Working Out with Reality TV

Working Out with Reality TV

Blog Post 24 - Photo 2

For the next several weeks, you will find me in the cardio room on Monday nights, watching ABC’s hit show, The Bachelor.

I admit that reality TV shows are not the most intellectually nurturing pastime. Nevertheless, there is something disturbingly entertaining about them. Recently, a friend has gotten me hooked on this season of The Bachelor, featuring a super-sweet, down-to-earth farmer from Iowa named Chris Soules, otherwise known as ‘Prince Farming.’

Last semester, my roommate introduced to me a more productive method of watching TV shows: watching them at the gym while doing cardio. Most of the time, when I’m on the elliptical, I listen to the radio or enjoy whatever is playing on TV anyway, so why not watch something that allows me to momentarily turn my brain off and de-stress?

Since I’m a Computer Science major who needs a daily dose of data, I felt compelled to seek out some interesting (albeit, not very important) facts about the show:

  • Audiences prefer The Bachelor to The Bachelorette (based on viewership). Psychologist Joyce Benenson, author of the book Warriors and Worriers, points out that “women are just as aggressive as men—just in cleverer, more fascinating ways.” Apparently, that makes for better TV.
  • Of eighteen seasons of The Bachelor, only one couple remains together, yielding a scathing failure rate of 94.5 percent. Contrastingly, ladies on The Bachelorette can boast five times the success rate. After ten seasons, two of them are happily married with children, and one is in the process of planning her wedding, while the other seven have called it quits.
  • According to the show’s Eligibility Requirements, “Applicants may not presently be a candidate for any type of political office and may not become a Candidate from the time the application is submitted until one (1) year after first broadcast of the last episode of the Program in which they appear.” So, if you’re a politician-in-the-making and are considering becoming a contestant, you may want to change your career path!
  • And, of course, all applicants must be single. For anyone wondering what that means, here is a legalese definition: To qualify as “single” the applicant must not currently be involved in a committed intimate relationship, which includes: any marital relationship (whether or not the parties are separated or currently in the process of divorcing or annulling such marriage); any co-habitation relationship involving physical intimacy; or a monogamous dating relationship more than two (2) months in duration.
  • In March 2010, the show’s creator/executive producer Mike Fleiss was quoted in Today’s TV Addict as saying, “We are very careful in our casting to develop characters that the audience is going to root for and root against.” In the same interview, Fleiss admitted that his show has less to do with “reality” than it does making good television.

 

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