They should do a show where a family has to live like it's 1895

When you're young, you look at television and think, There's a conspiracy. The networks have conspired to dumb us down. But when you get a little older, you realize that's not true. The networks are in business to give people exactly what they want. That's a far more depressing thought. Conspiracy is optimistic! You can shoot the bastards! We can have a revolution! But the networks are really in business to give people what they want. It's the truth.

- Steve Jobs

As long as people will accept crap, it will be financially profitable to dispense it.

- Dick Cavett

I hate reality tv. If you're watching reality tv and you wonder "how can these people be so dumb/selfish/cruel?", keep in mind that you're not seeing a random cross-section of society. The show's producers have kicked over every damp rock and rotten barrel they could find to locate people who will (a) do anything for money and (2) form a volatile mix of conflicting personalities. And that's just the beginning. TV audiences are finally starting to twig on to the fact that reality tv isn't real.

You may find it depressing to see the dregs of our society being rewarded for being horrible people. You may find it depressing to think about the heartless tv producers who seek these people out, throw them together, and stir them up, like a bloodless form of dog fighting. But the part that depresses me is that we, the collective we, we who watch television, keep watching the dogs night after night. TV producers don't make reality shows because they like them, they make reality shows because they have piles and piles of statistical reports telling them that's where the money is. The average American tv viewer, as measured by the Nielsen system, craves this stuff. We don't turn away in disgust. We don't say "I refuse to reward these people for being cruel to each other. I refuse to reward the producers for creating this crap." Instead we eat it up and ask for more. Why, WHY is there a Flavor of Love 2? Because people watched the first one. We live in a culture where enough people watched Flavor of Love to warrant the creation of a sequel. That's depressing.

If the television medium were a Hollywood starlet, reality shows would be her fake boobs. They kinda sorta look real, everybody knows they're really not real, but everyone keeps looking at them anyway.