By Erin Rodway, Executive Editor
This past summer, while sitting on my couch watching TV, I just happened to doze off. I know, nothing out of the ordinary, especially for me. When I woke up about an hour or so later, a show I had never seen before was on. It was called “Megan Wants A Millionaire” I later learned, and I couldn’t believe I actually sat there watching it for five minutes to find out.
The show, which you may or may not have heard of, was basically about a pretty blonde–Megan Hauserman–who in three past reality shows failed to find love or money. So in an effort to help her out, a group of smart TV producers decided to give her a starring role in a show designed to find her both… But she probably won’t.
This huge craze, reality shows, seems to be taking over network television. And the funny thing about them? They all seem to have the same concepts: finding love, winning money, and ultimately making huge fools out of all involved. I just don’t understand how people can knowingly make complete fools of themselves on national television. I mean, is love really worth it; is money?
To those who feel like it is, then keep on doing what reality stars are doing, because everyone knows it’s entertaining. That’s what it’s really meant for, those reality shows: they’re developed for entertainment and high ratings. “Television stations don’t want to guess [as to what] people want to watch. Good ratings are important,” speech teacher Kurt Green said.
Another reason people seem to be crowding reality show casting calls is to achieve one thing: their own 15 minutes of fame. I know you’ve heard of it, the allotted time of fame a person on a reality show achieves after being on it. You know, when they show up in all the trashy tabloids complaining about how their fiance cheated, or that they didn’t know they had to pay taxes on the money they won, or whatever problem they seemed to be having that week.
“It really frustrates me [when reality stars abuse their 15 minutes of fame]. It’s very annoying,” senior Danielle Anderson said. “They’ll do anything to keep their 15 minutes going.”
It’s those reality stars that make me have a problem with the shows. The people that just don’t seem to go away, and are famous for no reason whatsoever, other than the fact that they just happened to be good-looking enough to star in a drama-filled, scripted reality show.
“[Reality stars] these days are all dramatic,” junior Trevor Holm said. “They’re mostly stuck up.”
Lucky for us, though, not everyone on every reality show gets their 15 minutes. It’s the winners and runners-up that we have to worry about. It seems to me that in every dating show, when, no I’m sorry… If the relationship doesn’t work out, the broken-hearted winner gets their own show. Sometimes it’s the broken-hearted runners-up and, in some unfortunate occasions, it’s both.
Sometimes I just find it sad that MTV doesn’t play music anymore, or that Vh1 gives everyone a dating show. Sometimes I just miss how television used to be: some reality shows airing along with other types of television. I’m the last person who will say that they aren’t entertained by it all, but somtimes depth in television is needed. Don’t you remember when TV dramas and comedies were on the air?
Before scripted-unscripted television replaced scripted shows? Before, when the farthest people would go for some quick cash was to eat a few bugs on Fear Factor? Back when a TV promo for a new dating show didn’t make us want to vomit? Those are the television days I miss, the days I wish networks would just go back to. I’m not trying to bash every reality TV show, just the stupid ones. The ones that have unnecessary drama, and that everyone knows, but doesn’t want to admit, are scripted. I’ve never had a problem with “The Amazing Race,” or “Dancing with the Stars” or even “American Idol.” Those shows actually show people with some sort of talent.
It seems like everyone just wants to be famous these days, and people find it the easiest to achieve by appearing on a reality show. So to all who want fame one day, go invent something useful, find the cure for cancer or found an extremely successful business to get fame. Do not, and I repeat, do not, go on a reality show. I mean, c’mon, do you really want to embarrass yourself in front of millions of viewers?