Sports and reality TV consume somewhere between 70-80% of my every day life. If I had my druthers, it would be closer to 100%. How I Met Your Mother is the only show I currently watch that is neither sports-related, a reality/trivia show, a rerun, nor on HBO. My sports and reality TV trivia knowledge is both impressive and shameful. I can name all 19 cities that have hosted a Real World cast (NYC hosted two seasons), the last 50 NCAA Men’s Basketball champions, every Super Bowl champion, each American Idol winner, and every boyfriend LC has had on The Hills and Laguna Beach – all in chronological order. I get five ESPN channels in my cable lineup, and I watch each of them daily. I know where every single player in the NBA went to college. I watch Top Chef religiously, and I cannot even cook an egg. Seriously.
I was recently watching Cash Cab (best trivia show on TV), and I came to the sad realization that my knowledge of pop culture, sports, and random trivia far exceeds my knowledge of meaningful, intellectual, or educationally-relevant information. I probably cannot list every U.S. President, certainly not in chronological order. I would be lucky to correctly name 35 of the 50 state capitals. Identifying important world leaders is not one of my strengths.
I check CNN.com once or twice a day, but I peruse ESPN.com roughly a baker’s dozen times a day. I would like to have more worldly knowledge, but I do not consciously gravitate toward educational television. Why would I watch the History Channel when I can watch Ryan Sheckler complain about his parents’ divorce and his love life (or lack thereof) on Life of Ryan? Almost every show on MTV makes me feel stupider than I was before I started watching, yet I keep several MTV shows in my rotation (that will remain unnamed).
A reality trend that I strongly oppose is dating competitions. I was a fan of classics such as Blind Date, Elimidate, Change of Heart, and Joe Millionaire for several years, but newer shows like A Shot of Love with Tila Tequila, Flavor of Love (even though I’m not mad at Flava Flav), Rock of Love with Bret Michaels, I Love New York, and That’s Amore are giving the genre a bad name. I’m sure Bret and Tila will find love this season. I am quite certain that Missy from
I did find a way to seek knowledge without going to school or feeling like I am studying -- Wikipedia. It less than five seconds, I just learned that the capital of
3 comments:
Chop
I rarely disagree with any thing you say but I think you are dead wrong here. It very ironic that last night I screamed to nobody "This says it all about America. They are taking off all the traditional TV shows and showing all this reality bull shit." They cancel Friday Night Lights and October Road and decide to put fat people losing weight and rich kids dating losers on TV. Come on Chop, I can appreciate a good episode of Temptation Island but at the expense of our kids not having their own version of BH 9-er. If something does not happen fast the only thing on Primetime television will be reality programming and America will be a much tougher place to live.
BZ --
I'll give you FNL, but I have taken dumps with more interesting storylines than October Road. While I agree that reality shows are over played and not great, network tv isn't what it was 5-10 years ago. Of all the shows on TV (not cable or sports), I can think of maybe 5 that I actually enjoy - Lost, Boston Legal, How I Met Your Mother...better make that three. I hear there's going to be a new BH9er spin off coming out soon, which I am looking forward to that like a 6 year old awaiting Santa on Xmas eve. Hopefully it will be a "new bike" and not "undies and socks".
Big Dave
BZ -
I should note that I prefer scripted TV to reality TV, but there are very few decent scripted shows on today so I am forced to watch reality shows. Friday Night Lights was canceled before I had TiVo and it aired on Friday nights (I appreciate the symbolism of that but who watches TV on Friday nights?) so I never saw an episode. As for October Road, I would have kept that guilty pleasure to myself. I refuse to watch reality shows that involve dancing, losing weight, or rehab, but there are numerous lame reality shows with no apparent plot that I MUST watch. If there were compelling, scripted alternatives, I would watch them. But, at this time, there are not so I have to make due with trashy reality. I am not proud that I can name every cast member during a 20-year span of the Real World. Here's hoping our kids will have a show with half the high school drama of BH9er.
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