Reality TV, the New Trashy Talk Show?

It occurred to me that while the Rickie Lakes and Sally Jesses of
the world have slipped into cancellations without much notice, we
now have reality TV taking over. Let me be the first to say,
I'm not a fan! It seems like history is rapidly repeating itself, at
least in the terms of television. The price that people will pay to
get themselves on TV is far to high. Additionally, the price that
some (not all) producers will pay to gain and or maintain ratings
is also insanely high.

The case that always comes to mind is the murder of Scott Amedure.
Scott Amedure was a gay talk show panelist on the Jenny Jone's Show.
The episode was on revealing secret crushes. Amedure was coaxed into
revealing his homosexual crush on Jonathan Schmitz (a straight,
homophobe from MI). There was a great HBO America Undercover
special done on the impact of this murder. It was "Talked to Death:
America Undercover." I think they adequately addressed the
responsibility of Jenny Jones and her show in this case. Undercover
examined Schmitz behavior when he was probed by Jones after
Amedure reveled his crush in addition to describing
an intimate fantasy of the two men.

Schmitz, turned several different shades of red, covered his face with
his hands, nervously rocked back and forth and let lose a pretty pathetic
and forced laugh. None of these things suggest the Schmitz was
comfortable with the scenario. Jones, continued to milk the situation
asking more detailed questions. Schmitz's blood continued to boil,
literally. Not long after the show Schmitz took a shot gun and
vested Amedure. This time there were no cameras, and no
Jenny. Schmitz fired several shots into Amedure's back, "canceling" his life.

Months later during the trial, one of Jenny Jone's production
assistants (PA) took the stand. This PA is the one who had
screened both Amedure and Schmitz in booking their appearance
on the show. When examined the PA stated, "I told Schmitz the
person who had a crush on him was not a man." The PA later
stated that they did request a physiological profile, but it came
up clean. I personally nearly worked for this show. On my
interview they told me my functions would include driving around
the obese babies in the Jenny Jones van as well as staying
in the green room during tapings. "Because you see, none of
this is staged. You have to be ready to get these people back
on the set, no matter what." That always stuck with me.
I'm not a trained psychologist, or any kind of medical professional
for that matter. I really don't want to be responsible for someone
going home and shooting their secret crush. Keep in mind, this
interview was several years post Schmitz trial. Several months later,
the show was canceled, by Jenny Jones. Other shows slipped off the
radar with a peep, following in the steps of the Jenny Jones show.
Even Springer soon left the airwaves!

Now here we are, reality TV is taking the place of trashy talk shows.
I'm finding there are a lot of similarities! People are willing to exploit
themselves as well as each other. While we do have some powerful
and important reality TV shows like "Perverted Justice." It doesn't
make this kind of programming a safe place. For those unfamiliar
with the show, perverted justice is a show which catches sexual
predators by luring them to a home and having a talk show host
appear as opposed to the child who baited the predator. I kid you
not, it is only a matter of time before this host gets hurt. You have
some angry, embarrassed, sick freaks showing up. This is a great
project for catching pedophiles, but I can also see this turning ugly.
It's kind of sad, I don't know where programming is going. Sitcoms
are long dead, but there has to be something better then reality
TV out there.

On a personal note, I ended up not working for the Jenny Jones show
(since she canceled) and clearly it was for the best! I can rest my head
at night. I just have to ask, is this really what people want to watch?