Texas Under Represented on Reality Shows

Only a few days left in the month and the likely cancellation of my subscription to Fort Worth's #1 newspaper. I don't know what I'll do without it, it's like a gift that keeps on giving.

Today, in the first paragraph of an article titled "Area stylists on 'Shear Genius' cut to the chase for us" the Star-Telegram's TV writer, Robert Philpot, had this to say about a Bravo Reality Show about hairdressers, called Shear Genius.

"Reality TV's love affair with North Texas gets truly snippy tonight as Dallas area hairstylists Daniel Lewis and Matthew Tully are among the contestants on season two of Shear Genius, Bravo's haircutting competition."

Now, I'm thinking the above is just yet one more example of how the Star-Telegram repeats nonsense without questioning its premise. Like how over and over again the Star-Telegram trumpeted that a sporting goods store, being built in Fort Worth, would be the biggest tourist attraction in Texas. Or when the Star-Telegram over and over and over again trumpeted a lame little food court called the Sante Fe Market as being the first public market in Texas and being modeled after Seattle's Pike Place Market.

So, let's look at the Star-Telegram's bizarre premise that Reality TV has a love affair with Texas. First off there are almost 30 million Texans. There are about 300 million Americans. So, Texas makes up about 10% of America's population.

So, all things being proportional, Texans should make up about 10% of the people on Reality Shows.

Do Texans make up 10% of the people on Reality Shows? I don't think so. Anymore than Cabela's is the top tourist attraction in Texas or the now closed Sante Fe Rail Market ever in the slightest resembled either a public market or Pike Place Market.

I would say Texas is being under-represented. Maybe that's why the Star-Telegram makes such a big whoop-de-doo whenever anyone on any show has any remote connection to Fort Worth, North Texas or Texas.

On the main TV page Philpot repeats his obsession, again, in a blurb about Shear Genius, saying "North Texas is represented by Frisco's Daniel Lewis and Dallas' Matthew Tully." In case we missed it the first time we got this important information.

And then in another blurb, this one about Farmer Wants a Wife, we learn that "Texas Christian University grad Brooke Ward has made it to the final two...."

Like I mentioned yesterday, in response to an emailer who suggested this was indicative of a small town mentality. Yes, it is. You New Yorkers ever read this type verbiage in the Times? Seattleites? Ever see this type stuff in the P-I? Los Angelenos, ever see it in the LA Times? Chicagoites, ever in the Tribune? San Fransicsans, ever in the Chronicle? Portlanders, ever in the Oregonian? Anyone, anywhere?

Oh yeah, I can see the LA Times having a lead paragraph read "Reality TV's love affair with Southern California gets truly snippy tonight...."

Keeping Up with the Kardashians

I really need to stop watching TV while I eat lunch. While Bret Michaels and the Rock of Love Skanks seems to have disappeared, for now, of late I run into two other equally shallow reality shows during lunch.

One is on Bravo where these extremely shallow, embarrassingly desperate New York City housewives make total asses of themselves by putting their pathetically self-absorbed weird lives on display for the amusement of tv viewers.

An even more shallow and embarrassing reality show is on the E! cable network. It's called "Keeping Up with the Kardashians". Olympic Gold winner, Bruce Jenner's third wife is the ex-wife of OJ lawyer, Robert Kardashian, now deceased. Bruce has had several kids with his various wives. Bruce's current wife had several kids with her ex and a couple kids with Bruce.

As near as I can tell all the kids are on the "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" reality show. Bruce seems addicted to being on reality shows. He's been on "The Weakest Link", "The Apprentice", "Skating with Celebrities" and one I actually watched called "I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!"

It was on the "I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!" reality show that I learned that Bruce has some rather odd personality quirks. I'll just mention one. He repeats himself. Tells the same story over and over again. Like every other day he'd tell his castmates how he got a gold Mustang after he won the gold medal in the 1976 Montreal Olympics.

I don't really understand the premise of the "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" reality show. I don't think I'm alone in that regard. The New York Times said this, "The Kardashian show is not about an eccentric family living conventionally; it is purely about some desperate women climbing to the margins of fame, and that feels a lot creepier."

That is so true. It is very creepy. These people don't seem to do anything constructive. One of the Kardashian girls starred in an infamous sex tape. That provided much fodder for the show. As did, I think it was the same girl, posing for Playboy. This vexed Bruce very much. But the mother, Kris, was quite proud of her daughter baring all, reminding Bruce that he was in Playgirl. "But I kept my clothes on." was Bruce's reply.

One episode revolved around the Kardashian girls going to Vegas with Kourtney Kardashian worried she might be pregnant. I don't think she's the one who did the sex tape or posed in Playboy. Kourtney was in another reality show called "Filthy Rich: Cattle Drive". I don't know if she got pregnant on that show too. The entire Kardashian clan seems addicted to being on reality shows. Even Bruce's sons from one of his prior marriages had their own reality show, that being sons Brandon and Brody on "The Princes of Malibu".

Entertainment Weekly is also vexed about this reality show, saying "Why, oh, why would Ryan Seacrest put his self-tanned stamp of approval on a reality show about tabloid mainstay Kim Kardashian, whose sex-tape scandal and partying appear to be her only real achievement in life?"

I think that's what appalls me about this show. These are not quality people. They are not anyone anyone would want to keep up with, either in the keeping up with the Jones' sense or in the keeping up with what they are doing sense.

And then there is the bad plastic surgery that Bruce has had done to his face. Combined, with his way out of style mop of dyed hair, he looks very girly. And his wife is sort of manly. Together they look like a middle-aged lesbian couple.

All the Kardashian girls, including the mother, would fit right in on Bret Michael's Rock of Love reality show. Actually Bruce would make a better looking girl than some of those on the latest Rock of Love. But, it could be that the Kardashian women would be too skanky, even for Bret Michaels.