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<title>Reality TV Information and Resources | Big Brother | The Amazing Race</title>
<link>http://www.RealityTVToday.com/article.xml</link>
<description><![CDATA[Reality TV Articles and Information - Useful Articles related to Reality TV: Big Brother, Survivor and much more.]]></description>
<pubDate>Thu, 01 Mar 2007 12:55:32 -0500</pubDate>
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	<title>Reality TV - Why The Fuss?</title>
	<link>http://www.RealityTVToday.com/info/Reality-TV/Reality-TV---Why-The-Fuss.html</link>
<pubDate>Thu, 01 Mar 2007 12:55:32 -0500</pubDate>
<category>Reality TV</category>
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	<description><![CDATA[On May 31, 2000, a show by the name of Survivor hit the TV screen. It's been on for&nbsp;8 years. On June 11, 2002, another show by the name of American Idol debuted. It seems to get bigger and bigger every year. Add to these two shows like Fear Factor, Extreme Makeover Home Edition, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and a ton of others and you have the biggest TV craze since Dallas and the string of night time soaps. The question is, why all the fuss? What is it about reality TV that makes more people tune into some shows than vote in presidential elections? We may not have the reasons but we're going to examine some of the possibilities. To understand the fuss with reality TV you first have to understand what it is. Supposedly, it's TV that features real people instead of actors. In other words, your every day John and Jane Doe. It's hard not to root for your next door neighbor unless he's blasting the stereo at 2 AM and you're trying to get some sleep. So yes, it's easy to understand that you're pulling for the little guy here. Somebody who under normal circumstances would be working at a Burger King somewhere and not on national TV during prime time. But there has to be more than just that. After all, most people are pretty dull to watch, especially doing every day things. Well, reality TV is far from every day. When you have shows like Fear Factor where people eat bugs or shows like Survivor where people are stranded on islands for weeks on end, the term &quot;every day&quot; is the farthest thing from what these shows are. If anything, most reality TV is more bizarre than your typical TV sitcom. And maybe that is part of the allure. Seeing real people in totally unreal situations and watching them turn into TV stars. And if you think none of them do turn into stars, do the names Richard Hatch and Clay Aiken mean anything to you? But maybe the biggest allure of reality TV is to see just how far these shows will go. Because they are depending on real people for their entertainment, they have to come up with some pretty far out scenarios and concepts to keep our attention. Let's face it, for every Richard Hatch there are a hundred nobodies who's names you'll never remember, let alone their performances, if you can call them that. Many a fan skips the first few weeks of American Idol just to get past all the horrible singers that they'd normally have to endure. If it weren't for Simon, the show would be unwatchable at times. And maybe the reason reality TV is so big is because we simply have nothing better to do with our time and we look for any excuse to sit in front of the tube and watch whatever is on. Sure, some reality television is pretty good, but there is quite a bit of it that leaves a lot to be desired as far as entertainment value. Yet, we keep coming back week after week. There must be something to it. One day we just might figure out what it is.]]></description>
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	<title>Corporate Reality TV Shows</title>
	<link>http://www.RealityTVToday.com/info/Reality-TV/Corporate-Reality-TV-Shows.html</link>
<pubDate>Thu, 01 Mar 2007 12:55:05 -0500</pubDate>
<category>Reality TV</category>
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	<description><![CDATA[Within six years or so silver screen is bombarded with the reality shows and it is like that every other show that was coming up was a reality show. Now when these reality shows are finally dying: one much awaited show would have been Corporate Reality TV. Am I the only one that would have been interested in this type of show? Though practically thinking it is clear that such a show could never happen as no company would ever reveal their vital and confidential information detailed to be aired on national TV like an open source for their competitors. Btu if it actually would happen then only it would be known t the masses that how ludicrous corporate America really is. Being in the management for a large international insurance company, I have reached to the conclusion that the majority of companies out there operate in a very similar way to my company. My current position of being a front-line manager asks for executing orders from the upper management who constantly holds meetings and conference calls and finally instructs us to spend more time with our people when they end the fourth conference call of the day. For the current position that I am enjoying from eighteen months my conclusion about the conference calls is that they are of no value as they are not effective and I end up spending the majority of the call emailing my peers who are also venting to how useless the call is. Actually many things in the corporate are pretty humorous to a viewer from the outside. I would not have to think very hard to elaborate on any such instance: one new idea being pushed was to encourage &ldquo;diversity&rdquo;. I do not think this is a joke if it is handled properly, especially my company that is 80% white people. We just passed Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. My company, who has never commemorate it before to the best of my familiarity, abruptly made it a requisite every office to have a contest on who could have the best MLK Day celebration. What we were to supposed to do was to take pictures and submit them to upper management to pick the winner for the contest. The true side being that they would not reveal whom the winner was to anyone but the winning office, and they did not reveal the prize. These are the types of things I think would be extremely enjoyable to watch on TV. Whose dazzling idea was this whole thing? If it is that imperative, why wouldn&rsquo;t you publicly honor the winning office rather than keeping it a secret? My guess is that they really had no meaning of alternative a winner or offering a prize. I think they just said that to get people to do something for this public holiday now that diversity it the burning topic. I can comprehend that how the butt-kissing chain would appear to an outsider, Well how does anything get done when all people do is kiss their supervisor&rsquo;s butt? I am not and will not ever be a butt-kisser and this clearly has an affect on my career. Such kind of silly dynamism exist at work place and it would be a real entertainment for people to watch on their TV sets.]]></description>
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	<title>Reality TV - How Real Is It?</title>
	<link>http://www.RealityTVToday.com/info/Reality-TV/Reality-TV---How-Real-Is-It.html</link>
<pubDate>Thu, 01 Mar 2007 12:54:39 -0500</pubDate>
<category>Reality TV</category>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.RealityTVToday.com/info/Reality-TV/Reality-TV---How-Real-Is-It.html</guid>
	<description><![CDATA[We call it Reality TV. But how real is it? And is it unique? Well, this is an argument that many people will have their opinion on. And while we're not going to try to take a position one way or the other, we are going to ask a few questions that should at least spark some kind of debate. For starters. let's cover the question of how unique reality TV really is. In order to do that, we have to try to define what reality TV is. While nobody has ever given it a formal definition (go on look up reality TV in the dictionary) we have come to regard reality TV as television that is non scripted and with real people instead of professional actors. Well, if that's the case, then wouldn't &quot;The Price Is Right&quot; also be considered reality TV? What's that you say? It's got a professional host by the name of Bob Barker? Well, for that matter, American Idol has not just one but four celebrities on the show. So how is that any more real than Bob Barker's show? The truth is, reality TV is not so unique. It's been around for a long time. Back in the day before we called it reality TV we had shows like Star Search. Even before that we had Amateur Hour. The list of reality TV shows reads like a who's who of television. Yet, for some reason, this &quot;reality&quot; craze seems to have taken off because for whatever reason, people think of it as being new. I guess we have short memories. What about the issue of how real it is? This is something you can rip apart from today until the cows come home. Just pick a show. Take American Idol. Some of the contestants on this show are one step away from being professional singers. Okay, you want to argue that real people can be talented? No problem. But what about fear factor? How many people do you know in their everyday lives go around eating bugs? I seriously doubt that there are many people who would view this as anywhere near reality. Take a show like survivor. If you think this show isn't scripted then you don't know what goes on behind the scenes. Not only is it scripted but there are times where scenes are either shot over and over until they are gotten just right or plain edited to look the way the producers want. What's real about that? And Richard Hatch? Boy, if he wasn't a star in the making. There was nothing real about that guy unless you live in Hollywood and your best friend is Tom Hanks. We could go on and on with examples of reality TV being nowhere near real. And yet, there are those who will argue that reality TV is quite real. Again, we're not going to try to convince anyone either way but if you look at the evidence you at least have to admit that there is some room for debate. Now THAT'S real.]]></description>
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	<title>Reality TV - American Idol</title>
	<link>http://www.RealityTVToday.com/info/Reality-TV/Reality-TV---American-Idol.html</link>
<pubDate>Thu, 01 Mar 2007 12:54:17 -0500</pubDate>
<category>Reality TV</category>
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	<description><![CDATA[Not everybody is into reality TV. It's understandable. Many of the shows are just plain stupid. But for pure entertainment value, it is hard to argue that American Idol is not the cream of the crop. This show doesn't seem to lose steam, even after five seasons. If you think that's not accurate, you might like to know that more people voted in the American Idol finals this past year than in any presidential election, ever. Of course that's a sad commentary on our political and social system, but nonetheless, those are the facts. So why is American Idol so popular? Is it that good? Are the singers that good? Is the concept itself so interesting and unique? Is there just nothing else on worth watching Tuesday and Wednesday nights? Do we love to hate Simon? Do we love to love Ryan? Or do we just love rooting for the underdog? While we may not really know the answers to any of these questions, it would be interesting to at least explore just what it is that makes American Idol such a big hit with young and old alike. There's no doubt that there is a certain amount of suspense with American Idol, wondering who's going to get booted off the show each week. And for those who think that the losers are predictable, one only need to go back to the episode where Chris, who every one thought was going to be the new American Idol, got booted off the show. The look on his face when he got the news may have been the photographic moment of the year. So there is definitely a bit of uncertainty with this show. What about the talent? Is any of it really that good? Is there anybody really worth caring about? Well, probably one of the greatest singers of today came out of this show. If you never had the pleasure to hear Clay Aiken sing, you have no idea what you're missing. And he wasn't even the winner that year, the award going to Rueben Stoddard in what was probably one of the most controversial Idol votes in the whole history of the show itself. The ratings for that last show were through the roof. And yes, there is always rooting for the underdog. Did anyone really think that a prematurely gray haired guy by the name of Taylor Hicks could have come away with this year's title? He may have not had the greatest voice of all the contestants, but you couldn't ask for more of a showman. Yes, he was the dark horse contestant and yet, he won it all. And then there are Simon, Paula and Randy. You can call them the 3 Musketeers or the 3 Stooges, but they are certainly entertaining. Yes, Simon is the one everyone watches to see and hear and he's going to say next to insult somebody. Heaven knows why we love that stuff. Thank goodness we have Ryan to keep the three of them in line. Whatever the reason for American Idol's success, one thing can't be disputed. This is a show that may very well be around long after many of the careers they've spawned are dead and buried.]]></description>
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	<title>Inside the Mind of a Reality TV Contestant</title>
	<link>http://www.RealityTVToday.com/info/Reality-TV/Inside-the-Mind-of-a-Reality-TV-Contestant.html</link>
<pubDate>Thu, 01 Mar 2007 12:53:03 -0500</pubDate>
<category>Reality TV</category>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.RealityTVToday.com/info/Reality-TV/Inside-the-Mind-of-a-Reality-TV-Contestant.html</guid>
	<description><![CDATA[Why do we watch reality TV so much? My theory: we hate the contestants. Face it, having a valid reason to despise is just the rarest of experiences. There is nothing quite like the vibe guilt-free hatred. So a show like Big Brother, full of prepped, prim, and obnoxiously self-absorbed narcissists is a boon for the malcontent among us. Big Brother fans will argue that the show is a contest of intellectual skill. Indeed! Hauling garbage cans full of gummy worms, using a little sex to butter up your competitors, stabbing each other in the back&hellip; all the hallmarks of a game of human chess if I&rsquo;ve ever seen it. It&rsquo;s not that Big Brother contestants are stupid (quite a few of them are), nor is it a matter that Big Brother fans are stupid (judging from the numbers, I&rsquo;d say it must be a factor though.) Big Brother is merely an excuse for a large number of people, fed up with the daily wage-earner grind, to feel good about hating some pompous punk on TV. Now how does this explain Chicken George, and other &lsquo;older&rsquo; Big Brother contestants you ask? Easy, it gives the upper half of the target demographic (18-49 year olds) somebody to root for or, if you&rsquo;re staying true to my theory, jeer. Don&rsquo;t buy my snake oil? (Guaranteed to make you wise up!) Just read an interview with any Big Brother contestant and you&rsquo;ll understand it a little better. They themselves, the sane ones at least, don&rsquo;t think of it as a game and perhaps Big Brother&rsquo;s most legendary player, Dr. Will, actually used a strategy of not wanting to play to stay in the fray. Heck, Big Brother all-star winner Mike Boogie won with admittedly having no strategy at all. Tell me we&rsquo;re supposed to root for these people.]]></description>
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