"Hurl!" or, Have we finally crossed the line? (1 Viewer)

[MatthewA]

ABC News: Can Reality TV Sink Any Lower?

Read this and tell me we're not headed for a cultural dark age. If we're not there already.

 

[TravisR]

I've got the attitude of "If that's what people actually want to watch, they deserve it". I blame the people for watching it (even if it's for irony or as a guilty pleasure). If people didn't watch it, the network wouldn't run it.

I still think that television delivers some great shows today that even the most ridiculous show can't eclipse. Of course, it's crap like this that makes close minded people say all TV after 1960 or 1970 or 1980 is bad.

 

[SD_Brian]

We're one step closer to seeing "Ow! My Balls!" realized as a weekly series. Idiocracy, here we come!

 

[Greg_S_H]

 

[MatthewA]

By that time, it'll probably win a freakin' Peabody Award.

After this I'd be less offended if they showed porn at 7 PM on Sunday night.

 

[Chris Lockwood]

> If people didn't watch it, the network wouldn't run it.

They have to create and air the show in order for us to watch it. You make it sound like people are demanding shows like this.

Also, the network has no way of knowing what you watch unless you're one of the few Nielsen households, so I don't follow your logic. Even then, they don't know if a show will be watched until they put it on the air.

 

[TravisR]

And the network is spending money on and airing this because they think there's no market for it? If this show gets a deserved 0.0 rating in its first night, it'll never be on again and the networks may see that people want quality over a freak show. Of course that won't happen because people will watch this crap.

 

[Scott_J]

Two words: market research.

 

[MatthewA]

This begs the question of what markets they are researching?

 

[joshEH]

If they have crossover event, making Olivia, Kristin, Morgan, and Layla hork their groceries everywhere, I might actually consider watching it.

Otherwise..."pass." Or maybe, this might paradoxically end up being the greatest thing ever created by man in all of history, by crossing over the curved space-time event horizon of crapulence, and arriving on the other end at total epic awesome.

Sorta like your average Deathstalker movie.

 

[Yee-Ming]

Unfortunately, not the participants of a reasonably intelligent internet forum devoted to home theater and the stuff said participants play back on their home theaters.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Another reason for the "popularity" of reality shows is that the producers don't have to pay any writers (reality "Story Editors" don't belong to the WGA).

 

[Patrick Sun]

I'm looking forward to the Celebrity edition of "Hurl"...

 

[MatthewA]

That's partly why you can't call it "reality" TV. Real life has no story editors. These are glorified game shows.

 

[Greg_S_H]

It's always seemed like a misnomer to me. There's nothing real about what these people are doing.

 

[MatthewA]

Exactly. How often are people:

—Stuck on an island with a TV host having to do challenges? In real life, the real challenge would be scrounging for food and scrambling to build a shelter.
—Doing deadly stunts for cash prizes?

The only true "reality TV" is raw security camera footage.

 

[Todd H]

I absolutely hate that crap. But as long as people watch it they'll continue making it. Oh well. I guess I'll just watch more Blu-rays.

 

[WillG]

Yes, a very sad state of affairs that this "Hurl" show looks to be a reality. But don't tell me that at least some of you guys won't be checking it out when it premeres

 

[Lucia Duran]

There is definitely a market for all this new "crap" on television. Sadly, it does seem to be something more and more people are getting into. I'm sick of reality television, personally, but I know so many people who are just loving every minute of it.

I do also have to say that while I do see that there are some networks trying to put out some smart shows, I haven't been interested enough in them to really bother with them. Maybe that is just because I have found other ways to entertain myself (reading, running and the wii) and I don't have the time to sit and watch what is on.

I will say that I truly miss certain types of shows and I wish someone would come up with something so entirely new and intruiging for me to really want to just stop and watch.

I know I have said this before in other threads, but I think that the writers strike really changed my viewing habits and most of the shows I was really into (Heroes, Pushing Daisies, Jericho) have just been put on the backburner for other things. I am slowly losing interest in television all together and come October I am getting rid of my digital cable.

That is not to say that I haven't at one time or another sat down to watch some mindless television programming such as I love the new millenium or Rock of Love, but it's all the same old recycled crap now.

 

[Lucia Duran]

They are just modern day game shows. If they are all competing for a prize, there is nothing reality based about it. True Reality television is stuff like Deadliest Catch, 30 days, The Alaskan Experiement and so on....