Misc

I was checking the news, and apparently MTV has seen a marked descrease in viewership…ratings down 23%.  They have 16 “reality shows” (read: game shows with dumber contestants) slated to start this next year.  MTV Networks president, Brian Graden had this to say about the changes for the network:

The series come from high-profile producers including Sean Combs, Matt Stone & Trey Parker, Donald Trump and Nick Lachey. And they represent a major thematic shift for the channel — more toward the meta-scripted reality of MTV’s “The Hills,” one of the cabler’s few success stories these days.

While MTV pioneered reality series with 1992′s “The Real World,” that genre has become ubiquitous, so the network is offering a slate that avoids the backbiting and bitchery of most nonfiction fare.

“Our new shows will feature themes of affirmation and accomplishment,” says Brian Graden, prez of entertainment at MTV Networks music channels and president of Logo. “Our shows are going to focus less on loud and silly hooks and more on young people proving themselves. These are themes that are consistent with the Obama generation.” [emphasis added]

The Obama generation?  What on earth does that even mean?  I’ve heard that phrase a few times, and it just gets absurd each time it’s used.  So, an unqualified (that’s what Obama himself said on his qualifications for the presidency) junior senator who was only elected because the last senator resigned over a sex scandal involving his wife gets elected by a populace who, when asked, can’t even tell you what his core policies are and somehow this makes the youth the Obama generation?  Come on now!  Are the executives at MTV as dumb as the “actors” on The Hills?

Most young people couldn’t even tell you how many senators we have or the current vice president’s name, so we can assume they don’t make a generation simply because they voted for the “cool and hip guy” (read the 50 year old suit-wearing lawyer who would never be cool if he were white– yes, of course he’s been labeled cool because he’s black, does anyone really think a white 50 year old would ever be considered “hip” or “cool”?)

And what’s with the whole “reality show” craze that STILL has yet to die its well-deserved death?  We’ve had these types of shows since TV started, and they’re called game shows.  Except in most game shows, we don’t have to see the same idiot contestant week after week, and none of them eat bugs as part of the contest.  There’s nothing real about any of these shows, and to label them as such is silly.  It’s a continuation of the dumbing down of our culture, especially our youth who couldn’t be bothered to think for themselves for ten seconds, let alone have any clue what’s going on in the world around them…the important things that is.  They can tell you all about the newest American Idol winner, but ask them to point China out on a map and they’re brain-dead all of a sudden.

I do have one suggestion for MTV.  Perhaps some music, seeing as how the first word of your network is “music.”  Perhaps?  Or maybe if you’re going to claim  your new shows are about youth empowering themselves, you might want to cancel shows that have contestants dump their current girlfriends to hook up with strangers their parents set them up with or shows that feature bi-sexual sluts trying to win the heart of the star who happens to be bi-sexual and a slut herself.  Graden says the new lineup is thematic different, then we hear that one of the new shows is produced by Donald Trump and follows a group of hard-partying girls to an English prep school (read: sluts go to England to get drunk and have sex).  Let’s not pretend you’re doing wonderful things here…just stick to whipped cream licking contests, and the adults will be sure to tune out for more rational fare.