Monday, June 15, 2009

"Cringe TV"

I promise--I AM going to meet Mary's challenge to post about candy. But I came across this article on NPR and I think it is spot on. It has to do with the sensational popularity of what the author calls "cringe tv"--the kind of stuff that makes you cringe when you watch it. The most visible example of this genre, currently, is TLC's "Jon & Kate Plus 8," whose audience expanded exponentially when the title couple began experiencing very public marital problems.

The article is definietely worth commenting on or even posting on.

Ladies?

2 comments:

alphawoman said...

I read the article and was surprised that they stated that Survivor was a big hit in 2002...it was 2000. How do I know that? Because I love Survivor! I remember the first "reality" show that we would stand around the proverbial water fountain was "Cops..." Bad boys bad boys....we loved it! That would have been mid '80's I think. And then I agree with the Rael World on MTV, but it may have been afterwards. Don't remember, I stopped watching MTV in the late '80's when the format began to swing away from video's. My most guilty pleasure of cringe TV is Dr. Drew's celebrity re-hab which my daughter got me hooked on. I can't explain it, my husband thinks reality TV is the pits, but I love it. I find it is the only tv I watch besides the Foodnetwork, cash cab and NCIS...lol!

Kathy said...

Honestly Lisa? I *hate* reality TV. When did reality become the choice for entertainment ... when I sit down to watch TV or movies, I choose shows that 'take me away' from the daily strife and stress.

(let's leave education programming out of this for now -- that's its own category)

The reality/cringe TV show I do watch? 'Dancing With ...' Why? 'Cause it's fun, gossip free (for the most part) and I can actually dream that one day I may dance that way. NOT! lol

I too swung away from MTV when it no longer offered music videos that weren't trashy ... and MTV moved on to trash TV.

In my humble opinion, cringe is maybe too nice a word for what is presented to us, and to the younger generations.

Moral fiber? It's going, going ... nearly gone ...

And I didn't even read the NPR post. lol