Is reality-TV necessary? I don't like anyone enough to watch them take a piss.

It all started back in the 90s when Real World made its glorious debut.  Even I watched it religiously.  It was entertaining solely because there was nothing else like it on TV.  Maybe I took a mental vacation, but at some point, the little slut that was the Real World, gave birth to more than she ever dreamed possible.  More than I ever wanted.  From the Real World, we discovered that people enjoyed watching strangers living together.  How could the network make even more money?  I know, make the strangers live together, but have no contact with the outside world whatsoever.  And so, Big Brother was born.  Like pervy Peeping Toms, there we all were, looking through the figurative peep hole at these idiots. Watching everything from boring conversations to feeble attempts at cooking to people in the bathroom.  Of course, they actually allowed them to shit off camera.  But we did get to watch blurred showers, oral hygiene, and hair removal.  Gross.
Slick fuckers those producers, because they didn't only allow us to watch the mundane day-to-day shit. Nope.  They forced them to compete in ridiculous games and vote each other out of the house.  We were watching high school cliques in action!  Who was stronger, faster, more popular, smarter, better at being a phony bitch?  Those people got to remain in the house. Unable to out bitch the queen bitch?  Sorry, you had to go! Fringe nerds, you knew this was coming. The quiet unassuming geeky types were always voted out first.  They provided no real entertainment, anyway.  The true test of staying power was when only the popular dickweeds were left, and you still hadn't been voted out of the house.  Imagine if high school allowed for head of household privileges?  If we could have voted out the assholes?  Yeah, we couldn't.  And THAT'S why, reality TV isn't always very real.

Moving on to the competition shows.  Seriously? American Idol, So You Think You Can Dance?, America's Got Talent, X Factor, Dancing with the Stars, and the list goes on and on. Even Fear Factor, which I do enjoy, belongs here.  Let's start with the fact that there are WAY too many in the same genre.  Flooding me with shit is not going to make me suddenly like shit.  America has some talent, but not enough to fill the stages of countless shows that are invading every hour of evening programming.  There's only so much artistic competitive mishegoss I can stand to watch during any given week.  American Idol is probably the only one I've actually watched since its inception. And even that has jumped the shark more than once.  Funny thing about these competition shows, they turn us all into professional judges.  Suddenly, we all feel more than qualified to pass judgment on the people who turn up on our giant flat-screens. We yell at the TV, text our friends with vast amounts of what we feel to be constructive criticism of the last performer, discuss it at work the next day, talk about it over dinner with our families.  You'd think we were getting paid handsomely by the networks for our opinions.  Wake up!
Of course, if you aren't into competition, you can always watch other people work.  Ice Road Truckers, Pawn Stars, Cajun Pawn Stars, Deadliest Catch, Dog: Bounty Hunter...the list is too long for my attention span. There is a degree of entertainment value in a show where you get to pop open a beer, put your feet up, and watch as others earn a living.  I get that. To a degree.  But do we have to represent every job that exists?  Will there soon be Sharks at Large, a show where we watch real attorneys do paperwork and answer client phone calls?  Maybe we can have a Cashier Cuties and watch women with teased hair scan items at a random Walmart? Sounds stupid?  Because it is!!!  Most of us who work all day want to come home and laugh at a sitcom, or follow a compelling drama that allows us to connect with characters and a story line, not revisit the grind of the day through someone else's eyes.
If you haven't found your favorite type of reality show, maybe you can flip the channels and find one of the "rescue some poor schlub" shows.  Shows like Starting Over, Biggest Loser, and Restaurant Impossible are just a few of the programs you can watch to see floundering ass wads have their lives turned around publicly on national TV.  We all have problems. There is nothing more true. But, I can tell you with all certainty that I would never consider working out my issues in front of a camera.  Trust me, you aren't interested and I don't like you enough to share the intimate details of my life with you. The fact that you are watching people with sub-zero self-esteem says quite a bit about your own self-confidence.  It says you hate your own life so much that the only thing that makes your feel remotely human is watch those you consider to be even more pathetic than you. Looks worse when you re-read it.  Totally fucking pitiful. Gleaning joy from the misery of others, schadenfreude, as it is known in the world of people who can read something above the level of a picture book, is probably almost as bad as inflicting the actual misery on someone.  Actually, it's worse.  It's worse because you are intentionally going out of your way to watch and gloat.  Asshole.
I miss sitcoms, dramas, news programs, game shows, the movie of the week, a good miniseries like Roots!  Where has all the good TV gone? Have Americans become so stupid that they can't keep up with a regular TV show, they need something far-fetched and ridiculous, under the guise of being REAL to hold their dwindling attention?  This is embarrassing if it is even remotely true.  So much for being a super power.  Unless nuclear arms manufacturing and a week in the life of an enlisted soldier become new reality shows, I fear nobody will give a shit. This is the world my kid is being thrust into next year.  Do you think I'm happy about that?  Are you friggin kidding me right now???