Who doesn’t want to wind down after a long day with a cup of tea, a bowl of snacks, and an hour of rich ladies throwing glasses at each other? I certainly do, and I’m assuming you do too if you’re reading this, but just why are we so addicted? The return of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills has me thinking a lot about this, even if it is while I sit watching them.
Real Housewives, Love Island, Dance Moms. Ring any bells? Probably. Each of these shows pulled in over two million people at their peak, three million in fact for dance moms, and that's just from live viewing on cable tv.
The people in these shows tend to live luxurious, eccentric lives. All have fame and beauty, most have riches, some have love. Is that what we’re after? Are we trying to live vicariously through these beautiful, rich, sickeningly in love figures? They represent something that is out of reach to the average person, an hour staring at them through our screens may be just what we need to live that life, even just for a moment.
Are we trying to live vicariously through these beautiful, rich, sickeningly in love figures?
But if you asked most people if they would like to be on a trashy reality TV show they would probably say no. They may say that the shows are demeaning, or the people are just chasing fame or aren’t actually doing anything important on the show. A lot of us appear to look down on people for being on these shows, but still watch them anyway. Could it be that we are jealous of them? Are we jealous that they can do this seemingly unimportant job, star in this ‘demeaning’ show, yet still have fame and fortune?
It’s quite possible that we simply love to hate these shows or, hate to love them. To obsess over these stars, be entertained by their highs and lows, feel jealous of their lives and then be able to turn the TV off and gossip about them may be exactly what we all need after a long day of living our ordinary lives.
