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I agree that the label of "reality tv" is clearly wrong. A closer name would be "we say it's unscripted tv", because they claim that these shows are unscripted.
I think the popularity of these shows speaks in volumes about the mind set of the average american. It scares me how many people decided that Joe Millionare was a great way to spend an evening. I actually watched a few episodes of survivor and fear factor to get an idea of what the big deal was. I don't know about everyone on earth, but teams of people competing in events like 'eating grubs' or 'trying to stay on a log floating in water' strikes me as boring and not exactly entertaining or mentally stimulating. I noticed that half the time spent on the show was devoted to the event, but the other half featured intervews with contestants where they shared their feelings about what was going on. They talked about the event, but more about the other contestants. That's when my ears started to bleed. Then I changed the channel and Law and Order was on. Which one? The one with the annoying 'ping ping' that featured the police and lawyers doing their jobs where someone dies a the beginning of every episode and then a police offficer makes a clever comment about it.
I think that a lot of TV in general has lost it's inteligence and originality. I watch Nip/Tuck and the Daily Show and I can smile and enjoy someone doing something clever and well written. I miss seeing shows like this in the mainstream, but then I remember that Law and Order has been around since I was watching Sesame Street, and reality tv has been around since before scripted telivision.
T.V. is not here to challenge you mentally as a rule. It's here to entertain you as you half pay attention. If you watch CNN because you think it's intelligent TV, you are just as well off as someone watching Are You Hot. I'm sorry.
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