Shows like “The Soup” with Joel McHale poke fun at reality shows while on the same network as them. There is an entire network dedicated to just showing reality shows, The Reality Show Network. Activities, from tattoo parlors to motorcycle spots, are on reality TV. Many times these shows interact with each other like in a recent episode of “Jon and Kate Plus 8” where Jon wanted to buy a motorcycle and went to the Motorcycle Guys where he put together his own custom cycle. Then they handed out the cycle and made one for Kate. Being Kate, she decided to ride it and then donate it to a charity, McDonald House. Meanwhile, the Motorcycle Guys, who have their own show, also appeared on this one.

So many people watch this show that after the last episode when Jon and Kate decided to buy these crooked houses for the kids, the makers of the houses received a lot of business from viewers who had seen the houses and wanted them. In one of the older episodes, Jon and Kate answered emails from viewers. They get endless emails and when they go out in public like Kate does on her book signing tour, the fans are always there. What makes these shows so popular? Should we examine this phenomenon to see if there is anything to learn from it? Or is it just the armchair mentality of people who once sat on their front porches and watched their neighbors’ activities? Are people becoming couch potato peepers?

When the first reality show, “The Louds,” debuted, American audiences had never seen a show like it. There were no real actors or plots. Basically, I was watching the daily activities of a so-called typical American family. We saw the happy times and the angry times. The camera never stopped filming unless it was a personal privacy issue. The Loud family disguised themselves with this relentless focus on themselves. However, this did not stop the networks from continuing to offer similar programs. However, the craze for these shows didn’t really start until the big networks got involved. Probably MTV with its real world shows that were so popular with young adults may have been the culprit.

Suddenly, the lives of normal people who were not related to each other were placed in the lens of the camera. All their emotions were examined not only by the group but by themselves in personal interviews intended only for viewers. The group dynamics and lifestyles of some of these people created a lot of drama. They drank heavily and although these people were supposedly controlled, their activities sometimes went beyond the law and became a gray area. The kids were riveted to the screen when Real World appeared and couldn’t wait for the next episode. But older adults didn’t pay much attention to these shows. It wasn’t until shows like “The Bachelor” became popular on network television that older adults were drawn to watch them.

Networks like Bravo and TLC realized that people would see people’s lives and possibly when “The Ozbornes” became so popular, television executives began to think of more reality shows. The Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie show highlighted how low the content could go and still have people watching. Shows like “What Not to Wear” and “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” had more plot, but still used real people in real situations.

The latest incarnation of reality TV is a broad spectrum of both interest and taste. Shows that allow women and men to be shown in compromising situations, like “Flava of Love” or “Daisy of Love”, are alongside shows like “The Fashion Show”, “Project Runway”, “The Next Top Model”. and “Jon and Kate Plus 8”. At TLC there is also a show dedicated to seeing the lives of those with vertical challenges, “The Little People.” There have also been shows that were dedicated to turning bad girls into nicer people. And “Real World vs. Rules of the Road,” which is a contest that pits each participant against the other in grueling and sometimes disgusting contests. People in this show compete for a grand prize, but they are also placed in teams and have to decide the fate of each other. In each of these programs, every minute detail of the lives of these people is appreciated and the viewer follows them from morning to night with the camera recording every moment.

If a person watches a lot of these reality shows, they start to mix with each other. However, once seen, you can sometimes get addicted to them. What is it that makes people addicted? Are you watching them as they go through their days? Maybe it’s a check to see if their lives are anything like yours. In the latest “Real Housewives of New Jersey,” women’s lives didn’t even seem real. A woman had a house built with marble floors and walls. Another had a husband who owned a caterer and the women basically did nothing but take care of themselves and fight. The viewer had to watch every episode, because these women did not behave like anyone else in most people’s lives. Millions of people watched these shows. Unfortunately, this writer was one of them, but each episode was watched with an expression of disbelief. Why do people who program television programs subject viewers to these women?

Lastly, is this fascination with the strange lives of these reality TV people like finger licking on the road? Could it be that viewers are just curious to see how far the people of this reality show will go or maybe they are pushed to go? Are they being written or is this your real life? When a woman at a very quiet dinner at a restaurant became so enraged with another that she actually overturned a table, was this real or was it a staging for the show? When “The Real Housewives of New York” started teasing Kelly and turned her back on him, was that also staged? Or was it a real situation that had occurred?

Perhaps this last point is the real reason people watch reality shows. No one is sure if what they are seeing is really true or not. For example, Jon and Kate recently told the press that they had been apart for the show’s full two years. However, it seemed they were a couple. Watching these shows can turn your assumptions about life upside down. On shows like “The Hills,” bland and uninteresting people spoke in monosyllables and swallowed the words. However, the stars became great celebrities. The stars also said that the episodes were written. Are ordinary people’s lives so boring that they need to see other people’s fake lives to escape? Is it, after all, a way of escaping from their own lives? Perhaps seeing the day-to-day activities of other people who are not connected with the viewer in any way is like watching an accident on the road as it passes. How many of you have not made up a story to explain the scene? As mentioned above, is the viewing audience just freaking out? In the end, are TV viewers basically just peepers?