As We Are Awaiting....
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TV ClubHouse: ARCHIVES: Big Brother USA 2003 General Discussions Part 1: As We Are Awaiting....

What555456

Monday, August 11, 2003 - 09:32 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
As we are awaiting the next exciting moment on BB4 (I figure we get one every 10 days or so), perhaps you might all enjoy this.....

Reality TV Participant-To-Viewer Ratio Nearly Even

If the link does not work, here's the URL:

http://www.recoilmag.com/news/reality_tv_ratio_0603.html

Spunky

Monday, August 11, 2003 - 09:38 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Amazing that picture of the family watching tv seems more of the 50's than nowadays. I don't remember when was the last time someone else watched tv with me. With 3 tvs in the house and 3 computers I find myself always alone watching tv... I yell, come and watch... and they replied, "no thanks, I'm watching something else, or I'm on a chat...", tv viewing as a family? count yourself lucky if you still do.

Wendo

Monday, August 11, 2003 - 11:48 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
From the article: "That nearly every third person you meet has been on one of these shows just goes to show you that it's truly a small world," said Kohut. "And that small world is filled with people who have no respect for themselves."


Ouch.

Beruthiel

Tuesday, August 12, 2003 - 03:02 am EditMoveDeleteIP
We've got five TV's and three computers, and rarely watch things at the same time. I watch HGTV, BBC Canada, etc., and my husband watches Rugby and Golf. My youngest son lives in front of his computer when he's not at work, and is an online anime fan, so we only see him when he's hungry. We also have five VCRs, and I watch almost everything on tape after the fact, because of schedules.
Are we 'normal'?
Scary, isn't it!
Thanks for the link!

Philamom

Tuesday, August 12, 2003 - 03:59 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Ummm .... I'm having a little problem with the numbers in that article. It says that over 16 million people have participated in reality TV shows. Doesn't that number strike anyone else as extraordinarily high (and ridiculous)? Let's see ... reality shows have been around for about 5 years; if there were 100 reality shows on TV per year (which there haven't been, but I'm estimating high), that would mean that each show would have had 32,000 contestants on it. LOL, I don't think so.

Seamonkey

Tuesday, August 12, 2003 - 04:06 am EditMoveDeleteIP
MTV's been doing reality shows for over a decade,

Philamom

Tuesday, August 12, 2003 - 04:10 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Oh, I didn't realize MTV had been doing it for so long (time flies, LOL) ... even so, the numbers don't add up. I guess I was trying to say you shouldn't believe everything you read.

Seamonkey

Tuesday, August 12, 2003 - 04:12 am EditMoveDeleteIP
The numbers seem off, except the one about the overlapping of people who go on these shows. Like both Robert and Erika know Cindy who was on TAR4 recently. Justin knows some guy who was on Temptation Island. Erika's been to finals for two seasons of TAR and won $20,000 on some other show. Dana tried out for every season of BB.

(maybe they are counting cattle calls, like for AI)

Darkmutton

Tuesday, August 12, 2003 - 04:26 am EditMoveDeleteIP
These numbers have me scratching my head. Maybe they are counting everyone who ever went on a game show since the dawn of TV. Shows like Let's Make a Deal or The Price is Right pick from the studio audience, so is everyone a contestant...? What about talk shows that pull people out of the audience for a goofy game? Is that reality TV?

Missy2

Tuesday, August 12, 2003 - 04:31 am EditMoveDeleteIP
I think they are probably including talk shows, game shows, shows like trading spaces, etc. The numbers seem off but if you think of all those cable shows with life unscripted it might be a possibility!

Philamom

Tuesday, August 12, 2003 - 04:35 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Good questions, Dark. I'm not sure what types of shows they're counting. Personally, I don't consider talk shows like Springer or game shows like "Let's Make a Deal" to be reality shows. But possibly that's what they included in their count. Even so, the numbers still seem high to me. 16 million is a heck of a lot of people.

Bohawkins

Tuesday, August 12, 2003 - 04:47 am EditMoveDeleteIP
I hope that it was meant to be "tongue in cheek." If not, then it is totally a bogus article presented as fact. I would like to believe that the author just assumed he was making a funny statement, then he kept repeating his punch line the way an amateur "would be" comedian often does.

It could be that they were trying include everyone who ever applied to all reality shows. I read that for American idol (not truely a reality show) 10,000 people auditioned for the first season and producers say five times as many tried out (50,000) for the second. I don't think that any true reality type show has had nearly the number of applicants as American Idol.

The numbers may be in the low millions for all shows if you include anyone who has applied or thought seriously about applying, but surely even that would be less than 16 million.

Beruthiel

Tuesday, August 12, 2003 - 05:07 am EditMoveDeleteIP
I took it as a satirical article myself, not truth, because the numbers don't add up, IMHO.

Sasman

Tuesday, August 12, 2003 - 05:48 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Are you people serious, this site is as real as Mad magazine lol.

Try this article of theirs.
http://www.recoilmag.com/news/apes_raise_alert_0803.html

Philamom

Tuesday, August 12, 2003 - 06:17 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Ahhhh ... of course, you're all correct about the article being satirical. I "see" it now (well, after it was pointed out to me, LOL). I was reading it as a fact-based article. In the future, please warn me first ... like "satire is coming" or something. I can be a little dense at times.

Dogdoc

Tuesday, August 12, 2003 - 06:27 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Thanks Sasman.I loved the ape article. Those apes are right on top of things. I haven't thought about Mad magazine in years. This was a nice break from house guest analysis.

Dogdoc

Tuesday, August 12, 2003 - 06:42 am EditMoveDeleteIP
I just clicked on the article on reality shows you are all talking about and chuckled the whole way through it. Of course I could compare it to the ape article since I read the ape one first.It is actually very clever when read as satire. Being gullible too Philamom, I need to be warned about such things.