Why is "reality TV" so hated?

[lazarus]

I prefer "unscripted", but okay.

I just wonder why, of all the genres out there, this is the one that has people "hating" and "loathing" it.

I may not care for sitcoms or hourly cop shows or soap operas, but I have no need to take an active dislike to them, or to start threads about it, or interject into threads how much I dislike it.

A codicile: I will grant that some of these shows, particularly the ones on Fox, are real bottom feeder. Just another version of Springer, as it were. But I don't think writing off an entire genre based on the worst of it is very fair.

Heck, I don't even need someone to like any unscripted television. I just would like to know why it comes in for so much hatred.

I hope this thread can remain flame free, and we can have a good honest discussion about it.

[kaitykaity]

1. Jealosy maybe?

Uh-oh, here come the flames.

I'll cop to a little bit of that. I can't stand Wheel of
Fortune anymore because I went to an audition and they
didn't pick me. I didn't have that "personality" they were
looking for. I got three letters right, but I was NERVOUS.

:shrug:

[Piperay]

2. I think it is

snobbishness. I guess unscripted TV is a 'lowbrow' form of entertainment obviously it is not Shakespeare and admitting you like and enjoy it puts you in the category of the 'sheeple' who love mind numbing forms of entertain ... anyway to some people's way of thinking. :shrug:

I love it myself and agree while some of it especially the stuff on Faux is bad shows like Survivor and The Amazing Race are first rate! :-)

[Chovexani]

3. I used to have a knee-jerk hatred of reality TV.

I'll admit to having watched Joe Millionaire just for the train wreck factor (and hilarious snarkage on Television Without Pity), but other than that I stayed away from the genre until my TARfly boyfriend kept bugging me and bugging me to watch it because OMG-IT'S-SO-COOL. I've been a TARfly ever since.

I think my knee-jerk hatred of the genre came from the plethora of bottom feeder shows out there. And the fact that it seemed like there was no end in sight to the number of desperate famewhores who were willing to humilate themselves on TV for a few bucks and 15 minutes. Of course in the TV industry, particularly with the networks, when one show gets popular everyone else jumps on the bandwagon so for a while it just seemed like we were being inundated by really fucking horrible shows with really fucking horrible people, and just when you thought they (meaning Fox) couldn't get lower, they pull out something like The Littlest Groom or The Swan. A lot of it was just awful timing too because for a while it seemed like there were fewer and fewer scripted series on that were worth watching, and those that were seemed to be getting crowded out by bottom feeder famewhore shows. Sturgeon's Law applies to unscripted TV as much as to scripted, but when Jane McFangirl's favorite scripted series is being trounced in the ratings by Who Wants to Marry My Big Fat Dad?...well, I can understand the vitriol. I have a couple of shows I loved that were victims of that.

I think that's a big chunk of it, and the rest is either ignorance or as another post said outright TV snobbery, like people who watch reality shows watch nothing but bottom feeder reality shows and somehow are lesser human beings for it. It's why I hate terms like "guilty pleasure" because, I mean have we forgotten that TV's main mission statement, TV News notwithstanding, is to entertain? Watch what you want and enjoy yourself and don't justify it to anyone if you don't want to. If they don't understand it, it's their loss as far as I'm concerned.

Things have improved, though. The initial reality craze has died down somewhat, and hopefully with the death of most of the really bad reality shows, and the rebirth of scripted TV (Lost, Desperate Housewives), some of the prejudice will die down. I know that since I've gotten into TAR I treat reality just like any other TV genre: most of it's crap, but there are some real gems that are worth tuning in for. Part of it was also that, as a HUGE sci-fi/fantasy nerd, I am very familiar with ignorant people completely trashing an entire genre of entertainment having little to no knowledge of it, and I became aware of my own hypocrisy in bashing the reality genre.

[lazarus]

4. Now that you're a TARfly

(and i love that name, btw), are you gonna try the next season of Survivor with us?

[Chovexani]

6. I will give it a shot.

To be honest I think I never watched it just because I was so sick of hearing about it from every single person I met. Also I get grossed out kind of easily and heard about some of the stuff they had to eat...but I will give it a shot this season. The hole that was left in my heart by Angel's cancellation is really deep and I've got to fill it somehow. What can I say I'm a slave to the magic box. ;)

I got "TARfly" from Television Without Pity, btw. They are so funny. :)

[lazarus]

7. Gross food

They haven't had a gross food competition the last two seasons, so maybe they've moved on. I think the cast was getting used to it, and some looked forward to the extra protein!

[Blue Gardener]

5. I don't think I hate reality shows (except for Fear Factor)

They just aren't my preference. I don't like sports either, but I know a lot of people do.
Fear Factor is just disgusting.

[Piperay]

8. I can't stand Fear Factor

either, that one is just awful. I watched it at first cause I thought it might be more of a psychological type thing about facing your greatest fear but all it turned into was a barf-fest. :puke:

[Chovexani]

9. I can't even watch the commercials for Fear Factor

They turn my stomach. How can people actually watch the show?!

NBC should change the name of the show to, "Dude, I Bet That You Totally Wouldn't Eat That". :eyes:

[Pithlet]

10. It doesn't bother me when someone says

they hate "reality" TV. I hate it when they pick on those that do, as if it is somehow a flaw to enjoy such programming. That is just elitist snobbery.

[Kat45]

11. I hate when it encourages and rewards nasty behavior.

Throw a group of folks together to compete for whatever (a lot of money, a prestigious job, a mate) and watch them act phony/lie to each other/ stab each other in the back so they can be THE WINNER! It rewards the kinds of behavior that I believe contribute to the terrible state our society is in. I hate the American winner-take-all/second-place is still a loser mentality. I hate nasty behavior.

Then of course there's the spring-a-surprise-on-someone-to-humiliate-him.

[BuelahWitch]

12. Yes it brings out the worse in the human element

I'm waiting for the networks to somehow put in an accidental death to kick the ratings up a notch....

[Skittles]

16. it's just a matter of time

they can find an audience for ANYTHING

[Skittles]

13. people degrading themselves for money

their behavior is disgusting and painful to watch

[lazarus]

14. so define "degrading"

And if it's painful for you to watch, don't watch it. But why do so many need to piss in threads where people do like to watch it.

The people on Survivor aren't degrading themselves. Nor are the contestants on The Amazing Race. Unless we have wildly differing definitions of "degrading".

[Skittles]

15. I've suffered through epidodes of both when I visited family in Chicago

the back-stabbing and ruthlessness was disgusting. And YOU ASKED THE F***ING QUESTION about reality shows.

[lazarus]

17. Okay

I didn't say you were doing it. But it's been done.

You're disgusted by backstabbing and ruthlessness? Yet you care about politics?

How about televised poker? Nothing but lying the entire time, but nobody seems to hate that.

[Skittles]

18. I'm disgusted by the GOP, yes, that's why I joined DU

I don't find the GOP ENTERTAINING.

And to me, watching poker is as exciting as watching golf.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

19. I'm completely uninterested in them

Even hearing the premise of Survivor, I had no interest in watching it, and nothing I've heard has made me interested. Ditto The Real World, Amish in the City, or any of the other reality shows. I've looked in on a few, and I find them to be full of vapid people doing stupid and/or dangerous things and making inane comments.

The proliferation of reality shows seems to be part of the dumbing down of America--and of Europe, since a lot of them originated there. The only ones that don't seem like brain killers are the ones in which present-day people try to live under the conditions of the past, as in Pioneer Quest or The 1900 House.

When I watch TV, I want one of four things: interesting and/or useful information, a good story with interesting characters, clever laughs, or an artistic experience. The reality shows provide none of these.

[lazarus]

20. actually, the best of them do

the best seasons of Survivor, for instance, feature very interesting characters (who happen to be real) interacting in very interesting ways.

Dumbing down of America? I'd say vapid sitcoms are more of an example of that. The things people think are funny....

[Phentex]

21. Some would say a good soap opera provides that....

I always say to each his/her own!

[Phentex]

22. For the same reason Martha Stewart or Oprah are hated....

when you don't "get it" it must be something beneath you. When the masses seem to enjoy them, it must be something beneath you.

Hate is such a strong word for something.

[Chovexani]

23. I think that's a big part of it

I see a lot of the same attitude among people who bash fanfiction. There is an awful lot of snobbery out there, and it's sad because it prevents people from being into things they might enjoy. As I said earlier to someone, Smallville fanfics are better than the damn show most of the time.

I don't like s(h)itcoms because they're vapid and unfunny. Arrested Development on the other hand is one of the best TV comedies in years. If I let s(h)itcoms dictate my views on TV comedy I never would have seen AD. Same thing with unscripted shows...I let the bottom of the barrel dictate my opinion of a genre for way too long, and missed out on the first few years of The Amazing Race, which is one of my favorite TV shows now.

I think people just need to be more open-minded in their entertainment choices in general. People complain that there's nothing but crap on TV, but the truth is there are great shows on that are flying under people's radar because they are too close-minded to give anything except crime shows a chance.

[Piperay]

24. TOTALLY agree

it's a form of elitism. x(