Reality Shows

Work has been crazy, so the disclaimer here is that this post is not that good today. Of course, that is making the assumption that the normal posts are any good also! ;)

I don't watch a lot of reality tv. The only one I watch and have ever watched is Dancing with the Stars. I realized on Monday why I don't like to watch these type of shows. They really should be called popularity shows. My husband calls it the "Donny Osmond effect". A few seasons ago, Donnie won the whole contest, not because he was the best dancer but because he had the biggest fan base. It seems to be going this way again this season. On Tuesday night, it came down to the two lowest scoring couples. It came down to Ralph Macchio and Kirstie Alley. I'm not saying that Ralph didn't have his problems but there is no way that Kirstie is a better dancer than him. So Ralph headed home while Kirstie is in the finals. The person with the biggest fan base won out again. It really just blows my mind that a dancing show is really not about dancing but about popularity.

I hear around work that other reality shows are exactly like this. I don't know. So the question is why do we watch them if the winner has nothing to do with talent? What is the message that these shows are sending, popularity trumps talent?

Getting a little deeper, is the publishing world like that? Can popular authors publish "crap" and people buy it just because of "who that author is"? What about a talented author who finds their work so hard to be published? I wonder if it was strictly anonymous, if some of the stuff published out there would even be considered?

Hmm....

Peace out,
MRD