Here to Stay

Richard Hatch, winner of Survivor (season 1)

Whitney Port, The City

Did an Indian Diplomat Help the Salahis Crash the White House?
The Secret Service is currently investigating how fameballs Michaele and Tareq Salahi crashed Obama's first state dinner, Bravo camera crew in tow. We have a theory: Their polo buddy, Indian ambassador Arun K. Singh, got them in on the DL. [...]

COMMENTS
Why aren't these people under arrest already?
And while we're at it, outlaw "reality" shows. They put actors and writers out of work, they encourage monkeyshines like these, and no good has EVER come out of them...And if you enjoy watching pathetic losers bumble through their lives, then why not just set up a live-cam at Walmart? [...]

A live feed at Walmart? Now there's a show!

But seriously, there's always been a niche on TV for people willing to make an ass of themselves for our amusement. Remember "Candid Camera"? How about "The Gong Show" or various pranks played on unsuspecting Man-in-the-Street types for late night talk show guffaws? It doesn't take a genius (like Mark Burnett) to refine and capitalize on the genre. The first and last few episodes of "Survivor" (season 1) were brilliant. Truly groundbreaking in how it illuminated age-old practices of sabotage, subterfuge and power play, all in the name of winning. Granted, most of it was scripted, but it was all plausible, which made it a winning formula and compelling TV.

Also granted, a lot of reality TV is crap. I don't watch any of the stuff you list and would rather stick a fork in my eye than do so. I do, however, acknowledge that there's a strong attraction to it by the viewing public and that it's not going to disappear. It'll continue to get more crude as it pushes boundaries of "acceptable" social behaviour, all in the name of ratings. It's already broken laws and caused deaths (in other countries). But obviously, it's fulfilling a need that scripted TV does not. Think about that. And from the comments above, people who watch and enjoy it are not all mouth breathers. Think about that too.

Personally, I'm waiting for the perfect reality show. One that doesn't bore me to tears, piss me off or disgust me at some point in its 30-60 minute run. Something that shows me the essence of humanity in an attractive format. I'm thinking along the lines of MTV's "The City", but with a greater variety of characters, tighter action and more dramatic storylines. Maybe if a producer married the writers from "The Good Wife" (this week's ep was awesome) with the real life calamities of pretty urban youth, then they'd actually convince someone like you that reality TV is worth your time and attention.

I leave you with a pic of Richard Hatch, winner of the first Survivor. To quote Amazon.com: "Here's where it all began. The first season of Survivor dominated the ratings in the summer of 2000, helped spur the reality-TV craze, and inspired countless water-cooler jokes about getting voted off the island."

Let's face it, reality TV is here to stay. Question is, are you in?

The Real World

The Real History of Reality
The manifest destiny of television technology is real-time viewing of all the places the audience is not. It's the ultimate peek into the neighbor's kitchen window. Or, the bedroom window. The entertainment conglomerates found a way to make televised life a business, so now there is a lot of it. [...]

The Real World moved the format ahead by staging an environment in which "reality" could occur in 1992. That landmark series married the secret cameras and setups of Candid Camera, to the explorative impulse of You Asked For It, to the personal revelations of What's My Line, to the technology of Evening Magazine, to the voyeuristic appeal of An American Family and Cops. The combination of techniques resulted in a format that is more structured and crafted than any that had come before. The premise comes in the architecture and the choice of city; the character creation comes in the casting; the storyline creation comes in the confessional interviewing, the choice of who and what to tape and the editing. The wide range of reality television series that we recognize today followed. They often came by way of the UK or other foreign television markets, where the concepts were born. An import, Big Brother, and a startup, Survivor, would break open the genre of staged reality in 2000. [...]

Big Brother

The Decade Reality Evolved Into a Beautiful Beast
Here's a look at the reality genres that have come to define the decade. While some are better than others, making the whole "reality TV is bad" argument is now impossible, because it is everywhere and available in a million different forms across a broad and beautiful spectrum. We are living in a reality reality, and we're the better for it. [...]

Listicle Without Commentary: The 348 Best Reality Television Shows of the 00s, In Order, by Jon Caramanica
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Location: Toronto