• Twitter
  • Facebook
News-Sentinel.com Your Town. Your Voice.
Opening Arguments

Reality bites, then hurls

This story asks the question "Has Reality TV Hit Rock Bottom?" and the answer is obvious:

Maybe you thought reality TV hit the lowest of the low when "Fear Factor" contestants devoured cockroaches, or when gold diggers paraded their wares in hopes of marrying a millionaire, or when Tila Tequila got a second shot at "love" with 10 guys and 10 girls.

Those shows look like "Masterpiece Theater" compared to what's coming.

Take, for instance, "Hurl," an eating-and-regurgitating competition in which contestants gorge themselves on everything from chicken pot pies to peanut butter sandwiches, then get strapped into spinning contraptions -- whoever vomits last wins.

I wrote a long time ago, it seems now, that it became impossible to parody TV when it embraced self-parody with a made-for-television movie called "The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island." That was, I now understand, the Golden Age.

The linked story is from ABC News. "Rock bottom" will be when "Good Morning America" or "Today" has the winner of "Hurl" -- or the most recent contestant disqualified -- as a guest the morning after. Don't bet against me on this one.

Posted in: Television

Comments

Bob G.
Fri, 06/20/2008 - 10:37am

Hell, I wouldn't bet against 'ya on that one...but I (as well as Vegas) would like to know what odds you plan on giving...LOL!
(I'm thinking 8:5)

;)

B.G.

Charles Langley
Fri, 06/20/2008 - 12:41pm

The movie Idiocracy now seems strangely prophetical!
CML

Harl Delos
Fri, 06/20/2008 - 2:48pm

Mom, who died about 15 years ago, said the networks were missing a great bet.

She hated "Live - With Regis and Kathy Lee". She thought if they changed it to "Dead - Regis and Kathy Lee", the ratings would surely double.

Quantcast