Just a few years ago, if you switched on your TV during primetime the last thing you'd expect to see would be two wives swapping their husbands and homes to test their 'values' in an extreme experiment. Back in the last millennium, you'd also all be hard-pressed to find a show where a panel of real multi-millionaires rip apart budding entrepreneurs who are desperate for their support. But today it seems our appetite for reality TV knows no bounds.

Want to discover the next pop sensation? You got it. Transform working-class girls into high-society ladies? Well, almost. So, what we're asking this week is: why has reality TV become so popular?

• Is it a part of a national obsession with celebrity culture and a desire to emulate the stars?

• Do we now desire ever greater realism from our TV schedule?

• Are programme makers simply running out of ideas?

• Does it feed a need to witness other people's lives because ours are so empty?

• Is reality TV the inevitable result of a growing surveillance society?

• Maybe there are a lot of these shows because they're relatively cheap to produce at a time of falling broadcaster revenues?

• Or have we simply lost interest in other TV genres?