Ms. Yolanda H. is a resident of Oakland, CA. She is a young, college-educated woman who dates and understands the games that men  and women play in love. She will be writing a regular column expressing the female side of Derek On!. 

  Reality Based Television Sucks! 

I was sitting around this weekend watching television, when I came across one of those reality television shows: Chains of Love.  I watched it, even though I totally hate these types of shows.  I’ve never watched Survivor or Big Brother, and I barely watch any of the new game shows like Millionaire, but for some reason I was drawn into Chains of Love, a ridiculous show. 

The premise of the show is this: one male or female is chained to four members of the opposite sex; he/she then goes on dates and spends time with each person that he is chained to while still being chained to the other three people.  The man or woman then begins voting people off that he has not bonded with, or something of that nature.  When only two competitors remain, he or she spends time with, and dates the two, then decides between them, choosing which one he/she wants to spend the remainder of the time in the house with.  

Oh yeah!  Once he or she decides between the remaining two, he/she can give a portion of the prize money that he or she will get at the end of the show to the loser.  However, he/she is not obligated to give any money to the loser;  he/she is also not obligated to live with the remaining member.  He/she can decide that they don’t want to really be in a relationship with this person, then give them some prize money if he or she so desires and tell them to hit the road.  

As I watched this disgraceful display, I decided that this show should be titled Chains of Fools, instead of Chains of Love.  Where do they get these morons with such low self-esteem that they would actually get on television and allow another moron to dehumanize them by chaining them together like animals?   Then, as if it were not enough, they allow another human being to vote them out of their lives and then decide whether or not their time was worth a certain amount of money or none at all.   

Are we so starved for entertainment that we have sunk to the depths of depravity to get a chuckle?  Are people so desperate to find a mate that they will embarrass themselves on national television by basically yelling to the world, “Hey, I’m a loser that can't get a date, so I’m on national TV letting another loser decide whether or not he/she wants to be with me!”   

The world is full of idiots, and I encounter at least 20 a day, so you can understand why when I go home I don’t want to be bombarded by 20 more idiots when I turn on my television set.  So what’s the solution?  Should I throw my television out of the window (after all it is called the boob tube)?  Or should we demand quality programs and tell the networks to get rid of all these ridiculous nonrealistic "reality based" shows?  Of course, that will never happen because we are far too engulfed in this so-called reality based television, which is actually no more realistic then a scripted sitcom. 

I blame MTV for shows like Survivor, Cheaters and Chains of Love; sure, the show Real World was funny and interesting at first, but enough is enough.  I also blame the viewing public for allowing these ridiculous shows to remain on the air by watching them and discussing them morning, noon, and night. 

I am tired of seeing a group of dysfunctional people picked to live their dysfunctional lives in front of the entire TV viewing world.  I do not want to grumble, but I am begging the networks to please bring back good old-fashioned comedy.  I do not think the viewing public can take much more of reality based television; I know for sure that I can't.