Where is the Reality in Shows like Survivor, American Idol, and Fear Factor?

Have you ever wondered why they call today's most dominant programming Reality TV when what they present is anything but reality?

Survivor brings to mind someone who manages to make it through untold hardship. But the kind of difficulty life hands us typically is not some strange and exotic island or desert somewhere. Our lives don't usually let us plan to win a million dollar prize if we can eat enough vile things or pull a sufficient number of nasty, backstabbing tricks.

Seriously, when you hear the name Survivor, don't you think of people trying to get out of the Twin Towers alive before they fall? Or a soldier tasked with an impossible mission who somehow makes it through regardless.

Or perhaps firemen racing to rescue people in a burning building against all odds yet knowing they have wives and kids of their own who need them? Or consider those fleeing the lowest-lying neighborhoods of New Orleans when it was clear that neither Mother Nature nor a federal response would spare their suffering.

Those people are trying to be survivors. Those lucky enough to get chosen for a reality TV show are rarely anything like you or me. They're impossibly young and thin and aggressive and intent on becoming stars.

But when you're faced with a life crisis - a desperately ill child or spouse, the loss of your main way to make a living, the blackness of serious clinical depression, or hopeless and ever rising amounts of debt with foreclosure or bankruptcy looming overhead - wouldn't you just about kill to have your biggest problem who you can eliminate in this week's "Survivor" vote?

Or take Fear Factor. As horrible as some of the stunts they make people endure, wouldn't you be happy to trade the worst moments in your life for a few minutes of choreographed TV lunacy? Compare eating worms to the time you went through a serious cancer scare or the period in which you almost became homeless from lack of funds, and those worms don't seem half bad. Sprinkle a little oil and vinegar plus a bit of pepper and bring them on!

Then there is The Donald and The Apprentice. Never have we as a culture been so riveted with people hearing the cursed phrase, "You're fired!"

Of course, there is a reason TV land does not bring us stories of real life survival. First, there may be little entertainment value for a show about the rising number of Oklahomans who must turn to food banks to feed their children. Where will networks find willing advertisers to promote their cheese snacks and luxury cars on a program that shows people rushing to escape a Category 5 hurricane.

It's much easier for them to buy ad time on programs like The Apprentice where they can promote products discussed right on the show than it would be to sell sillier spots on a show focused on how the typical 18-year-old soldier survives in Iraq. The latter would be a lot closer to the term Reality TV but we just won't see it, not even on the nightly news.

In the meantime, I find not so amazing how many people watch these shows religiously - and many not just watch one reality TV program but three or more. After all, TV and movie watchers love to escape into the screen to avoid the down points in their own life stories. What really perplexes me is that many viewers actually worry for the fate of the participants as if they were family members or friends.

But why?

The TV lives of the contestants may seem scary, silly, or disgusting for the moment. But you know lots of eight-course meals await them, even for those who make it through "The World's Biggest Loser" which chronicles people trying to escape from obesity.

The performers' bills are usually paid for them while they compete so that, even if they don't win the grand prize, their greatest concern becomes what Hollywood agent to sign with to continue their careers in the limelight. When was the last time someone picked up your tab while you went through a crisis?

Then there is American Idol that shows a lot of people you would not want performing for free in your living room. Yet you may invite them in through your TV.

Is it simply to watch the evil Simon call the iffy singers names? Unfortunately, several informal studies suggest that this is the primary reason.

For those, like me, who would love to see this kind of programming go away, the oldest method is still the best. If you don't think a show is enjoyable or valuable, don't watch it. Certainly don't call in to vote for who should be booted off or promoted on the show. Also don't respond to commercials that air during these shows.

Yet, in the meantime, you can just turn the set to another channel or switch it off altogether in favor of a good book, some intelligent reading online - I hear Associated Content is quite good! - or time with your family. Imagine a whole evening without someone eating unmentionable horse parts or having American Idol's Simon insult someone with a dream or looking at Donald Trump's highly unusual hair. You can probably survive.

Or continue to watch them while you wonder where your precious few hours of relaxation time went. After all, isn't it bad enough that you have to go to work the next day worried that your boss may say, "You're fired" or your family may vote you off the island?