I WAS right,and I wish I wasn ‘t. It was five years ago,in summer 2000,as “Survivor ” was having its first phenomenal run on CBS, that people began to ask me,”Hey, Adam,are reality shows here to stay?And,if so,are sitcoms and
dramas doomed?”
“Not to worry,” I said soothingly.
“Sitcoms and dramas are here to stay,except that reality shows are too.So now,instead of two kinds of shows,there will be three.And in the years to come,reality shows will be churned out at about the same rate as sitcoms and dramas.”
The prediction turned out to be right,and today,we are awash in reality shows. And I ‘m sick of it. Not to condemn every single reality show that has premiered since summer 2000,but the way in which reality shows have begun to
feed off each other has resulted in a glut of formulaic shows that fall into one of two categories:the “competition ” show or the “behind-the-scenes ‘celebrity ‘” show.
Patterned loosely on “Survivor ” and “The Apprentice,” the competition shows are turning up everywhere.They ‘ve even come to be similarly titled – basically,,it ‘s “I Want to Be [fill in the blank ]”:a Hilton (NBC),a soap star (Soap-
Net),a rock star (CBS),or U.S. ambassador to Pluto (in my dreams). ESPN and the Food Network even applied the competition-show formula to choosing new air talent. The trend is so pervasive that it wouldn ‘t be surprising if CBS
News adopted the format to choose a successor to Dan Rather.I don ‘t know about you,but I would definitely watch “I Want to Be a CBS Anchor.”
Worse,though,than the copycat competition shows are any reality shows dealing with so-called celebrities who are really has-beens desperate for a paycheck. These shows have proven to be almost universally awful.
Remember “Chasing Farrah ” on TV Land,”Surviving Nugent ” on VH-1,”I ‘m with Busey ” on Comedy Central,”Britney and Kevin ” on UPN?You don ‘t?Then consider yourself lucky.
Just this summer,the crop includes “Being Bobby Brown ” on Bravo,”Minding the Store ” with Pauly Shore on TBS,and the upcoming “Tommy Lee Goes to College ” on NBC.
“Tommy Lee Goes to College ” sounds marginally more purposeful than “Jose Canseco Goes to the Bathroom,” which could have been the subtitle of a recent episode of “The Surreal Life ” on VH-1. In any case,I was correct five years ago – reality shows are here to stay.
And when it comes to most of them,I wish they weren ‘t.
