h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'd be intrested to read about how much of other countries TV schedules are taken up by 'reality' TV, gardening programs, DIY shows, series about cleaning your houses, moving house, selling your house, and so on.

I believe that cheap TV imports in the UK have driven down prices our TV companies are prepared to pay for shows and so we're bombarded with these terribly tacky fillers that are made on shoe string budgets.

It is the same the world over, or just a UK phenomenon?

Not only do we have them here in Canada, but a lot of them are either UK exports or North Americanized versions of the same.

We get such a load of American tripe on TV in Canada. Most isn't worth watching, although there are some exceptions. But like I keep trying to tell the rest of my family, the stations have to please all of the people some of the time.

Favourites at our house currently: Canadian productions - Corner Gas, Rick Mercer's Monday Report, This Hour Has 22 Minutes, and Davinci's Inquest. British - Coronation Street. American - CSI, Sue Thomas FBI. We don't watch a lot of TV. Besides these, we may watch the odd movie or CBC special, and we try to catch the news. All of us would rather play on the computer or read a book.

Hello all; new to the guide, but thought I'd throw my two cents in...

I like in the U.S., and the current trend of reality shows is amazing in it's scope.

At first, after the success of "Survivor", the rage was competetive-type shows, but now, I literally cannot turn on the television without seeing another "makeover" type program. Wether it's a house, a straight guy, or a car; if you can improve it, they can make a cheap show about it.

Being in the broadcast industry myself, I see the appeal of these shows for producers & distributors...they're cheap. As a viewer, I'm so sick of it I could scream. I shudder to think of how all the out-of-work actors & writers must feel, too; after all, who needs scripts when you have 10,000 hours of footage & an editor?

Television is not a medium that one should look to readily for art, but I want even my mindless entertainment to at least entertain me, and some guy building a bike out of a vacuum or twelve midgets competing to date a female contortionist just doesn't float my boat. So sorry to hear you guys have the same problem in the U.K.; I'd like to think that you're ahead of us in the collective acceptance of crap as entertainment department. My two cents...

Well I can tell you that here in America half out prime-time is devoted to those terrible reality shows. But that's only about 2 hours a day albeit the 2 of the most important hours of the television day. The time I dread is when these reality shows saturate, and they begin to appear as reruns. It will be everywhere in a few years. I envision whole channels devoted to reality TV. God help us.

Actually, I should be quite interested to see how a bike could be built out of a vacuum. (Something to do with quantum fluctuations, presumably.)

At least if entire channels were devoted to reality T.V. we could simply not watch those channels. Under a pay-per-view or similar system we could also be able not to end up funding them as licence payers presently do the B.B.C.'s creations.

This is a good point that I, as an American, did not think of while addressing the subject.

You good folk have to PAY for your shows, and I would be mighty upset if the BBC kept churning out cheap reality shows rather than good original programming on my dollar (pound, whatever - insert nomenclature here).

Question; I know there is a TV license fee in the UK, but that's about all I know on the subject. Say if, one had a television, but never watched any BBC (or any other publically funded) programming; would one still have to pay the license fee? I'm sure it's small enough to be a moot point, but I'm just curious as to how it works.

Yes, because your television would be _capable_ of receiving BBC1 and BBC2; and proving that you never watched them would be, to say the least, rather impractical.

Irksomely, the fact that an ordinary terrestrial television without a set-top box can't receive digital signals hasn't stopped the B.B.C.'s using money from the licence fee to create the digital channels BBC3 (not widely acclaimed, to say the least) and BBC4 (which reputedly shows some good programmes; never having seen it, I really couldn't say).

In theory, this keeps the B.B.C. able to operate as a public service broadcaster serving the public good. However, the ideals of corporate enterprise are so deeply ingrained in the corridors of power that the Corporation instinctively tries to compete with the other channels anyway.

Actually, I almost never see reality TV. Maybe it's just the channels you watch. In my case that tends to be Fox, KidsWB, TNN, FX, Sci-Fi (if I still got it ), Disney, ABC Family, Cartoon Network, and a few others at very specific times. Well anyway...

>Capable of receiving BBC<
I was in a position where I was going to use a TV just for watching/showing videos. We contacted the licensing authorities and they told us that if no aerial (antenna) was attached we wouldn't need a licence.

we get them all the time in Ausralia you can't change a chanel here without finding another reality show we get the american ones alot (after all thats were they mainly come from) we get some of the uk ones (we just saw the one about your worst driver) but mainly we have a lot of the ones from here like.... the block, Australian idol, what not to wear Australia, the hot house, the resort, and the list gos on and on and on......................

The problem is that no one can think up original ideas anymore for the most part. Nor can they treat traditional themes with creativity. Entertainment, for the most part, is swiftly heading downhill. There is seriously something wrong when someone turns on the television to escape from their humdrum life, only to escape *into* petty people's lives on reality television. I live in America and don't really bother watching television anymore. I used to watch it on Saturday nights, but they took Red Dward off. I don't even watch television and even *I'm* sick of reality T.V.. I don't know what it's like in England, but here we have hundreds of channels of worthless junk.

Red Dwarf is still on. PBS at 10:30 p.m. (on Saturday). Red Green just before that, My Hero immediately after it, and Dr. Who after My Hero.

I don't have a TV but I know what I like...and I hate reality tv. I have never been able to watch one all the way through. I just find them boring for the most part.

There are two exceptions to this I have to admit.

1. One is the one where they sent people to live like people in the Bronze age. I watched that once when I had a TV I think. It may even have been only one episode. I loved that.

2. Much more embarrasing - a dating show called xtreme dating. Two ex-boy or girl friends eavesdrop on the a date their ex is having with a 4th person. They make comments on the date into an earphone which the 4th person is wearing. They can trash the ex or tell the 4th person to ask the ex embarrassing questions.Hey, its not like I watch this all the time! Don't laugh. The woman who hosts the show is a smart@ss. She would shove you, Redstar, and yell "shut up" but her implants might get in the way.

I might bring it to the reader's attention that many of our reality shows are based on shows that have been popular elsewhere. They are cheaper to produce than programming that requires writers and actors etc. This way the just have to pay for licensing which is cheaper than developing their own programming.

'Much more embarrassing'

Quite.

Hey, I said "don't laugh" and if you're not actually laughing don't scoff!

Oh, far be it from me to scoff at anyone else's tastes. I was merely agreeing with your observation that such viewing was of the sort likely to embarrass the viewer.

The word 'quite' has many connotations, admittedly.

Here in Australia so-called reality TV has taken over. We get American reality TV, Australian reality TV, and Australian versions of originally American programs.

I find it all mind-bogglingly dull and pointless.

I loved the first UK Big Brother, the people were quite entertaining because I think they weren't so aware of the outside world watching them, they were creative and musical and there was the intrigue and bitchiness, I found it quite addictive. And I must confess I've watched every Big Brother since, in the hope that it'll suddenly become like the first one, only of course it won't as the contestants are much too aware of themselves and the viewers.

BB has become nothing more than an interview for a TV presenting job. You just can't recapture the innocence of the first one.

As for other reality TV shows, I can't really comment as I don't watch them.

Deborah

To Mike D'Anna:
As an out of work actor in t he UK, I agree with you about the quantity of reality TV on our televisions generally bringing down the quality of programming. If producers are turning to 'reality' tv because it is cheap, then it shows that they are no longer making programmes for the viewers, they are simply creating programmes to fill schedules.

In my opinion, these programmes are cheapening the industry and encouraging the proliferation of the cult of celebrity. Surely to be a celebrity you should be celebrated? What do these new celebrities actually do so well except for getting their names in the press? Furthermore, what does this say about popular culture in that we are prepared to accept these people?
It sickens me.