Television shows...can someone explain this to me??

[fireheart17]

It's like "The Biggest Loser". I guess it's supposed to be inspirational ("Look! this guy used to weigh 500 pounds! But we made him exercise and now he weighs 200!"), but to me it comes off as exploitative.

It pretty much is. They did a bunch of interviews with former contestants and nearly all of them have wound up gaining back some of the weight-how much varies. Some have gone further and lost even more. One of the former contestants has actually done something fairly legitimate with it, in that while she gained weight back from her "on-show" weight, she managed to score a modeling contract with it and started some positive body image campaign for a women's magazine (one of the "real-life" ones). The rest have faded into obscurity.

I prefer The Amazing Race, instead. They show a certain level of respect for the competitors and don't play up the interpersonal drama too much, preferring to let the puzzles and the environment provide the conflict.

Depends on the series. The Australian series wound up playing up the interpersonal crap on occasion, but it didn't get too much screentime. Then again, the producers do make an effort to ditch the "Stunt casting" and go for teams that are somewhat likeable and relatable. (Such as the cops from Series 2 who won)

The American series I've found tends to have the odd creator's pet and then pushes other teams right out of focus and it does have the occasional "structural/logistical issue" (such as picking teams for the All-Stars series: some teams have appeared THREE times despite there being HUNDREDS of pairs to pick from! At least Brenchel were less horrible the second time around...) but otherwise it does things fairly well.

The ASIAN version tends to play up the puzzles more than anything else-the first series in fact wound up being criticised because the competitors were too polite to each other! (for instance, in the second episode of the first series, all the contestants left the last-arriving team some money so they wouldn't have to beg)

I prefer Total Drama because it's an animated parody of several reality shows; most often of Survivor and its seasons. Plus, the host is hilariously cruel!

Sadly over here that show has been relegated to the "kids-only" channel. It really needs to be on a multi-demographic channel. (then again, this is the same channel that managed to get away with airing Puella Magi Madoka Magica uncut...I'm not making this up. One of their fellow "sub-channels" also wound up airing Death Note uncut...complete with the second series theme song in its full uncensored glory)

[Aragarthiel]

I've seen "So You Think You Can Dance" and some of the pieces they've performed were amazing. My favorite was so moving, if you can, look up Melanie Moore dancing to "Turn to Stone." It's like going to an orchestral concert, where some pieces you can just sit through but others make chills run down your spine and take your breath away. The other shows, I can't say much for.

[Food Lady]

OP, I hate all those shows. I don't know why they are called reality shows; they are not reality. Reality would be a camera pointed at me doing the dishes...and that's it. No one wants to see reality. Those are competition shows and should be called that. Well, not the Kardashians. I don't know what to call that.

[Blue Ginger]

Well, not the Kardashians. I don't know what to call that.

High Fructose Corn Syrup - Everyone knows it's bad for you but because they are everywhere, you can't avoid them.

I'm not a fan of 'reality' shows that ham up the drama (Can anyone say 'The Block'?) but I will occasionally watch shows like Border Security (and international counterparts), Antiques Road Show and Bondi Rescue. But the only one that I will hunt through the TV guide to find is The Amazing Race.

Shows like Idol, X-factor, Australia's Got Talent and The Voice focus so much on the sob story that they annoy the living crap out of me. They can have some really talented people, but I want to see them perform not see the judges expressions, or their family bawling in the back rooms, for more than half their song.

[lordlundar]

What it is is schadenfreude in action. It's purely shows designed to make people feel better by watching people being worst. People don't watch these shows to see people succeed, they watch them to see people fail in the most embarrassing manner possible.

It's nothing new and whether it's gotten more pronounced is debatable. Talk shows, Sit-coms on the fictional concept, game shows, heck, it even precedes television with radio, film, even theater getting involved in it.

What makes reality TV and modern talk shows so controversial is not that they exist but they push the envelope of what can be considered "in good taste".

Best advice I can offer is to do what I do and use the TV for video games.

[Tama]

I get my fix of schadenfreude from World's Dumbest. Provides those nice folks with a job and I get to laugh at idiots.

[wolfie]

What makes reality TV and modern talk shows so controversial is not that they exist but they push the envelope of what can be considered "in good taste".

Back in the '70s, I remember reading a quiz about TV in a MAD "Super Special" (i.e. "We've repackaged a bunch of our old material so we can sell it again"), and one question stuck out:

90% of TV shows are in:
A) Colour
B) Black&White
C) Poor taste

They gave the answer as:
A) Colour. For those of you who chose C), we feel that a joke is a joke and a lawsuit is a lawsuit.