You've hit upon one of the main reasons I've drifted away from regular television. Not only am I sick of commercials, but I'm sick of seeing the same old drama wrapped up in a different color pretending to be something new.

So I tend to pick stuff and get it where I don't have to tolerate the stupid commercials or I can just drop it if it turns out to be a waste of time.

I can see why you'd include game shows. I'm old enough to remember when stuff like the price is right or family feud weren't all over the place. So they made a fun addition to the programming instead of being an overkill.

As for drama... unless it's well done, it ticks me off. >_> Which is why a lot of remakes, like the one for battlestar Galatica, are things I absoutely cannot stand to watch. Those things are nothing but silly soap operas with decent special effects. <_<

An additional gripe I have with reality programming is that it's not necessarily reality programming at all. In most of the cases—game shows, for instance, or such monstrosities as The Amazing Race or Survivor or Big Brother franchises—the participants are encouraged to play to the camera, and so they say things they normally wouldn't say in the first place.

And, like Big Brother, any show where the participants are chosen randomly and plunked in a small living arena (sic) for a long period of time, it's not uncommon for alcohol to be exerting its influence in the background, if not directly up front, and that alone will assist very untoward situations that the participants might not ever have thought themselves capable of doing. (Note I didn't say alcohol caused it. It merely assists.)

Shows like Trading Spaces and Junkyard Wars were fun because while there was some drummed up drama going on, you could look over or around or somehow past that stuff and see the really innovative stuff that was happening, and which was really the point of the show. And even Orange County Choppers was fun; you got to see wicked motorcycles get hand-built from scratch, even if you had to put up with the Pauls blasting off each others' heads for the ninth time that episode.

And then you have shows like The Real World, which is quite literally nothing but college angst on steroids.

And then you have Swamp Loggers. And I dunno what the frick inspired that one.

@Kei:

With that criteria, you might as well count The Price Is Right.

@Ace:

God help us all.

@Miss Anonymous:

Yes, I listed Jeopardy! as a reality show. lol

Very loose interpretation, but it's got real people answering trivia questions and some of the contestants on there have done some pretty funny stuff trying to buzz in first, so I'm counting it. =p

Also, yes, this may end up being a series. Yay.

So is this going to be a series? Very interesting.

Now, I don't watch much television lately, but I used to all the time before I got a laptop, and I remember watching some pretty crapass reality shows.
I have no problem with reality TV on a very basic level, because there are some very interesting shows out there that are actually about reality. But that is the issue I take with the majority of so-called reality TV: it's a contrived situation. They isolate people into this bubble so they can create as much drama as possible. Which makes sense, in a way, since drama will probably ensure you get a good viewership. However, I can't stand that crap. It's not reflective of true reality, if I'm going to be extremely literal in the sense of that word. The people involved are real, but the situation and emotions are heightened to a disturbing level.

Screw all those stupid shows. Give me True Life any day of the week.

(Also, did you list Jeopardy as a reality show? Unless there's some other Jeopardy out there that I'm unaware of, then...)

On a related note, there's a movie in the chute based on Facebook.

No, seriously.