Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for January 12, 2025

There’s no “fact checking” anymore anyway…

And canceled Firefly.

The real reason is that reality shows are cheap to make. And as H.L.Mencken wrote, nobody went broke by underestimating the taste of the American public.

To be fair, AI would probably come up with the same conclusion. Whatever makes money without taking any chances.

So-called “reality shows” feature people who can’t act trying futilely to act, people who can’t write, the same, people who can’t direct, the same, and people who can’t produce, the same. FUTILE. And watched by people who can’t think …..

Actually, this makes perfect sense.

That’s how I assume David Zaslav got his position. Still wonder what dirt he has on the board members because nobody that incompetent should have that job otherwise.

If it wasn’t true then it should be.

I believe that – explains so much

Both Meta and X are trump friendly now

Yeah. Whoever thought of following the Kardashians around with a camera didn’t have a brain, but sure made money.

I’ll believe it. My son was in one…the director told him: “Stand here and look like you’re doing this.”

TV free since ’82; pray tell, has humanity destroyed TV, or has TV destroyed humanity? My working theory has been “yes”.

Ummm actually, that explains a whole lot about “reality” television.

Sounds about right.

Is Zuckerberg an alien looking to conquer Earth? Gosh, I don’t know. If only there was a way to fact check such claims.

TBH, I don’t think Wiley is wrong.

Reality shows are just modern Village Idiot Parades.

Reality TV came about when networks needed to fill airtime during a writers strike, so they needed unscripted shows. Unfortunately, it showed how much cheaper it was to make dreck like that and we haven’t been able to get rid of them.

Now who else do we know who wears a blue suit and a red tie?

Hmmmmm…

Reality TV is like spam: cheap to produce and there are people gullible enough to fall for it.

Perfectly explains all those baking and cooking shows.

Probably heartless as well.

I wondered how they came up with ‘Survivor’ and all the dreck that has followed!

I’ve only seen the commercials for those shows. Seems they have gone out of their way to include the ‘less well’ equipped. They remind me of Candid Camera, but include more people with hat sized IQ’s

Our TV broke down 5 years ago. We didn’t bother to replace it. From the comments here it looks like we didn’t miss much.

Sadly, this fits.

We have a TV. There are some great programs, if you look for them. Sadly the ratio of crap to good is 95/5. Oh well.

Anything with Richard Attenborough, always top shelf.

“Reality” shows are nauseating.

I trace it back to supermarket tabloids. Clever to put them in supermarkets, near checkout stands. The supermarket/grocery story is a place that people rely on and generally feel good about — the products are safe, the environment clean, etc. They provide seasonal items in time for the seasons. They have things you need, when you need them. And, while you may grip about the costs, you trust the products. If the ground beef package says 94%, you know it only has 6% fat. Packaged products show ingredients, calories, ‘use by’ dates, etc. You can feel [please don’t squeeze] produce and select what you want. The store provides [well, until recently] a lot of service — carts to put your purchases in, bags for your purchases and people to pack them and even help you load your car. So, a ‘newspaper’ at the check-out stand seems like something you should be able to trust.

Ergo, “reality” shows, shown during family-friendly time [7-9 pm], on your friendly local station [following its coverage of state and ‘local’ news, school football scores [and featuring high school football or basketball game every Friday night], should be just as trustworthy. . . [Yes, I know that family-friendly time was not made a policy until ’75, but it was a common practice before that.]

I would just change the last line by Captain Eddie to “Reality Politician’s” …..

I would agree. The only “reality” shows I watch are “Who do you think you are”, “Relative Race” and “Finding Your Roots”

I have only one channel…Fox News!

When I see a misreality show, I miss reality.