Reality Shows, Enough is Enough

Even as late night talk shows begin to re-surface, the apparent lack of writers is obvious. Last night, while I was watching Conan, he spent about 5 minutes killing time by putting himself in control of the cameras. Not only was he not funny, but it was very annoying as it accomplished nothing, and didn't even have a joke to go along with it. The only thing I find worse on TV than shows without writers is the incredibly annoying reality shows, and prime time game shows.

With the writers still on strike, reality shows along with the new batch of prime time game shows, are taking over television now more than ever. It seems like a new show is on every night of the week, with each becoming more and more ridiculous. FOX, the same channel that once aired Man vs Beast has recently created, The Moment of Truth. Contestents simply have to be honest when answering extremely personal and revealing questions. It only takes 21 questions to get $500,000 yet the show still takes an hour just to see one contestant lose after question 13.

Deal or No Deal manages to keep a fan base show after show, earning two shows a week, although nothing about the show ever changes. The girls wear new dresses, every now and then there will be a themed show, and no one ever wins the million dollars. The show still takes an hour for just one completely over-the-top dramatic contestant to pick 25 suitcases. The best part about the entire show is when Howey kicks it to commercial at the (note the sarcasm) completely unexpected perfect moments, which he does about 20 times a show.

MTV has completely done away with its innovated idea of Music Television and has launched a full out reality lineup. Although the station has produced some hits such as The Real World and all the Challenge spin-offs, nothing seems to change. Each Real World cast is more and more like the season before, and the only reason the challenges are interesting is because they get all the free alcohol they can drink, which obviously leads to confrontation.

Survivor hasn't changed in 15 years (or whenever it started), American Idol has only produced two hit stars that lasted more than a year (Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood). Spin-offs such as Americas Got Talent and Americas Next Top Band has produced nothing at all. The Power of 10, 1 vs 100, and Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader, along with the previously mentioned shows of this blog are either rip offs of European shows, or very similar to one another.

All in all I think its time to bring back the writers, and bring prime time television shows back. My Thursday nights are empty without new episodes of the Office. The only good that can come from this strike, is if the writers are at home coming up with phenomenal ideas for their shows so everyone can get right back to work when this strike finally ends, making the shows even better than they used to be.

Reality Shows I Do Like
Rob and Big
All Celebrity Reality on VH1