Real Girl In The City

Okay I will admit it; I watch Dancing with the Stars. There I have said it. I am a closet reality show watcher. It is crazy but I can’t seem to stop. I like to say that it is my dance background that makes me watch but that doesn’t chance the fact that I have also watched America’s Next Top Model and Kimora Life in the fab lane. Yes I am airing all my dirty reality show laundry.

It’s like I hate them but I can’t seem to stop watching and up until this year I was probably one the only people in America that could say that she hadn’t watched American Idol. But now thanks to a little hedging from my cousin even that is gone and now even though I can’t say all their names (however I can at least name them now I mean really there are only 3 left and 2 of them have the same name) I have watched. And not only have I watched I also have a favorite. I can’t tell you how much this ticks me off.

Now I did grow up during the birth of reality shows. I was there when the first seven strangers moved into their house in New York to find out what happen when people stopped being polite and started being Real. Yes, I was a Real World junkie and even thought of applying once but I was too young. Then Pedro died and I cried and yelled and was done with the real world because I had become to invested in these people’s lives that I could be that emotional about someone I didn’t even know and thus my dislike for reality shows was born. Little did I know that in but a short decade there would be nothing on but CSI (in every state), Law & Order (in every department) and reality TV shows (in every country).

It’s not so much that I don’t think they are really “real” (even though I don’t) it’s the fact that they get you to forge this bond with these people because you feel as though you know them. How many like myself were sad when the Newlyweds split up? I felt like one of my friends was getting a divorce. Or how many ladies wished they could be the one that the bachelor is proposing to even if they know that it’s not going to work because really, just look at the track record? It’s like they put these people in these un-realistic spaces and then “act” as if it is real. I worked for a weight loss center and I can tell you that if one of our clients came in and lost 10 pounds in a week we would have tested for drugs. It’s not real. Plus I think I even heard one of the past contestants say that the weigh-ins aren’t weekly as they are portrayed on the show. Even the American Idols aren’t completely real. Sure there have been like 5 or 6 but where are they now and how well did their records sell and most didn’t start to gain momentum until their second cd not the first. So are these shows really helping these people are not.

I know that we all want our 15 minutes of fame. We want to know that we will be remembered and cherished, but is this really the way to get it? Most people I talk to are sick of the reality shows. They would like a good comedy or sitcom. And if these shows are so real then why did some almost go off during the writers strike? I admitted my reality show watching but if I had to chose between Idol and good quality television then Idol would loose every time no matter how crazy and in-coherent Paula Abdul got. However, this is the world that we live in. So when they finally launch that reality show about women who sit on their butts and write for a living while eating popcorn in bed I am so going to kick butt!

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