Joe Exotic is the guy from the Tiger King documentary that went viral during lockdowns. He's a gay republican presidential candidate, a (former) zoo owner, a tiger breeder and illegal seller, and currently in jail for attempting to have a rival zoo owner murdered.
If more people would have rejected reality tv slop, we wouldn't have had The Apprentice. Tiger King is in the same category of weird, voyeuristic shit.
Wasn’t the apprentice was a game show? I believe tiger king was a documentary. Both slop sure but I don’t know that either count as reality TV do they?
If a game show leans heavy on the scripted drama, I classify it as reality tv. People aren't interested in the competition. They're interested in the conflict.
Thats because you think of it as just another carefully choreagraphed reality show. But this is more a WTF lets sit here and see what happens documentary. The guy who filmed it saw a train heading for a pile of dumpster fires and took a seat in it.
As I tell my wife every time she reveals another pop-culture media source she's never seen, "m'eh. You're not really missing out on anything unless you actually want to watch it. In that case, I'm sure we can find a copy on the seven seas."