So I'll be the first to admit, I watch a fair amount of reality TV, and I've
been doing so for years. Initially I filed my slight obsession under the
character-study category. I'm a writer, so by watching real people live their
lives on TV, I was doing research. That was way before I realized how scripted
reality TV was, also before all of the fighting started breaking out. Why some
reality shows insist on showing that behavior among adults just baffles me. I'm
sure the women on these shows who get sucked into behaving that way regret their
actions later...more sooner than later. Now I've cut back on the number of
reality shows I watch, but I haven't given up on all of them: Welcome to
Sweetie Pies, Braxton Family Values, and Real Housewives of Atlanta
are three shows I still tune into.
My latest novel THE ONE
features a reality show in the backdrop—a show more on the lines of The
Bachelorette, only different. It's a new show, and the premise is to take
one woman around the world to explore ten romantic destinations and meet ten
eligible bachelors. By the end of the season, she's supposed to pick one of
them, hence The Bachelorette similarity. However, the story mostly deals
with the relationship between the show's bachelorette Olena Day and Jason Nix, a
former NFL player recovering from prostate cancer. Olena despises reality TV,
because she feels women are portrayed negatively on most reality shows. But she
compromises her beliefs in hopes of securing a book deal. Honestly, the whole
idea of adding a reality show to the backdrop of my novel stemmed from the fact
that my sister refused to watch an episode of The Real Housewives of
Atlanta. She hates reality TV that much. So I thought about my character
Olena, and I tried to figure out what would make her go on a reality show.
Olena's a fickle woman, and she's also materialistic. I don't want her to appear
as if she has no redeeming qualities because she has such a kind heart, and I
really like her. But I knew, under the right circumstances, despite her
misgivings about the genre, she'd do it—if the right carrot was dangled.
Now, I'd love to hear your thoughts on women on reality TV. Please complete the
survey in the link below for a chance to win a $50 Amazon gift card.
http://cherylrobinson.com/women-on-reality-tv-survey/
The networks have lost ideas and are just going along with anything they can come up with to sell programming on tv. I think that's sad. I think back at shows that were out a few years ago for the kids - shows like "American Bandstand" that were more tame, yet gave them something to look forward to and gave them good role models. Today, most of what I see I would categorize as "trash tv." I can't believe that anyone would even want to participate in such shows, although I'm sure that they're hard up for money. It's a shame our Country is going downhill the way it is, and our kids aren't being shown any values.
(Peggy Roberson 2:20pm February 15, 2012)
I think it's tough to have all that reality hyped up when most women just want to understand what's going on in their own life better.
(Alyson Widen 5:39pm February 15, 2012)
I watched a couple of shows of reality TV and it didn't do it for me. I don't watch TV much anyway, I love to read and I find that the spare time I do have I would rather be reading a good book than watching TV. With that said..please keep writing these Fantastic books for me. Thanks.
(Margie Gagarin 3:30pm February 18, 2012)
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