Out of the Land of Denial . . . Accepting Reality TV

Here's my problem: I keep waiting for the reality TV craze to bottom out.

Credit naiveté. Blind faith in TV viewers everywhere. Or all that quality time I spend in the land of denial.

But every time I hear about a new, unsettling reality show (for instance The Baby Borrowers), I think to myself, "Well it can't possibly get worse than that," I remember when Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire? debuted in 2000, I thought no one would watch it. But they did. And it spawned off-spring like Joe Millionaire. I mean can you imagine that The Bachelor is still going strong six years after it first debuted? By my count, the show has only resulted in one marriage.

But the network that seems to relish/wallow in the reality TV craze is VH-1, which has completely reinvented itself as the place "stars" go to expose their life to uncomfortable and often pathetic levels.

I date the problem back to the year 2004 when The Surreal Life moved from the WB to the music network. And I'll admit I was part of the problem because I did watch most of that season that starred Charo, Dave Coulier, Flavor Flav, Jordan Knight, Brigitte Nielsen, and Ryan Starr. That show kicked off Flavor Flav's TV career and Strange Love and Flavor of Love soon followed.

And now comes I Love Money, which premieres Sunday at 9 p.m. on VH-1. In this series, 17 contestants from I Love New York, Flavor of Love, and Rock of Love travel to Mexico to compete for $250,000. Backstabbing ensues and, no surprise, there's a stripper pole involved in some of the challenges and something called the Spit Olympics. It sounds a little like a raunchier version (how scary is that?) of The Real World/Road Rules challenge.

In a way I admire the honesty of the show. Obviously these contestants value money over everything else. But I think this is the show that is going to do it for me. I now accept that reality TV will probably never bottom out. That there are new and more heinous shows to come.

How about you? Is there a show that made you realize that TV has no rock bottom? That there will always be people willing to expose themselves to increasing degrees of humiliation for their proverbial 15 minutes of fame and fleeting fortune.

And if you want a sneak peak at what I'm talking about episode one is now available on VH1.com

The Emmys

Since we had such a healthy debate about this year's Amy Awards (to vote None of the Above or not, that is the question), I thought this would be a super fabulous time to talk about the Emmy Awards.

The nominees will be announced on Thursday, July 17, but for the first time, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences has announced the ten comedies and dramas that are in contention for a nomination. So we already know that How I Met Your Mother has no chance of being nominated for Best Comedy but Pushing Daisies does. We won't see Brothers & Sisters on the best drama list but we could see Grey's Anatomy. For the complete list, click here.

What do you think about this idea? Should the Academy let people know who is contention weeks before the nominations? Do the Emmys at all influence what you watch? Have the Emmy Awards let you down so much over the years (no Gilmore Girls, no Buffy the Vampire Slayer, no Veronica Mars) that you no longer hold out hope that your favorite shows will be nominated?

Talk about the Emmy Awards below.

Where Have I Seen Them Before?

Jeanine recognized Ernie Hudson as the psychiatrist on The Secret Life of the American Teenager. Hudson was, of course, Winston Zeddemore in Ghostbusters. He was also Warden Leo Glynn on Oz, Detective Ridley on Desperate Housewives, and Gus' dad on Psych.

And many of you correctly recognized Shailene Woodley, Amy on TSLOTAT (like Jeanine, I too think the title is too long, we simply must use the acronym). Woodley was the original Kaitlin on The OC (before she went from child to teenage vixen). She was also the young Jordan on Crossing Jordan. Mark Derwin, Amy's father, was Dr. Mark Molloy on Life with Bonnie and Sam Gordon on Heist. Josie Bissett, Jane on Melrose Place, was Grace's mom. But most importantly I simply must know what you thought about the show. You all have been suspciously silent about it. Did you not watch? Or are you still in shock?

Sherry Stringfield was the woman in witness protection whose husband was cheating on In Plain Sight. She was, of course, Dr. Susan Lewis on ER and we saw her most recently as Rita in Tell Me You Love Me. Virginia Williams was the woman the husband was having the affair with. She was Claudia the woman getting married when Ted met Victoria (Ashley Williams) on How I Met Your Mother and she was the runaway bride in a episode of Veronica Mars.

Indira Varma was the woman who was at the center of an assassination attempt on Law & Order: Criminal Intent. She was Niobe on Rome and Dr. Adrianne Holland on 3lbs.

TV Gal Schedule

Just a programming note to let you know that I won't have a column this Friday, July 4 or on Monday, July 7. But I will be back on Wednesday July 9 with a review of the second season premiere of Burn Notice and the new CBS series Flashpoint (Keith Mars returns!).

That's all for today. I hope you have a wonderful 4th of July. Have a question? Seen a familiar face? Want to nominate a quote of the week? Write me at amytvgal@zap2it.com. Talk to you next Wednesday.

E-mail

• Digg
• Facebook
• Fark
• Yahoo Buzz
• Stumbleupon