Mocking The Clickbait 15: Our Beliefs Clash.

Moms We Can't Believe Were Allowed on 'Toddlers and Tiaras.'

I can't believe you watched Toddlers and Tiaras.

How They Got There.

One of the TV broadcasts on my current slate is Masterchef Canada.  While trying to find out who won last night's episode(CTV started airing Quantico early and cut off the end) I came across the application requirements for the currently running season.  Talk about a lot of work, and you might not even get close to being on the show.  I assume other reality competition shows have similar requirements.  After all the last thing you want is your winner to turn out to be a career criminal who ends up in jail, or learn that they're a wringer with an unfair advantage over other contestants.  The process is probably also intended to discourage people from applying on a whim, and causing the producers trouble when they decide they really don't want to take part.  It would be interesting to know how many entries they get, and how many of them are rejected without ever getting near being seen on TV.

I'll Take Some Other Route.

I watched most of an episode of Railroad Alaska Tuesday night on the Canadian Discovery Channel.  I don't think I'll bother with another.  It's another reality show where it seems a little too staged for its own good.  No, the cast aren't professional actors, but a lot of what's onscreen is pretty obviously hyped up to things seem more dramatic than they really are. 

Heed The Warning.

"Don't try this at home," and its variations, may seem cliche.  But you should take such warnings very seriously.  Back in October Saskatoon resident Dylan Ernest Gibson, and his friend Aaron Stonehouse, were injured when the pipe bomb Gibson had made blew up.  Gibson, a young machinist, lost his left hand.  And he may be facing jail time after pleading guilty Thursday to a charge of breaching his legal duty of care towards explosives.

But Gibson wasn't a wannabe bomber.  Rather he apparently was inspired by watching Mythbusters, to see if he could make a working pipe bomb..  Unlike the Mythbuster crew, who have extensive experience working with explosives, and use them in extremely controlled conditions, Gibson built the device in his parent's garage.  It blew up when he tried to drill a hole into it to gain access to the contents, reportedly after forgetting to install a fuse.  Now, because he was foolish, Gibson is minus a hand, which probably will hamper his career as a machinist, and he will probably have a criminal record and face jail time.

So remember, when you're told not to try something at home, don't try it at home, no matter how smart you think you are.

My Latest TV Show Concept.

If you're a producer looking for your next reality show concept, get in touch with me after you read this.  It's got hit written all over it.

The title says it all:  Mayor Rescue.  North America is full of crappy mayors, as can be seen via the Rob Ford mess, and Mayor Rescue will help fix them.  Each week our retired highly successful mayor and his team of experts will visit mayors in need of help, teaching them how to go from failure to fabulous. 

Doesn't that just scream hit?  Just look at all the press Rob Ford is getting.  So get in touch, now.  And don't steal my idea, or I'll be really unhappy.

See Ya's!

Last night I caught bits and pieces of A&E's new series Southie Rules, a reality show revolving around several generations of a family living together in a house in South Boston. This seems to be a good example of something I've stated before, that you can become a reality show participant solely on the basis of having an "interesting" accent.  I doubt I'll be watching again, as accents don't make up for the show being not particularly interesting.  Like Duck Dynasty it all seems a little bit too staged for its own good, and the antics of the cast are mostly  just dumb in a largely uninteresting way.  I found TLC's Starter Wives, which also debuted last night, a bit more interesting, although it's obviously TLC's attempt to do an African-American version of the Real Housewives franchise.  I wouldn't be surprised however if both these shows get 6 episodes and are done.  We recently saw TLC's Sin City Rules, a show that included poker pro Jennifer Harman amongst its cast, cancelled after only 3 episodes due to poor ratings, and something tells me these won't do much better..

An Obvious Crossover.

Last night saw the debut of a new TLC "lets look at them wacky folks" show, Extreme Cheapskates.  Frankly their behaviour strikes me as more mental problem than extreme frugality, given that they do things like wash their clothes in the shower while taking a shower.  Or only flushing the toilet once a week.  Yeah, I don't think I'll visit them anytime soon.  But watching did make me think of an obvious crossover.  Have the cheapskates go along on the cleanups on Hoarding: Buried Alive.  In some of the less horrid hoarding situations they might find things they could use, and the hoarders might be more willing to throw things out if they go immediately to someone who wants them.

Flip The Flip Programs.

A thought for TLC and A&E:  Retire your old house flipping programs.  Flip This House and Property Ladder both date from before the big real estate collapse in the US.  Flipping a house is a different and much more iffy proposition in 2012 than it was in 2007.  So some of the stuff in those shows is kind of out of date.  At the very least anyone who is interest4ed in them has probably seen them all multiple times.  But I suppose that they must still get the right ratings or you wouldn't play them.

Missing A Selection.

A new TV channel has hit the cable scene in Canada.  It's Global Reality Television, a channel devoted to showing reality TV programming.  But looking at the programming offered I see one home grown example is missing.  It's the Total Drama Island franchise.  Teletoon probably holds the exclusive Canadian rights at the moment, but it would interesting to know if the channel would carry a cartoon spoof of reality shows.  Whether this channel will last long enough for them to consider adding TDI is another question.

Anything For That 15 Minutes.

It's amazing the crap people will do just to get on TV for a bit. Ashton Kutcher has just helped launch another "reality" series, The Real Wedding Crashers. In it Kutcher and his crew show up at weddings and engage in all sorts of crazy antics. This is with the knowing particpation of the bride and groom. Obviously it would have to be or Kutcher and company would get their butts sued off from here to eternity. But the obvious question is why anyone would want what most people consider one of the most important days of their lives to involve a fake police chase through the wedding site or someone leaping onto the wedding cake. To get on TV is the obvious answer.

One of the decisions made by the wedding couple in all this is whether the pranks are directed at specific persons in the wedding party, which strikes me as a recipe for future marital disaster. After all people have trouble with their inlaws over what to outsiders are trivial things. Imagine the potential for strife when it comes out that you and your new spouse asked the show crew to pick on Uncle Frank or whoever. Someone is not going to end up happy in the long run as a result of all of this, and will live to regret letting their desire to be "famous" overrule their common sense.