Lately, I’ve caught a few episodes of various reality contest shows, such as Sweet Genius and Craft Wars. Yeah, I know how gay that sounds, but if they’re on television, often times I stay on the channels and watch. Sweet Genius is interesting, because I do find amusement in cooking shows, and being a glutton there is appeal in it.
As for Craft Wars, I think the show is putrid, Tori Spelling is still a talentless slug, and I find it ironic that not only was she terrible at acting, she’s apparently found a way to be terrible at portraying reality, too. And the show’s judges completely miss the point of the show entirely and judge based on the criteria polished, finalized projects for shit thrown together in 1-4 hours, when they’re not making catty gay remarks towards each other. Needless to say, my relationship with Craft Wars is one of those “it’s such a shitty show and makes me irritated, that I tune in to grill it while acknowledging that I’m giving them the attention I shouldn’t be.”
Back to the point though, both of these shows have a prize at the end of the show for the winning competitor, of “just” $10,000. Now I say “just,” because when I watch these shows, I can’t help but think about classic game shows, where contestants vied for at least $25,000, every single day. Not only was the prize money a whole lot greater in shows like Wheel of Fortune or Family Feud, it sure as shit was easier to get. In these reality shows, contestants have to genuinely earn their chance for the piddly-in-comparison $10,000 pot, and there’s a whole lot more factors standing in the way other than luck and minor trivial knowledge. Seriously, guess a few letters, know a trivia question, or guess how in the gutter 100 surveyed people are, and there’s usually $25,000+ waiting for you. Reality contestants have to build shit or cook shit, and ultimately stress over shit, before being judged, harshly and inadequately critiqued, before one person is deemed a winner of $10,000 based on subjective criteria.
Doesn’t really seem quite worth it these days. Especially when the IRS gets their teeth into these people, and take 60% of that $10,000; winning $4k and the scrutiny of the IRS doesn’t really seem like that great of a prize in the end. It’s almost like Captain Hadley from The Shawshank Redemption being angry and pissed that he inherited $30,000, because he knew the IRS was going to be crawling up his ass hole, before Andy DuFresne imparted his banking knowledge and loopholes on him. At least when you win $25,000+, you’re left with a little bit of a more gratifying number that might make the IRS scrutiny not quite so annoying.
