[LynneSin]

9. I think all of us are guilty of watching one or 2 reality shows

I mean I hae always loved Real World (although this years Real World was filled with drunken slackers) and yes, I like Survivor (it's my brain candy). But there are just too many of them out there and the plot lines get more bizarre by the month.

[skypilot]

10. Yes, there are too many...

...but, still, there are some good ones. I really like "The Amazing Race". I also like "Fear Factor". I could do without the segment were they have to eat gross crap. I'd like the show more if it consisted of just the physical challenges. It's great seeing the women hold their own against the men.

[King Of Paperboys]

11. I refuse to watch any reality shows

Except Survivor. I've been addicted since I accidentally watched the second episode of the first season. But that's it. No more. Well, OK, The Mole, if they get rid of Ahmad Rashad-Ayers-Allen, or whatever his name is.

[skypilot]

13. Come on...

...'fess up. Out with it! Out with it!:)

[King Of Paperboys]

14. Seriously

Just those two. I have a bad TV habit; I get hooked on shows very easily, so I have to avoid new shows like the plague.

[skypilot]

15. I'm the same way.

I have to do a sort of triage when it comes to TV shows. If I get hooked on a new show I have to give up on one that I'd been watching before. Pick up on one, drop one.

[King Of Paperboys]

17. That would work

If I could drop one! I can't, so I actually had my cable cut back to Less Than Basic, so I can only get 22 channels... and I haven't watched a new show in 3 years. As my old shows die off, that's that many fewer hours I watch TV. When they're all gone, I'm done with TV.

[skypilot]

22. So, I'm doing triage...

...and you're slowly weening yourself off TV altogether. You'll probably be done with TV before I am. I'll turn off the lights when I leave.

[Loonman]

12. The Simple Life

Derivative and brain dead.

But I like it.

[LynneSin]

18. That's called brain candy

Serves no function but to amuse the mind.

[cmf]

16. The "House" Series

You know - 1900 House, Frontier House, Colonial House on PBS. They're really entertaining, and the drama seems less manufactured than on other reality shows. Plus, they give a good history lesson at the same time.

[Salmo Trutta]

19. Joe Schmoe 2

I love this show.

[tom_paine]

20. Other: Reality TV is a pustulent supperation on the Dying Old Republic

Just a symptom, mind you. I cannot put it into words, but I'll bet someone with a Ph.D in Sociology could.

The nation that descends to the Imperial Roman level of decadence and returns to the way of watching real suffering by real people as entertainment, is a morally bankrupt nastion that perhaps deserves to be ground under the boot of Imperial Tyranny.

Reality TV is a mark, a signpost, a symptom, and a symbol of the Decline and Fall of the Old American Republic.

IMHO.

[Salmo Trutta]

21. Or, it could just be fun TV...

:shrug:

[skypilot]

24. Not all reality shows are about...

...watching people suffer. Some of them are really just physical contest, kind of elaborate sporting events. I think that when people hear the words "reality show" they immediately think of the "relationship" themed shows where feelings are involved--and trampled.

On edit: Boxing, for example, has been around a lot longer than reality shows but frankly I'd rather watch a reality show than watch two men--or women--punch each other in the face.

[tom_paine]

26. COPS is the oldest and ultimate Reality Show

Jerry Springer is also an old and venerated trailblazer of this genre.

Thanks for reminding me of the ruthless and brutal "Blind Date" genre of shows who's main theme is also human suffering (with a plentiful heaping of boobs and butts, not that there's anything wrong with that), albeit the emotional kind.

You can point to the handful of exceptions, but by and large, the entirety of reality TV, including the "competitions" to see who can eat the most bugs or pig innards, revolve arund either fake or real suffering.

[skypilot]

27. bugs and pig innards

I actually like "Fear Factor" but the "eating" competition is not something I like. I said in another post that I'd like the show better if all the challenges were simply physical challenges with the women holding their own against the men. Not that anyone will ever bother to do it, but I really think people should distinguish between different kinds of reality shows. What goes on on Cops and Jerry Springer is not the same as people pushing themselves physically in competition against others.

[tom_paine]

29. No, but they all belong to the same Family of Shows

You can parse definitions and argue semantics all you like, but again you talk about the exceptions to the rule, and not the rule.

Emotional pain, like Survivor and Big Brother and Real World. Fake pain, like Jerry Springer and the rest of the genre. Real pain and suffering like COPS.

I also want to make not that I am not personally attackiong people for watching this stuff.

My motto for Imperial Amerika 2004 is "Eat drink and be merry bvecause it might not last much longer", so I won't criticize people for doing that which makes them happy (so long as it doesn;t hurt another)

But sociologically, the Big Picture, this is what I think Reality TV is.

[skypilot]

30. Yes, I am talking about the exceptions...

...and I don't see anything wrong with pointing out that there are some.

[RedEarth]

23. Hmmmm...there are a bunch of reality TV shows I like...AR, Big Brother,

Survivor, Last Comic Standing and American Idol(way toooo many ads). Not much of a fan of Fear Factor or the dating shows. I used to love watching Cheers and Seinfeld, however, since they are off the air(except for the re-runs) I haven't discovered any other comedies that hold my attention.

[Mz Pip]

28. Queer Eye for the Straight Guy

n/t