There’s No Budget, Too Much Time to Fill and So the Definition of “Entertainment” Gets Stretched Again

Eating contests, cooking contests, popularity contests — they’ve become television entertainment because they’re cheap to produce and because we have too many channels and not enough shows to fill the time slots! Seriously. Those are the only reasons.

As you can see, if you peruse any night’s television programs, there’s more junk on television than ever before. In fact, reality television is a whole new genre of television, making stars out of “civilians” who have never taken an acting class or acted in a play — let alone tried out for a television drama or comedy. And then there’s D list actor shows where has been actors make up regular TV time — for instance, Flavor Flav, Danny Bonaduce, Hulk Hogan, and all the has beens on Celebrity Fit Club. If there weren’t so many television channels, these actors would be interior decorators and realtors. Instead, they’ve got a second shot with this new D-list genre.

And THEN…as if that isn’t enough, are all the surgery candidates who find themselves on television, naked and cut open because they want new breasts, or liposuction or rhinoplasty — and have decided to go public by having their surgery and recovery on television.

Food contests are just another one of these phases where there’s no production budget, there’s too much time to fill — and so the definition of “entertainment” gets stretched again!