Would you do reality TV?

[Iokaste]

I love performing and have no problem speaking, singing, dancing, acting in front of audiences. I'm one of those freaks who love oral exams, but reality-tv? No, never, No!

My life is pretty interesting, to me! But I don't fool myself that others would see it that way. Besides I have quite a lot of friends who live in semi-spotlight as writers, politicians, actors, musicians, etc., and I seriously wouldn't want to deal with the level of self-scrutiny that seems to come with that.

A documentary is something completely different to me.

[Roycroft]

Never ever. I am quite the introvert, and having Strange People in my house following me around with a camera would be straight out of my personal idea of hell.

Besides, my life would be totally boring to people like that. Watch Roycroft read! A lot! Watch Roycroft feed the fish and pet the cats! Watch Roycroft nap! Then more reading and cat-petting! Try to contain your excitement as Roycroft has a dangerous adventure of going to the library! Roycroft and Mr. Roycroft cook dinner together and then play video games!

I'm sure the audience would be on the edge of their seats. :lol:

[chaotic life]

We have twice been screened for TV shows and twice the stickling point came down to our insistence that our children's privacy would be maintained and that we would not allow filming of private or embarrassing scenes of the children. After that, my answer is no....except, I would love to do the Amazing Race just to cross the globe on someone else's dime. It won't happen. My kids couldn't survive that long without me. Still, it would be totally fun, imo. Though, I see that type of show different than other reality shows.

[turquoise]

Absolutely not. I think just about anybody could be made to look bad if you followed them around all day with a camera and took embarrassing snippets out of context. Reality show producers seem to aim for drama, so I wouldn't trust them not to make me or my kids look foolish.

I know a family who went on a reality show and ended up feeling like they were not portrayed accurately. They said the producers staged scenes and exaggerated conflict.

[mockingbird]

Not a show like the Duggars where they follow you around. I would go crazy. I'm introverted, and very private. It's not like I have skeletons in my closet or anything but I feel like they would find out (somehow) about my health history and latch onto that and I would prefer not to have all the details of that broadcast on national TV. (Although my best friend and I have a joke about "my reality show" because my health is so weird that it probably does deserve its own show. Only if we could be in control of the show though, it would be a comedy lol.) I agree with whoever said that they are comfortable performing but that allows THEM to have control over how they present themselves. I think that's a good point. I like public speaking (even though I am introverted) but would not do reality TV.

I don't think I would like anything that tries to create drama so even something like Survivor would be out. However, one of my favorite shows is/was Untold Stories of the ER. I am in med school now. I might be willing to do something like that because usually those are more about the patient's story and my appearance would be limited to basically what I would do as a doctor anyway, explaining what is going on and stuff like that. I don't know if they are still filming Untold Stories, but I would also be willing to do a medical documentary as long as it was not like a "personal lives of doctors" type thing.

One of my friends was on a crime show as sort of a character witness for both the victim and the perpetrator. I was really surprised she did that solely because she hates gossip and is very private too (I could see her being a real character witness though). But her role on the show did not go beyond the character witness thing and wasn't about creating characters for the participants providing that type of information so I don't think it could really have any permanent effect on her professional life. I think she just did it for the experience (and also because she knew the victim and it was a really tragic crime, so I could see wanting to do something to maybe prevent something like that happening again by providing information).

[happy atheist]

No way.

I think the Amazing Race could be awesome, but I'm not fit enough to do well. Other than that, I have no interest at all.

Well, maybe House Hunters. Or if I want to be aspirational, House Hunters International.

If some producer wants to throw a little money toward me buying my dream house, I could probably live with it.

[ILoveJellybeans]

Another silly fantasy of mine is that I am part of a reality show about the paranormal :oops:

Its one of those things I could totally see myself doing.

[Hane]

No. no. no a thousand times no.

Real people are boring. The shows have to make everything look dramatic to make it interesting. All the drama and editing seems to ruin people's lives.

Exactly. Friends will often ask me if I watch certain "reality" or competition shows, and I say I don't, because they contain less reality, IMO, than shows with fictional characters do.

[cjsmom]

I wouldn't do it. At work, I struggle with how editing would play out in my resource room - a student initiating a hug because they need some deep pressure to make it through the day, for example. Working with kids aside, there's no way I'd do it. Reality TV staff look for the lowest common denominator in terms of the experience of being human, and once they've sought it out, exploit, exploit, exploit.

[lilah]

I would not want to open up my life to being filmed without having any control over what is or is not filmed and have reality show editors try to create "drama" about it. It seems very invasive and controlling. If I had kids there is no way I'd subject my children to having thier childhoods filmed without their informed consent.

My one exception is that I might consider the Amazing Race becuase I'm a fan of the show and I'd love to travel around the world and go places I've never been. And the show is filmed for a finite amount of time and then you're done. However there's still the risk I'd make an ass of myself on tv.

[chaotic life]

Knowing someone on House Hunters has completely ruined the show for me. You cannot be on it unless you are already in contract for a house and within a certain timeframe of closing. They then stage the two other houses you look at. Though, I do now play a guessing game and have realized that almost always the woman's emotional response to the houses will tell you which one they were already buying.

[Maggie Mae]

I never watched the Amazing Race until I met someone who had been on it and was surprised I didn't automatically know who they were. So I watched some, and while I think it could be fun, I wouldn't want to ruin a real life relationship so publicly. I know my limitations and what is frustrating about travel, and I can see the editing exploiting that. Other than that, it would be fun though. And some of the things that people get hung up on irritate me. Just jump already! Don't stop and think about it and freak out, just do it.

I'd go on Jeopardy though. Any day.

[Spider Burps]

Knowing someone on House Hunters has completely ruined the show for me. You cannot be on it unless you are already in contract for a house and within a certain timeframe of closing. They then stage the two other houses you look at. Though, I do now play a guessing game and have realized that almost always the woman's emotional response to the houses will tell you which one they were already buying.

My husband and I have loved playing the "which house did they already buy?" game ever since we read an article about the House Hunters staging in (IIRC) The Washington Post. We've learned that if there are tchotchkes or pets, chances are it's a friend or family member's house. :lol:

Anyway, I'd totally do a reality show. My husband and I have joked about going on Wife Swap since we were in college. They'd make me look ape shit insane because I dress like a fundie, do all of the household stuff, dropped out of college, and am a young housewife living in a career-driven area. I assume my husband would be made to look like a tyrant since I don't make him help me around the house, and I'd end up looking like a ditzy junkie who cleans out of boredom. But imagine the drama the producers could create if they showed me failing a random drug test at my pain doctor's office!!! (I'm not supposed to pass, but the viewers wouldn't know that. :dance: )

[Roycroft]

Actually, contrary to my earlier post, there is one reality show I might enjoy being involved with: SyFy's Face Off.

It's about designing and producing movie makeup, and that's all that it focuses on - no snooping into the contestants' private lives, and no contrived drama that I've seen. The contestants even sometimes help each other out when there's a difficulty, like a mold not opening properly. The only aspect of the show that I wouldn't like is the short deadlines the artists must work within; I need time to think and reflect about creative work, and I think that might mess things up for me.

Minus the time constraint, it might be quite fun! I don't think it's very typical of the reality-show genre, though.

[itaintmebabe]

No, I wouldn't. Maybe when I was younger I would have, if only just to bore people to death on purpose.

Right now we're living in the era of the realized Warholian prophecy of "everyone will be famous for 15 minutes." But I believe that famewhoring will reach its peak, and soon no one will want to be famous. Instead, anonymity and privacy will be much more desirable. Just my thoughts.

[blisterine]

I would do it, but only for the money. I would need something in the contract to guarantee me a great salary, because my life is so boring the ratings would be horrid. my only son is grown. it's just me, my husband and the dog. some episode suggestions:

hidden treasure- blisterine cleans out her purse

love comes in all colors- choosing paint samples at home depot

the idiot box- watching tv

a trip to the grocery- will they buy enough groceries to fill even half of one cart?

season finale cliff hanger: trash day- will mr. bliss get the cans to the street in time?

[AcidMolybdate]

I think I would for a short stint ... not a regular series. - I'd love to be on Big Brother or Amazing Race.

I've been on a Discovery Channel specials (not a la Duggar; the educational kind about fun cool jobs), been interviewed by local / national news outlets a couple times (again all job related) and featured in exhibits at the Ontario Science Center and Vancouver Aquarium. As a result I'm pretty easy to learn about on the google .... which leads me to this e-mail that I got about a year ago:

subject: You look Rad

E-mail: i saw a picture of you at an exhibit at the ontario science center. . . .

your picture was so random and cool that i had to check it out

and i just thought, . . . . this chic looks rad,

so i just thought i would share that with you

but you probably know already.

thanks for the inspiration

rock on. . . .

I've joked about having a reality show about my life called "AcidMolybdate + none = fun!" It involves following an early-career scientist as she works ridiculous hours then gets cray drunk on the weekends, sometimes makes out with boys at a bar, then spends Sunday evening in a bubble bath watching re-runs of Sons of Anarchy.

[OnceModestTwiceShy]

No way. I have a few things in my life that I would not want anyone digging up.

[crazyforkate]

If it was some kind of contest, sure, I don't mind if we're judging talent (one of my lifelong dreams is to be on Jeopardy, which although not strictly "reality" has much of the same principles behind it). "Randomly follow people around all day" kind of stuff? Hell no.

[Childless]

No. Absolutely not. I despise reality shows. I see people like Jon and Kate, Michelle and Jim Bob, and Honey Boo Boo's parents as exploiting their children for profit and fame. I would never do that to my child.

Now, something like the Amazing Race is different. That's not reality tv, that's a game show on steroids. I don't see it as being any different than being on The Price Is Right. Except for a few interesting tidbits, you really don't know or find out much about the contestants' lives. It's all about who can get the correct price match or who can get to the mat first. Besides, I love to travel, so I think I'd get a kick out of competing on the Amazing Race.

edited to remove misc. word

[cjsmom]

No. Absolutely not. I despise reality shows. I see people like the Jon and Kate, Michelle and Jim Bob, and Honey Boo Boo's parents as exploiting their children for profit and fame. I would never do that to my child.

I think that exploitation aside, having my son on TV would be quite boring. Watch as he plays video games with his friends, whines at having to unload a clean dishwasher, asks when I'm next planning on going to Costco, and plans the obligatory reality TV roadtrip episode in which he will ask to stop the car and take a bazillion photos every twenty minutes or so. Woah, funtimes.

[Jinderella]

HELL NO!

Being on a reality show is like these people who win these mega lottery jackpots....it always (or mostly always) ends badly for them.

Never ever will I be seen on tv. I would like the mega lottery jackpot, though!

[FeministShrew]

I doubt I'd do it, unless it paid me a hell of a lot of money. I know a guy who was on Amazing Race a few years ago. He & his buddy were only on the first episode. They were edited to look like rednack hicks, & he said he wouldn't do it again.

There's a show called Moonshiners on Discovery. Two of the guys, Josh & Bill, are local. Josh is a good-looking guy, & he's become extremely popular, but from his Facebook posts it's making his life hell. I don't think they make much from the show.

[Green Glass]

No way - not unless they paid me enough money that I could afford to buy a house and hole up in there and never go out in public again. I wouldn't be able to handle being a "celebrity" well at all; I value my privacy far too much.

ETA: Not that anyone would ever want to make a reality show of me, I'm far too boring :lol:

[Boogalou]

I was on a reality show once. In the audience. And they showed the side of my head. For about half a second. But still, I'm going to count it.

But no, I probably wouldn't do a Duggar style reality show. I really wouldn't want the attention and I don't like the way my voice sounds when it's recorded, plus all the other reasons everyone has so eloquently listed. I too would go on Jeopardy in a heart beat and I might do something like the Amazing Race or Survivor where people understand it's not real life and very few of those people have any sort of lasting fame. But otherwise, probably not.