During an executive meeting last week, which some of you might call “lunch,” we started talking about the direction we think television programming is going. It appears the heady days of reality television are numbered — not that reality tv will go the way of the dinosaur, trans fat and Tang, but reality tv is going through a development metamorphosis of sorts. No longer can networks hit ratings gold simply using the old formula of casting divas and putting them in a small space with contrived, unintentionally hilarious plot-drivers. The TV viewer needs more.

What got us started on the subject was the fact that NONE of us watched Grease: You’re the One That I Want, yet five katrillion people watched American Idol. What’s the dif? Well for starters, theatrical acting on anything other than a stage blows like a leaf in a Katrina wind. Case in point: The Producers, the play vs. The Producers, the movie. You know, we actually have to change the subject because the thought of the movie made us throw up a little.

Car-wreck novelty television is past it’s prime. All the shows that you were embarrassed to tell people you watched, like Joe Millionaire and Temptation Island are now relegated to the dusty bins of television history alongside various 30 minute sitcoms starring talking animals. It’s the dawn of the high-quality intellectual drama starring off-beat geniuses, the high-octane serial, and ensemble sitcoms targeting the 25-50 female demographic. You can probably blame (or bless) cable television for this evolution. With 500 channels available to us at any given time, the bar has been raised. And what we can’t see on channel 307, we can watch on YouTube.
That doesn’t mean we don’t love our car wrecks (Paula Abdul, please see the front desk). We’re still the people who buy magazines with Anna Nicole Smith and/or Britney on the cover. We just need more in our TV than watching some hot chick eat a bowl of freakishly large slugs for a chance to win a Toyota Hybrid.

Reality television isn’t dead, it’s just evolving. Audiences are getting savvier and bored with the same old formulas. However, none of this explains the prime time invasion of the game show. Maybe we just like to be stupid sometimes.