IT'S STILL REAL TO ME DAMNIT: The Reality Show Thread

[benji]

Let's make this our neutral ground for those of us who simply cannot resist the drug that is a properly done reality show. And then there's those of us addicted to the shameful programming.

To prove that I'm possibly a homosexual, what I watch either currently or recently:
Hell's Kitchen (US)
Top Chef
Project Runway
MasterChef (US)
Work of Art
Top Chef: Just Desserts
Top Chef: Masters
Flipping Out
Austin and Santino: On The Road
Next Iron Chef
The Apprentice (US) (Celeb or Real, haven't watched the latest one though.)

And I've watched even more in the past, things like:
Top Design
Shear Genius
Next Food Network Star

Anyway, there's probably more, but the key point is this will be the safe zone from the haters of OUR STORIES.

And let me note one thing. Marco Pierre White is amazing. Hell's Kitchen (UK) and The Chopping Block (US) were both him carrying the entire show through him being awesome.

I'm not opposed to foreign shows btw, especially in this modern age we live in. The Apprentice (UK) was better than any US version of that in at least five years and maybe one of the better versions of the show. (I had not actually watched the UK version before this last season, so will, coming from society without silly titles, not be able to make the adjustment from Sir Alan to Lord Sugar next season.)

In other words, mention them and hype them. It's not like I'll murder all your loved ones and family in an elaborate quest for vengeance. At least not until I get my own reality show contract.

Except for Big Brother, Survivor, or the Amazing Race. I mean seriously?

The Mole was all three of those combined, better and never will have its first season topped.

Also, the Soup's references are fair game. Just because

[J@3]

I watch the following;

Wife Swap USA (far superior to the British version)
Trading Spouses
Come Dine With Me UK
Come Dine With Me Australia (better than the UK one)
American Chopper (I guess this counts)
Cake Boss

Have also watched countless others, and once sat through an episode of Toddlers & Tiara's. That show isn't as paedophilic as The Soup makes it out to be but it is horrific all the same.

[benji]

I've watched Wife Swap like two times, and one was recently because nothing else was on. One family had like 30 pets, lizards, dogs, etc. And the other family was black (FOR IDENTIFICATION PURPOSES) and treated their only daughter as a maid/slave.

I'll say American Chopper counts. In which case I have to add:
No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain
Dirty Jobs
Two of the best shows on TV PERIOD.

And MythBusters obviously though I just watch them when nothing is on anymore since they backlogged so much.

And as Jae mentioned, I know of so many shows simply from The Soup.

[JaoSming]

I guess these "count" but my favorite shows on TV are Mythbusters, Dirty Jobs, Pawn Stars, American Pickers, Swamp People (fucking, hilarious), and Man vs Food.

I've watched No Reservations a few times, it's a great show (Bourdain is awesome) but I never seem to catch it.

[Doobie]

I watch... Jersey shore.

Started watching it cause I'm from New Jersey, and then simply just got hooked on the guido lifestyle.

[Oznogrd]

If they count:

Mythbusters
Cash Cab (or is this more game show?)
Bizarre Foods
Man vs Food
Survivorman
American Pickers
Pawn Stars

[JaoSming]

Survivorman

forgot about that one great show

[buzzy]

Only american shows I can say I watch regularly are Mythbusters and Top Chef. And some pro wrestling of course (which doesn't count I'd say).

Not really the guy for reality TV, but I can't deny that I get caught in some stupid German/Austrian reality show more often that not while flicking through the channels.

edit: forgot TUF!

[[Q]]

i stopped watching survivor for a long time and they got me back with the whole race wars season a couple years back. used to watch amazing race... don't know why i don't anymore. anybody watch the Great Food Truck Race? the Nom Nom bitches were hot. watched America's got Talent because summer porgramming is terrible and there's nothing else to watch. and i like chad ochocinco... sadly, i watched his dating show on vh1

[benji]

anybody watch the Great Food Truck Race? the Nom Nom bitches were hot.

http://nomnomtruck.com/

[el badman]

I've watched a bit of Master Chef US but quickly stopped, and I usually watch Hell's Kitchen, but I really wouldn't waste more time than that on "reality" shows.

[Lamrock]

I like Project Runway and The Biggest Loser. The latter mostly because its fun to watch it with someone else and make fun of how fat the people are. Used to watch some Wife Swap and Trading Spouses though.

phpBB [video]

[shadowgrin]

Smart kid. No woman should take away bacon, a man needs his meat, in this case a kid needs his bacon to be a man.



Man vs. Wild
Deadliest Catch
Dirty Jobs
Storm Chasers
No Reservations
Iron Chef
Iron Chef America (the lulz that is Mark Dacascos, from doing martial arts flicks to being the host of a cooking show. He's not even that old yet to consider such a move)
Mythbusters (used to be a must watch, only watch it now if their method to dis/prove the myth is interesting)
American Chopper (only to see the look of motorcycle they are assembling)
A season of America's Next Top Model where it has that Indian? (India, not Injuns) participant that thinks she's fat. Fat or not, I'll do her.

[ixcuincle]

Hell's Kitchen
MasterChef
Top Chef

Not really interested in the others.

[[Q]]

anybody watch the Great Food Truck Race? the Nom Nom bitches were hot.

http://nomnomtruck.com/

you know, before i watched the show, i was really skeptical about going to LA for overpriced banh mi (especially since Lee's Sandwiches and other chains sell banh mi in orange county), but the show made me really curious to try it.

[benji]

Okay, so I can't really sleep, and I'm watching Wife Swap again. This is like the fourth time I've ever "watched" it. I still don't understand it.

Why do the dads freak out over all of it despite being basically cuckolds? Why don't they just get through the week or whatever it is and get back to normal instead of throwing a fit? Why do the wives have to be jerks and make things even worse than they should be? How much are they getting paid? Has there ever been an episode where the both of the families were sane and had good parents? Why does nobody realize that younger boys are easier to control and tween girls are the hardest? Why do these ten year olds seem to have tattoos? Why did neither of the women bother to close the door on their limo?

And the whole meeting part is to ruin it all and entrench the parents in their ways right? If one suggested mild alterations and everyone agreed it wouldn't be aired?

I guess I'd never be on this show if I was a wife, I'd not bring any drama as I wouldn't have some absurd system to enforce.

Best part of this episode is that both families probably needed it. Aside from the weird things nobody sane does the one kids did need and liked the structure and the others did need and liked the freedom. I assume the powers that be didn't like this episode because of how well it worked. I don't know what to think after this one, it worked too perfectly. Even the "follow ups" seemed staged.

If they did away with the parents meeting it'd probably be more useful. I'd even suggest replacing that part of the show with the other wife coming back and having to run THEIR house in the other woman's style. I mean if we were pretending the other wife is not coming back instantly and imposing their system even harder than before. This episode was just a disaster, everyone was too reasonable.

[benji]

Hell's Kitchen has spiraled to its expected disaster, as the former winner tries to get the job they promised her but she wasn't qualified to hold. And the current one does the same. At least we got the runner up declaring he will "blackball" everyone else on the show from getting work, as if he could and as if anyone wanted any of these scumbags.

And here we are with Top Chef All-Stars. And it has delivered. Not as respectful as Masters, but redeems the show after what was season seven in the wake of season six.

On another note, I watched Undercover Boss (one of the highest rated TV shows that exists in 'MERCA, the world's greatest country, and the premiere episode or something matched the Super Bowl or some shit with like 35 million viewers) in the Subway episode. And actually enjoyed it enough I'm going back to watch the other food ones: Hooters, White Castle and Johnny Rockets. (A veritable murder's row.) And if they hit a good enough standard I might watch this entire series.

If you don't know, and there are UK and Aussie versions of it that I know of (which I haven't ruled out considering how much better the last Apprentice UK was than the American one), it's about CEOs and higher ups going in anonymously and working the standard jobs at their companies.

It may be that the last guy was just good enough to carry the show as he failed at everything and locked himself in a freezer. Hopefully the rest do the same though.

Yes, yes, I know it's all corporate propaganda and advertising, this is a thread about reality shows, what did you expect!

EDIT: Hooters one is hilarious.

If there is a major issue I have with the show through two episodes, it's working at four stores only one day, I can get why, but I'd rather they worked an entire week or something at two stores. Even better a week at four stores, making it a month. That's how I would personally do it, but I can see why they don't do it that way. I mean the individual places are not seeming to change things up but there is a high chance they do especially as the show is popular now and having cameras around does that anyway. (Then again, people seem to fall for Bobby Flay's Throwdown so maybe I'm too on top of things.)

The other issue is the "rewards" given. Some of them are really great, like paying for someones education or giving a vacation, while I'm not sure making a donation makes your low paid manager or saying you'll use someone (who doesn't really like their job) to promote the company feel as great. All the rewards should be helping the person first, and then on top throwing in the donations or PR opportunities. Or at least doing something to boost the store they run.

That said, it's an interesting premise. I'd probably do much more with it if I had the power. Similar to Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares (both the UK version and the horrific hate crime that is the US one.) I'd probably prefer to follow the store/restaurant/etc. over a few episodes (month or so in the real world) instead of going in and then leaving within a couple days to fit it into a single episode. The Restaurant continues to be one of the best reality shows ever despite all the people it involved and despite the re-staging of events it did simply because of this. Maybe I'm weird but I'd much rather watch something like that instead of something even more contrived and setup to promote a single company or business. In fact, the Restaurant was setup to do just that but wound up showing why so many restaurants fail and just how you can spiral down into a horrific plastic surgery driven life of faux-celebrity. So a toast to The Restaurant.

[[Q]]

yeah ive seen quite a few episodes after the super bowl ads roped me in. i have not seen the subway one but the Hooters one is probably the best, White castle is good, and the 7-eleven one is pretty good too.

[J@3]

I used to like it but it got boring after a while. Very formulaic. Meet person, suck at job, find out persons cat/father/child died, give person college tuition or house or something.

The Australian one is TERRIBLE. It's so fake and basically plays out like an hour long advert. The employees are way too aware of the cameras so they act ultra nice and pretentious.

[benji]

http://www.bestweekever.tv/2011-03-21/e ... boss-ever/

[benji]

So Tabitha's Salon Makeover has a challenger in the business makeover field best epitomized by Kitchen Nightmares UK (not US) with Bar Rescue.

The problem with restaurant versions is that the people are generally just in over their heads but are often otherwise good people who would be fine doing something else, for both salons and bars it seems to be that they're just completely clueless people who don't want to actually work who seem to cluster around these disaster rides to take advantage of the owners who are also completely clueless until it collapses and then they jump to the next one.

And that makes for great T.V.

"Fresh handmade pizza" served on the cardboard tray from the frozen pizza box. Yum!

EDIT: And no, it's not because he does empirical analysis of bars that says what brings in or rejects women or makes people buy higher priced drinks or stay longer or...

EDIT2: Well, not entirely.