This week, CHML’s Scott Thompson wants to know why Big Brother (below), in its 13th season, was the No. 1 show on TV in Canada last week. Scott attributes this to what he calls “the train wreck theory.” I agree and bow here to Reality Obsessed expert Murtz Jaffer, who has explained the continuing success of these reality operas in the past as part of our endless fascination with people being humiliated on television.
It sounds like networks are only too happy to feed into that failing. A&E have been running loud promos on their network for such winners as Who the (Bleep) Did I Marry? There was a show on TLC recently about a woman who ate her own couch. Later she ate her car, which was a four cylinder and afterwards she realized, “I could have had a V8!”
We also talk about Stephen Harper’s upcoming appearance on Murdoch Mysteries. He might turn up on Big Brother, too, except as the big brother.
The weekly radio yak went so long it had to be captured in two files. You can listen in here and here.
