Time for a reality check for reality TV

 View this commercial and tell me that this isn't definitive proof that the apocalypse is just around the corner.


I remember at the turn of the millennium when the first wave of reality programs hit our television watching shows. I believe it was Survivor.  It only took me 15 minutes before I was completely turned off and I quickly deduced that this phenomenon would be short lived blip in the landscape of procedural's, sitcom's, bad cable programming.  I mean no self respecting person with any modicum of conscience would tolerate this dross, right?

Well here we are 12 years later and these programs have not only become firmly entrenched in our media and culture but they have multiplied at a rate not seen since kudzu took over the South.  One time reputable stations like the History Channel, Discovery, or Food Channel have now been thoroughly infiltrated by such inane babble coming from shows like "Ice Road Truckers", "Property Wars", and "Cupcake Wars".

Why (said in my most distraught Nancy Kerrigan voice) does this genre have my television programming in a stranglehold?  I know that this stuff is cheap to produce but wouldn't you think that this trash would fall on deaf ears and just wither away?  Evidently I had higher expectations for the general level of American cultural consciousnesses because this stuff is still thriving.  Do these high ratings really prove that we are no better then a bunch of gossiping imbeciles who like to see nothing more then train wrecks on a Wednesday evening?

I'm pleading with you America?  Somebody tell why reality programming is still here and strong?  Somebody point out some of its redeeming qualities?  Somebody prove that watching this is good for us.



---
I do have a confession to make.  I do watch "PawnStars" quite regularly but is that really reality tv?