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Am I the only one who seems a little...overwhelmed by all the reality shows currently circulating TV Land? Every time I turn on the TV it seems like there's another advertisement either from a reality show already on or a new one they're promoting.
I just saw another promo for Beverly Hills Nanny and my heart literally sunk. Let me just clear the air and make it known that I'm not discrediting reality shows in any way. A lot of hard work and time goes into making those shows and the people who work on them are doing an amazing job. All I'm saying is that reality shows just aren't my thing. To me, reality shows is just an excuse for people to act dumb on TV for money and for TV executives to cut costs.
Making a TV drama or a sitcom costs a tremendous amount of money. There's production costs, script writes and rewrites, cast negotiations, directors, producers, and not to mention all the money spent on marketing and promos. I'm not very good with money and even though my professor broke it down for me, even I know that it's a lot of money. I get it, the executives don't want to waste time on something that might not even make it. But are they getting too complacent? The best things that have happened in history have been because people have taken risks. Who's to say that one project is going to work and another isn't? No one can say for sure but to put so much funding into reality shows just because it's "easier" just seems really sad to me. Is this the business that I'm coming into? Seriously?
Literally, every time this promo came on I wanted to cry. ABC Family has had a history of having really great TV dramas and sitcoms and now all of a sudden they want to hop on the reality train? What?! And seriously? Nannies? I'd rather watch Super Nanny because she's British and the episodes I've seen have been far funnier.
I don't usually watch reality shows, but when over my dad's house, I'm almost forced to. My little sister watches things like Teen Mom and Super Sweet 16 or Run's House. With all respect to the teen moms who "suffer" through giving birth and raising their kids, I could give a rat's two butts about watching them deal with their lives. They knew what they were getting into when they had sex, which meant they knew what they were getting into when they found out they were pregnant. It didn't just suddenly occur to them that this could actually happen.
Just a few weeks ago, my friend and I were talking about Teen Mom and how teen pregnancy had gone down since the show aired. Which is all fine and dandy but TV isn't the only deciding factor in whether or not kids get pregnant. It's the parents' responsibility to educate their kids on sex and its consequences just like it's up to each kid to take personal responsibilty for their actions. To have a show on it is educational, yes, but also pointless in my opinion. It's an excuse to look at the poor little girls who get pregnant and have to deal with the no good, teenage fathers. It's almost like celebrating it to me.
Then there's dating shows that are really the worst. They're at the top of my list of things that really grinds my gears. Shows like the Bachelor and the Bachelorette, Flavor of Love, and other shows on dating that are really pointless. How is anyone expected to fall in love in the months of production? How is someone supposed to have every day of their lives documented in the pursuit of love broadcast on national television only so that person could be happy? They should do a doc on how many of those couples actually stay together.
My mom stays glued to the Bacherlorette and was literally screaming at the TV in the final moments. How has society come to this? How could people literally celebrate a woman courting 20 men in the hopes of finding Mr. Right yet snub their noses if they see a regular woman doing the exact same thing? It's entirely hypocritcal yet people sit there and tune in every week to see who goes home. And what about the guys who may or may not truly love whoever the host is? They just cut their losses and try to find someone else? How do they move on after getting to know someone they have to share with 19 other guys? The whole idea was entirely one sided.
Not all reality dating shows were bad. Anyone remember Blind Date? That was a show I could watch because it was funny. It had thought bubbles above their heads with funny lines about how the date was going and the dates were either really horrible or incredibly funny. It wasn't just about two people dating on national TV, it was TV drama blended with reality which made for an entertaining watch. Now it's just drama, drama, and "ooh I broke a nail" or "don't touch my man" or "I'm sick of you disrespecting me, I'm going to kick your butt in front of Betty so she'll pick me not you."
Then you get into shows like Real Housewives of Wherever. Seriously, how many do they have now? Six? And it's all the same thing. Catty women with barely one thing in common, spending their husbands' money, and gossiping about the women they don't like. I'm half convinced most of the time that none of it is real. Are they really feuding with each other or did the producers of the show say you don't like her, she doesn't like the other one, go ahead and fight. Reality shows aren't reality and that's my biggest problem with them. Everyone knows that putting seven highly opinionated and mouthy women in one room is bound to cause some problems. Women naturally cannot be friends with each other and putting it on TV is just stupid.
I just saw another promo for Beverly Hills Nanny and my heart literally sunk. Let me just clear the air and make it known that I'm not discrediting reality shows in any way. A lot of hard work and time goes into making those shows and the people who work on them are doing an amazing job. All I'm saying is that reality shows just aren't my thing. To me, reality shows is just an excuse for people to act dumb on TV for money and for TV executives to cut costs.
Making a TV drama or a sitcom costs a tremendous amount of money. There's production costs, script writes and rewrites, cast negotiations, directors, producers, and not to mention all the money spent on marketing and promos. I'm not very good with money and even though my professor broke it down for me, even I know that it's a lot of money. I get it, the executives don't want to waste time on something that might not even make it. But are they getting too complacent? The best things that have happened in history have been because people have taken risks. Who's to say that one project is going to work and another isn't? No one can say for sure but to put so much funding into reality shows just because it's "easier" just seems really sad to me. Is this the business that I'm coming into? Seriously?
Literally, every time this promo came on I wanted to cry. ABC Family has had a history of having really great TV dramas and sitcoms and now all of a sudden they want to hop on the reality train? What?! And seriously? Nannies? I'd rather watch Super Nanny because she's British and the episodes I've seen have been far funnier.
I don't usually watch reality shows, but when over my dad's house, I'm almost forced to. My little sister watches things like Teen Mom and Super Sweet 16 or Run's House. With all respect to the teen moms who "suffer" through giving birth and raising their kids, I could give a rat's two butts about watching them deal with their lives. They knew what they were getting into when they had sex, which meant they knew what they were getting into when they found out they were pregnant. It didn't just suddenly occur to them that this could actually happen.
Just a few weeks ago, my friend and I were talking about Teen Mom and how teen pregnancy had gone down since the show aired. Which is all fine and dandy but TV isn't the only deciding factor in whether or not kids get pregnant. It's the parents' responsibility to educate their kids on sex and its consequences just like it's up to each kid to take personal responsibilty for their actions. To have a show on it is educational, yes, but also pointless in my opinion. It's an excuse to look at the poor little girls who get pregnant and have to deal with the no good, teenage fathers. It's almost like celebrating it to me.
Then there's dating shows that are really the worst. They're at the top of my list of things that really grinds my gears. Shows like the Bachelor and the Bachelorette, Flavor of Love, and other shows on dating that are really pointless. How is anyone expected to fall in love in the months of production? How is someone supposed to have every day of their lives documented in the pursuit of love broadcast on national television only so that person could be happy? They should do a doc on how many of those couples actually stay together.
My mom stays glued to the Bacherlorette and was literally screaming at the TV in the final moments. How has society come to this? How could people literally celebrate a woman courting 20 men in the hopes of finding Mr. Right yet snub their noses if they see a regular woman doing the exact same thing? It's entirely hypocritcal yet people sit there and tune in every week to see who goes home. And what about the guys who may or may not truly love whoever the host is? They just cut their losses and try to find someone else? How do they move on after getting to know someone they have to share with 19 other guys? The whole idea was entirely one sided.
Not all reality dating shows were bad. Anyone remember Blind Date? That was a show I could watch because it was funny. It had thought bubbles above their heads with funny lines about how the date was going and the dates were either really horrible or incredibly funny. It wasn't just about two people dating on national TV, it was TV drama blended with reality which made for an entertaining watch. Now it's just drama, drama, and "ooh I broke a nail" or "don't touch my man" or "I'm sick of you disrespecting me, I'm going to kick your butt in front of Betty so she'll pick me not you."
Then you get into shows like Real Housewives of Wherever. Seriously, how many do they have now? Six? And it's all the same thing. Catty women with barely one thing in common, spending their husbands' money, and gossiping about the women they don't like. I'm half convinced most of the time that none of it is real. Are they really feuding with each other or did the producers of the show say you don't like her, she doesn't like the other one, go ahead and fight. Reality shows aren't reality and that's my biggest problem with them. Everyone knows that putting seven highly opinionated and mouthy women in one room is bound to cause some problems. Women naturally cannot be friends with each other and putting it on TV is just stupid.
At least the history and discovery channel have the right idea. They have shows based on real jobs. Like Bounty Hunters, ice trucking, oil people, and tree axing. The shows about pawn shops, and Syfy's haunted collections and school spirits are a little iffy to me, but still seem more attractive than however many women arguing about essentially nothing.
Is this seriously where TV is going? Where does the line draw between what's easy and what's risky? Just because it's cheaper, does it mean that collectively, people should dumb down and gain entertainment at other's people stupidity and expense? I'm not saying that the people on Jersey Shore are dumb or that their show is pointless, it's just that it seems like reality shows are scarily trying to outnumber TV dramas and sitcoms just because it's easier.
It also seems like everyone and their extended family are getting their own shows. Keyshia Cole has ANOTHER show, Tia and Tamara Mowry have their own show, Snooki has her own show, Pauly D has his, Terry Crews has his, Ice-T has his, and the list goes on and on and on and on. Where will it end? When people get sick of celebrities? When people get sick of seeing the inner lives and innermost secrets of their favorite actors and actresses, singers and rappers, and anyone else in between? Yeah, fat chance of that happening. I'm sure I'm just going to have to suffer through more promos in the years to come with no end in sight. Hopefully I have the good fortune that the promos are all on my DVR so that I can skip through it. Here's to keeping my fingers crossed!
