I’ve come to realize because I’ve been watching about 18 or so seasons of Top Chef on demand, all of which I missed when I stopped watching television 10 years ago, that there are several types of reality shows.
- The Upper Crust. These are generally skill and talent shows, but I don’t include any of those with a live audience. So that eliminates America’s Got Talent, So You Think You Can Sing, or Dance, or Whatever. The voice. America’s Got Talent. That leaves shows like Project Runway, Top Chef, Blown away (Glass blowing), Great British Baking, and I think I saw a Graphic Design show once. The catch and the reason these are relatively good shows in the field of “reality” is that they are all enormously talented people, just to make it onto the first episode. By the end, it’s almost a given that 2 or 3 people are losing even though they are excellent in their field. I think that’s why Top Chef keeps having repeat players.
Another nice thing about the Upper Crust shows are that they generally don’t hate each other. Their annoyances tend to be minor, like someone whistles or has an annoying laugh. - The middle class level of the reality show is the kind that most resembles the novel and movie “They Shoot Horses Don’t They.” Contestants here mostly try to make it to the end and are sometimes put through meaningless tasks and feats of strength and so on. This would be Survivor, Big Brother, The Bachelor and other dating shows, and also I think, the talent shows with audiences: America’s Got Talent and American Idol. The Miss America, Miss Universe, Mrs. America, Mr. Leather, all the state competitions (Miss Ohio, Miss California), and even the Little Miss competitions, also belong in this category. All of them are either simply endurance competitions or come very close to endurance, rather than talent. What is called “talent” is almost nothing of the kind, except in rare instances. And of course there is a whole freak show aspect that American Idol exploited ruthlessly and probably justified it by saying “look at William Hung.”
- And then there’s trash. There’s always trash in America. This would be, I’m guessing, the possession of just one cocaine addict, or former cocaine addict: Andy Cohen. Trashy housewives of Name Your City. They all have the Mar a Lago face. They are all examples of how women can be sado-masochists and destroy themseles, all while thinking they are beautiful. Donald Trump belongs in this category even though his show fit into #2.