A rare thing happened yesterday while flipping through channels in the middle of the afternoon, VH1 was playing music videos. To me, it was a shock, rarely during prime time television do MTV or VH1 play music videos anymore, the vast majority of their shows are reality based or at least consumer based.

The Real World was one of the reality based television shows that did nothing more then make us all peeping toms. It was hours and hours of video footage of people living their lives, not reading scripted dialog. That was 15 years ago, I was 12, and the show captivated me. Little did I know that over the next decade and a half, nearly ever cable channel would develop shows based around real peoples lives.

Conceptually, this makes a lot of sense for broadcasters. The “cast” is not paid, there is no need to pay for caterers, writers, and a lot of other jobs associated with a normal television show and sponsors like to get in on the action. Most of the reality based shows on the major networks are based around a contest, the prize and often times money on top of that for ad spots during commercial breaks or product placement during the show is paid for by any number of companies, leaving more money in the pockets of the producers and executives who make the shows happen. Why bother paying high priced actors who are going into rehab in record numbers and may not show up for filming when you can get normal people in front of the camera for free, have major companies pay for ad spots and get a devoted audience. The biggest reality based show in the US right now is American Idol, which routinely has more participation in their user based voting then most local and state elections.

Reality shows are now taking a turn. MTV rolled out a few shows over the last year (The Hills, Laguna Beach, etc.) or so that look like scripted television shows, however they are indeed all reality based. The placement of cameras makes it look as if the producers know ahead of time what someone is going to say, where they will be or where they are going, so many of the shots are less jittery from a cameraman actually walking with a camera, and the quality seems higher. These types of shows are often confused with scripted shows, which may be done in part to trick consumers, and to help sell more ad spots.

Hundreds of websites have rolled out to open up forums and discussions on all these shows, RealityWorld.com is one of the largest and covers all of them. For a while, the off-shore gambling site BoDog.com was taking wagers on who would win the popular show Survivor, until they discovered people inside CBS were placing bets on insider information. A spoof show called The Average Joe emerged, one person was under the impression he was on a reality show, everyone else was a paid actor with a script, the show got huge reviews.

At what point are you sick of watching a reality based show though? There is such a cross section of them to watch, from cooking, high end jobs, living life, dating, where do you draw the line and say enough is enough? Will there be a death to the traditional actor in place of all reality casts?

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