Reality Show Rants

My favorite reality tv show character! That I can remember at least. I've seen a lot of reality shows and I generally forget about them once the season is over.

She got voted off last week though, which PISSES me off. This show is TOTALLY flawed. A good reality show has to have characters you can root for and characters you want to take down. The season goes well if in the end, you have the likable characters remaining. If you have a season where only the unlikable characters are remaining, you're not going to have a very excited audience because there's no one to cheer for in the last few episodes.

The Biggest Loser, like most reality shows, splits them up into teams and then half way through, they compete individually. But they always wear colored shirts, blue for those trained by Bob and black for those trained by Jillian. Unlike other reality shows, for some reason, after the splitup they still function as if they were on teams, and it's expected of them to ALWAYS vote for someone of a different colored shirt, unless the bottom two performers are from the same team, in which case you have no choice but to vote for either one. There is no reason for them to continue voting with the team, because it's INDIVIDUAL! You have equal chances of being the bottom two, and all reward challenges are invidivual at this point anyway.

But when someone goes against the team, everyone acts like it's some major backstabbing move, when it's NOT! There's no reason to be loyal to someone, especially if you have the opportunity to vote off the biggest bitch in the house who is just going to vote your ass off when she gets the chance ANYWAY. They reason that they need to "keep the numbers," meaning get the majority so they're safe. But there's no reason to keep the majority based on team color, beyond a few weeks of false security, because once you eliminate one side, you just start eliminating your own group. If you're already split up at this point, I think people have to start thinking about 1) who is their biggest competiton in the long run and 2) who they think is deserving of the reward, and just say "screw the team" if it comes to it.

People make alliances in the beginning within their team, which makes sense and although I think it's a little unfair in this particular show, I'd say it's ok. It is still a game. But I find it ridiculous when competing individually, person A keeps person B when they have NO alliance together, and person B has a horrible personality and has posted a REVENGE BOARD for person A. WTF.



If you are in a reality show here is how elimination should go:
1. First two weeks - you have no idea what anyone is like, so you vote for the person who was the most annoying that week and made some unfortunate comment
2. You start making alliances and someone will lead the pack and decide who to vote for. There will be someone who is either particularly annoying, someone who isn't pulling their weight and doesn't deserve to be there, or more rarely, someone who is CLEARLY going to win the game so you vote them off early before they end up dominating the rest of the game
3. The show is suddenly split up individually, but for that week you still vote with your team because no one really knows what's going on
4. You start voting depending on how it will affect YOU and not how it will affect your "team." You obviously vote against people who are out to get you, or you vote for someone who is unlikely to vote along with you in coming weeks.
UNLESS.
You could be the swing vote and are currently on the majority. But the majority is filled with game players who, while they have played the game well and managed to make a majority, are actually the worst human beings on the show and possibly the worst people you have ever met. In this case, YOU FREAKING GO AGAINST THEM.

Why? Because if you are the swing vote, this means you're NEXT on the chopping block when the majority finishes off the minority. If you're not going to win, you might as well help someone who you would feel better about winning go a little farther, rather than someone who is a terrible person.

From the subtext of the show, it seems like the only reason they continue voting by teams is because their trainers tell them to. Contestants have said "Bob has a rule - never vote for someone on your team." The benefit for him is that it increases his chances of someone from HIS team winning, giving him more bragging rights. But it doesn't benefit the contestant AT ALL. UGH!

I am clearly far too invested in my television shows. I kind of want to eat pie. HAHA