MetaChat - Summer Reality TV. Fess Up!

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18 July 2005

Summer Reality TV. Fess Up! I know it's not "cool" or "hip" to watch reality tv uhh... ever. But you know you watch it. Admit it.

Big Brother 6? Average Joe: The Joe's Strike Back? Hell's Kitchen? Rock Star: INXS? I Wanna Be a Hilton (ok even I wont cop to watching that show!)?

What are your guilty pleasures? Did you hear about the big scrap this weekend at the BB6 House? How awesome was the invasion of the beach by the hot guys on AJ:TJSB, when the weird dude kissed the guy that looks like Donny Wood from New Kids on the Block?

post by: Quartermass at: 17:53 | 54 comments

I love it when I come across something full of jargon and acronyms of which I'm wholly ignorant. It's like reading CS papers at arxiv.org.

posted by gramschmidt 18 July | 18:02

Quartermass, get back to work on your thesis.

posted by taz 18 July | 18:20

(Request to USAians. Please postfix Big Brother version with your desigated country code.)
I'm hooked to BigBro UK. Seriously hooked. It's just not funny anymore. When I get home, I'll watch BB Live for half an hour or so. I can't even bear to watch it tivo'd. I have to be there at Ten O'Clock or I start missing it.

The worst thing is, that with the exception of Eugene (the Geek), they're all really horrible people.

Although I've a soft spot for Science. And his ritalin free existence.

b.t.w - for those of you that can remember that far back... When I compared our very own dodgygeezer to Maxwell, I was referencing BB UK.

posted by seanyboy 18 July | 18:29

Quartermass, get back to work on your thesis.

Oh shit... busted!!!

posted by Quartermass 18 July | 18:41

i'm loving the comment by gramschmidt but i think everyone wins

posted by ethylene 18 July | 18:54

What are your guilty pleasures?

MetaFilter and MetaTalk.

posted by Frisbee Girl 18 July | 18:54

What's the premise behind I Wanna Be A Hilton? The winner gets adopted or turned into a hotel or what?

posted by kenko 18 July | 18:54

I watched Hit Me Baby and loved it, didn't like RockStar: INXS, watched Strip Search and kinda liked it, didn't like Kept, haven't watched BB since the one that happened during 9/11 (mmmm...Hardy!), don't watch Survivor anymore, don't watch Amazing Race altho i hear it's the best one, don't watch Avg. Joe...

posted by amberglow 18 July | 19:28

I haven't watched any reality tv since Project Runway. Not that I'm all elitist about it -- I fully intended to watch Beauty and the Geek, but just never got around to it.

posted by gaspode 18 July | 19:38

I was on a lengthy backpacking trip overseas when Survivor first came out. People who had recently come over kept talking about it, so I was rather excited to see Survivor II when I was back home, my expectation being that they'd pick the most suitable, well-intentioned, skilled, and group-centred people to participate. Boy was I wrong. (I hadn't counted on pettiness being more interesting viewing)

Thing is, I did like the BBC's Shipwrecked on it's first outing -- when they didn't have stupid games (which they later imported from the Survivor model) and were actually this group of well-intentioned, creative, interesting people.

Those are the only two I've seen any amount of, except for some truly guilty-pleasure moments of WB Superstar -- which (correct me if I'm wrong) is about as low as you can go.

posted by dreamsign 18 July | 19:45

I really like PBS's "Colonial House", but that's about as far as I ever went with reality television.

Aside from an ex-girlfriend who wanted to watch "American Idol" every week.

Television-free for one year!

But still a drunk.

posted by interrobang 18 July | 19:52

i saw the restaurant but i wish i hadn't. i liked project runway, it was like watching art school compressed into a matter of weeks. i submitted something for situation comedy but in my rush to get it in on time i forgot to submit in triplicate and probably was disqualified off the bat, but they refused to return my script.
this amateur status has lost all interest.
i watch all kinds of things, it depends on what mood i'm in, what i'm on and if i have cable.

on prieview, i saw pioneer house and one or two of the others

posted by ethylene 18 July | 19:53

oh, you reminded me--1900 House was great, i thought.

posted by amberglow 18 July | 19:56

oh, and Surreal Life is always fun.

posted by amberglow 18 July | 19:57

28 days is going to be on! Alan Tyduk! but i haven't seen my hbo shows yet arrgg

posted by ethylene 18 July | 19:59

being bobby brown is great when someone shows clips and i don't have to actually watch it. actually that goes for most of everything

posted by ethylene 18 July | 20:00

Hell's Kitchen is like crack.

posted by omiewise 18 July | 20:03

I detest that Ramsay guy...they show a show of his on BBCA where he goes around to failing restaurants and berates them and tries to make them better--i think he fails the vast majority of the time.

posted by amberglow 18 July | 20:11

With interrobang on Colonial House, as well as Frontier House, Victorian House, and Manor House. I think my favorite is Frontier, because it's so fascinating to watch the younger kids go native so quickly while the adults just continually freak out. Of course, the young married couple with no kids did best, because they seemed to just have a lot of sex and chop wood and enjoy nature. Manor House had cool meltdowns as well--I remember the first scullery maid bagging after only a few days, and the house Master guy being such an incredible dork and expecting an Atkins Diet in the 1890's (think Jellied Organ Meats). And a snooty French chef, so good!

Yes, I am not ashamed to be PBS's bitch.

But props to Hell's Kitchen as well. I hope the girl with white hair wins.

posted by bardic 18 July | 20:13

never have seen even one episode of any reality television program. *shrugs*

posted by weretable and the undead chairs 18 July | 20:21

i use to be a changing rooms junkie. it's true. i hated carol smiley and then i didn't any more. i had a thing with those diy shows until a few years ago. i still catch some once in a while but i never catch new ones because you only catch the ones you know as is the law of rerun fate. i like the auction show but i hate the host. i don't like the ones with imported US people.
and on the pbs bitch side, i had an antique roadshow thing.

posted by ethylene 18 July | 20:22

oh, and i watched that jaime oliver thing. does iron chef count? or cooking shows?

posted by ethylene 18 July | 20:23

I can't tell if digging Jaime Oliver makes me cooler or lamer. He's kind of a renegade "dangerous" chef, but his show always ended with 3 or 7 drunken post-club hotties coming over for crumpets and margaritas. That's sort of punkrock, but not really deep down.

Antique roadshow is nice, but Bargain Hunt is the shiz. It's like, the competitive version.

posted by bardic 18 July | 20:34

I mostly just watch TVLand, th Simpsons and Family Guy, these days.

posted by jonmc 18 July | 20:46

i like that there is a goal to it, like we need a new car or i have to replace my boiler
i liked that faking it show and trini and susanna do know of which they speak
/your lame queen alimping

posted by ethylene 18 July | 20:47

if watching dick van dyke avoid an ottoman while drunk isn't reality, i don't know what is

posted by ethylene 18 July | 20:48

I forgot this classic in the making.

posted by bardic 18 July | 20:48

ethylene, that's when TV was TV. It wasn't trying to be the movies like all these soap-operas-with-cuss-words-and-boobies cable shows. Last night, just before Family Guy TV land played Sanford & Son and All In The Family back to back. It don't get better than that. (as a bonus, it was the AITF with the "sock and a sock & a shoe and a shoe" argument. Norman Lear, my hat is doffed.)

posted by jonmc 18 July | 20:51

i thought that was when you were watching tv.
how does your lingua work if you don't keep up with the language?

posted by ethylene 18 July | 21:04

Can't match Chicken Soup. Nice job Elsie.

posted by bardic 18 July | 21:23

TVBarn today: What the people auditioning for "Rock Star: INXS" (9:30 p.m., CBS) don't know is that in a year they will be contractually required to commit suicide, since otherwise there can't be a second season. ; >

posted by amberglow 18 July | 21:31

let us link arm in arm, amber glow, and be 'orribly 'orrible to all equally
i have to be conscious for at least another hour

posted by ethylene 18 July | 21:37

Here you go, eth--a teenage Paris (this thread reminded me) : o

posted by amberglow 18 July | 21:48

that
explains
so
much

posted by ethylene 18 July | 21:51

that site has tons of orribly orrible : >

posted by amberglow 18 July | 21:56

where is the part that says been in a fire?
actually, this is great because dodgy said he hadn't noticed what happened to al pacino's face at all.
must remember to show him if i can stand to find it.
put it on his dog day afternoon.

posted by ethylene 18 July | 22:00

crap i fell in
um, this may be the definition for so horrifying i can't look away
i'm bouncing between disappointment and wonder
Madchen, why?

posted by ethylene 18 July | 22:07

i know...so many orrible surprises there.

posted by amberglow 18 July | 22:53

I've been watching Hell's Kitchen...but now that Elsie is gone, I probably won't anymore. The ones that are left are just horrible people and I don't want any of them to win.

posted by PsychoKitty 18 July | 23:07

Bardic--I lurv Bargain Hunt!! Sometimes the host looks so drunk, I don't know how he stands.

And if I'm going to watch cheesey reality tv, I want it to be hardcore awful. Bring back Paradise Hotel!!!!!!!!!

posted by jrossi4r 18 July | 23:24

that's the one with the 70s hair?

posted by amberglow 18 July | 23:35

That's the one. And the wicked tight suits.

posted by jrossi4r 19 July | 00:07

Regency House Party on PBS was pretty cool. I watched three hours of the second season of America's Next Top Model this weekend... I saw the best reality TV on-camera meltdown ever. Beauty and the Geek was interesting but all the people who reminded me of friends got eliminated. I Want to Be a Hilton had some good drama a week or two ago. I saw half an episode of Stripped and it didn't look too good. I saw the first episode of That '70s House on MTV and it looked really good. And it looks like they filmed in Monrovia, CA, just a few miles away from me.

posted by halonine 19 July | 04:24

I haven't watched any reality tv since Project Runway. Not that I'm all elitist about it -- I fully intended to watch Beauty and the Geek, but just never got around to it.

I loved Project Runway. Loved, loved, loved. I miss it. It was one of the few reality shows that ended exactly as it should have. Well, except for Wendy going into the top three over Austin. Damn you Nancy O'Dell!

posted by LeeJay 19 July | 04:38

Oh, and I can't seem to stop watching Blow Out. Jonathan Antin wears an ass for a hat. And his brother was in The Goonies.

posted by LeeJay 19 July | 04:39

70s House. Love it. Love love love watching all the 20-somethings say things like "I've never even SEEN an 8-track" and having to give up their cellphones, laptops, and cd players. And the one who called Denny Terrio "Danny" should really have been tossed out, immediately.

posted by JanetLand 19 July | 08:44

"Intervention" on A & E is surprisingly watchable.

posted by rainbaby 19 July | 09:27

I've watched Survivor from the beginning, but last season's ..er.. season was the last one. It's lost it's shine, I guess. I watched season two of The Apprentice and really enjoyed it but I'm not interested in watching more of it. I managed to see all of Colonial House and bits and pieces of the other "Houses" and wish I had seen all of them. I watched some of The Swan and it was "eh." I've watched bits and pieces of American Idol and it's okay. I love to hate Simon. Cops can make me stop whatever I'm doing and watch it. Those Craziest Driver-type shows are fascinating as well.

posted by deborah 19 July | 11:19

the show i meant was actually Cash in the Attic, they run through the homes of pack rats and take things to auction.
and tony bourdain of nyc fame and books i have yet to read has great travel cooking shows (if just for the line "I puked like a hero")
occassionally in the mood of docus and biographies, but i bet errol morris doesn't count. 30 days is interesting as far as the one i saw.
and then talk shows, like the daily show (i'm still unsure of the new set)

i've seen a lot of tv and i'm not sure what reality is suppose to be, because i like watching people in the construct of a play they play out weekly, esp. when they are trying to make each other blow their lines.

posted by ethylene 19 July | 12:17

Janet, i was going to watch it, but thought it would make me feel ancient. Do they have 45s and stuff too? (i still miss those little plastic things that go in the middle)

Cash in the Attic is great.

posted by amberglow 19 July | 12:22

watching Average Joe now--the cute ones aren't that hot at all. There's a really cute Average one--short and tan with glasses.

posted by amberglow 19 July | 20:35

ok--it's a good show! : >

posted by amberglow 19 July | 20:59

The only one I make a point of watching is The Amazing Race, which I really like. Big Brother was OK for the first season, being a novelty and all, but it has just got stupid - any show that relies of guys waving their dicks in girls' faces to attract viewers falls short of even my standards.

My Big Fat Obnoxious Boss was good for the first few episodes, but got kind of boring after a while.

posted by dg 19 July | 22:17

i think your Big Brother's different from ours--i don't think there's any nudity at all on ours--certainly not on the season i saw.

posted by amberglow 19 July | 22:23

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