Entry 18: "Reality Check"

Yo!

What the crap is America's continued obsession with reality television? Sure it can be argued that the real reality onslaught started with CBS's "Survivor", which gave everyone excellent water-cooler-chat-fodder while the nation waited for the 2000 Summer Olympics that September [Seriously, Olympic Comittee. Could we please consider changing the name to the current season of the year, if the games don't actually start in Summer? At least call 'em the "Indian Summer" Olympiad already], but actually most people don't know that the real genesis of Reality can be traced back to MTV's "The Real World", which launched on May 21, 1992. Seriously.

It's fast approaching a time where we'll be facing a "Running Man"-esque future where we'll actually be bombarded not by arguably pseudo-scripted television, but by networks so desperate for programming, they start forcing their cameras on us all, literally, and this time, no $1,000,000 stipend for the winner, who won't be picked since noone will be bothering to vote, because noone will want to watch that kind of crap anymore, especially with themselves in front of the camera lens. The camera adds ten pounds, you know. I can see the intro sequence now: "This is the story of 295,734,134 strangers suckered into watching a pointless television genre on a regular basis and have their primetime TV viewing habits thoroughly manipulated. Find out what happens when people stop tuning in, and start turning off their TVs. The Really, Really, Real This Time, We Promise World, America."

Adding insult to injury is the coincidental fact that Real World just hit a 400th episode milestone just last month, on a very appropriate date: 6...6...06. That's right, Episode 400 happened to air the same day as the big day people were fearing would be the other, OTHER day of the Apocalypse. ...And that creepy Damien kid's return to theatres, but that's completely unrelated. The Bottom Line: Networks of America! FORGET ABOUT REALITY ALREADY! Nobody really cares about reality TV that much anymore, and beating a dead horse, post-decomposition, won't get you ratings. Only angry bloggers like myself trying their darndest to end the madness, but with no positive effect. Seriously, how many American Idols do we need? Ah, forget this crappy topic. I'm watching RAW tonight. Somehow, scripted sports manages to beat scripted reality every time........................But that's just me.

Later, peeps!


-D.