Reality television has laughed at family, spat in the face of marriage and even cheated death on occasion.
The scary thing is, we don’t yet know how low the networks can go, but it appears to be a well without bottom.
Just be glad our time on the earth is limited by our life spans; fear for our children and our children’s children, who will close their eyes when they turn on the television, for fear of what they might see.
With Monday’s “American Idol” kicking off with the worst singers of all time–or at least until Tuesday’s show, when the audition footage continues–and the big fat obnoxious premiere of “My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance,” Fox is adding to its insurmountable lead in skeevy reality programming.
On “Idol,” Simon Cowell bet a tone-deaf contestant that if she sang in a restaurant more than half the patrons would leave. (She did–and they left.)
Meanwhile, on “Fiance,” the show previewed a scene with the couple lying to an actual minister.
Fox, the network of masked dates (“Mr. Personality”), instant sham marriages (“Who Wants to Marry a Multimillionaire”) and outright lies (“Joe Millionaire”) has constantly outpaced rival networks, including second-worst NBC (“Fear Factor,” “Dog Eat Dog,” “For Love or Money”).
So where does this leave us? The ultimate destination is clearly hard-core pornography or snuff footage, but along the way, there are countless groups to exploit and offend. How about midgets, the elderly, the physically or mentally disabled, babies and all manner of ethnic groups? Teens are probably the next frontier, preying on their insecurities with contests designed to create inter- and intra-group conflicts, petty jealousy and assaults on self-esteem.
Puberty is a reality show–or several–waiting to happen.
The collective “we” will be watching, getting a kick out of humiliating someone new. There’s plenty of room in Hell’s handbasket, and in a twisted way, we’ll probably enjoy the ride.
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Contributor William P. Bohlen, RedEye’s TV columnist, can be reached at channelingtv@yahoo.com
