Who watches reality TV?

[sledger]

Yeah, tends to attract the "OMG I'M LIKE SOOOO RANDOM" crowd. Despicable really.

[Adamc]

Doubt there'd be many fans here but Top Chef is awesome. Features professional chefs rather than amateurs which makes a huge difference, have no interest watching home cooks **** up boiling a pot of water a la Masterchef Australia. Mostly focuses on food rather than manufactured drama, though the latest season was a disappointing exception in that regard. Still exponentially less egregious than say Hell's Kitchen though.

Actually has good judges too, especially Tom 'needs more salt' Colicchio. Much better than watching Matt Preston fawn over the one sobbing contestant who managed not to horribly overcook a steak.

[benchmark00]

Nah ****, gonna go out on a limb and say no **** here can cook better than any of the Masterchef contestants.

Only thing worse than the people who are reality TV obsessives are the people who always bag out reality TV.

[Bonnie Prince C]

I do have a habit of watching reality TV. The main reason is due to the wife watching them, but I don't mind then if it is actual reality TV. These reality drama things, like the Hills, The Only Way is Essex, Jersey Shores etc are absolutely terrible though and the fact there seems to be a new one every week just makes it worse.

[Agent Nationaux]

We have something similar here in the UK to Top Chef. The best chefs from the country compete for their particular region, and at the end the winner cooks for an important event. In one season they had to cook for the Queen. So it's a pretty big deal.

[Adamc]

Was that the show Mark Nicholas hosted?

The UK 'Professionals' version of Masterchef was good ftr. The Australian version killed the format by airing it six days a week which necessarily meant most of it was filler. Got good ratings though so whatever.

[G.I.Joe]

I don't know about Masterchef Australia, but from what I've seen, the folks at Masterchef India were way better cooks than the average Joe.

[Ikki]

Does Geordie Shore count?

[Agent Nationaux]

Originally Posted by Adamc

Was that the show Mark Nicholas hosted?

The UK 'Professionals' version of Masterchef was good ftr. The Australian version killed the format by airing it six days a week which necessarily meant most of it was filler. Got good ratings though so whatever.

It's called "Great British Menu" on BBC 2. It's hosted by Jennie Bond, who I believe was a Royal corespondent. In the first season the chefs from different regions across the UK competed to cook for the Queen's Birthday. In season 2 they competed to Cook for the Ambassadorial dinner in Paris. In season 4 they competed to cook for Prince Charles.

[stumpski]

Programmes like Come Dine With Me can be reasonably entertaining and I do watch them from time to time but I'd find it very hard to take seriously anyone who admitted to following Big Brother. TV for morons, simple as.

[8ankitj]

I do see some reality shows, yes. Totally hooked on to 'Dance India Dance'.

[morgieb]

I used to watch competitive ones (not trashy drama ****), but now I just don't see the point. It's just so obviously contrived.

[Ausage]

Originally Posted by benchmark00

Nah ****, gonna go out on a limb and say no **** here can cook better than any of the Masterchef contestants.

How would you know? The thing that bothers me about those reality cooking shows is that we're expected to watch and judge food with senses that are entirely unsuited to it.

That's why you get all the crying, scheming and bull**** monologues about cooking with "passion" and "heart". 20 weeks of tv with only pictures of food would bore the snot out of people.

That said I watch a fair bit of these shows because the fiancee can't get enough of them.

[SirBloody Idiot]

Originally Posted by Adamc

Doubt there'd be many fans here but Top Chef is awesome. Features professional chefs rather than amateurs which makes a huge difference, have no interest watching home cooks **** up boiling a pot of water a la Masterchef Australia. Mostly focuses on food rather than manufactured drama, though the latest season was a disappointing exception in that regard. Still exponentially less egregious than say Hell's Kitchen though.

Actually has good judges too, especially Tom 'needs more salt' Colicchio. Much better than watching Matt Preston fawn over the one sobbing contestant who managed not to horribly overcook a steak.

Great show, Colicchio is such a jet.

Still gutted this guy didn't win his season:

[KiWiNiNjA]

Most food shows are awesome, tbh. But I don't consider them reality TV. Well, the good ones aren't. They're special interest/educational/documentary mainly.