Reality TV
Fall’s reality TV lineup provides welcome drama
By Kim Shipman
Oklahoma Daily

(U-WIRE) NORMAN, Okla. — After a summer when “Queer” was trendy and mainstream, “Big Brother” was a welcome addition to more American homes than ever and “Cupid” shot arrows of cruelty rather than true love, this fall is shaping up to be a delightfully dysfunctional season of reality television.

The fourth season of “The Bachelor” kicks off Wednesday night with a two-hour season premiere. Bob Guiney, or “Fat Bob,” as Trista Rehn allowed him to be called last year on “The Bachelorette,” is back on the small screen, minus 36 pounds and plus thousands of female admirers.

Rehn cut the pudgy, river-dancing, cut-up early on in “The Bachelorette,” only for thousands of women to mail inquiries to ABC about how they could get in touch with Guiney.

Despite a 2002 divorce, Guiney decided he was ready to move on by choosing from a buffet of beautiful women on national television. This season’s array includes a blond yoga fanatic, a brown-skinned model, a teacher from Tennessee and a raven-haired break dancer.

Reality TV addicts, beware, because Wednesday night holds what could be a major conflict of interest. The season finale of “Big Brother 4: The X Factor” airs at the same time on CBS Wednesday. Producers proved this season that more often than not in reality TV, sleazier is better. With five ex-boyfriends and girlfriends thrown into the mix and the first-ever “Big Brother” sexual encounter, this season has the best ratings of any other installment.

Find two VCRs, or better yet, call up Dave Letterman and have him TiVo it for you.
Last week brought the two-hour season premiere “Survivor: Pearl Island,” the sixth installment of the reality show that some say started it all.

The first episode featured what could be the key to “Survivor” success: Male nudity. Disgusting as it was to see Richard Hatch bare his flab and chest hair, that season was the best so far.

Equally disgusting was the this season’s Osten’s blatant chauvinism and blasé attitude about his boxers drooping to show his crack. He and the other two male contestants who pulled off their boxers for the immunity challenge all admittedly had nice bodies, but this nudity served no purpose, except to foreshadow that this season could be the best since the first.

Jeff Probst and Mark Burnett knew they were on a swiftly sinking ship, so they upped the ante this season by not allowing the contestants to bring along any clothing, and by riding the coattails of this summer’s “Pirates of the Caribbean” and introducing a pirate theme.

Melodramatic and cheesy as it all is, this fall’s reality television looks to be a great opportunity to put off mounds of essays, heaps of laundry and mountains of real-life drama.