Welcome to The GBU, a weekly column coming every Monday where I look at the Good, the Bad and the Ugly on TV.
December is a time to look back at the year that was in television, and I’m starting with reality TV. From Simon Cowell’s American Idol swan song to Prince Poppycock on America’s Got Talent to Derek Hough’s back-to-back Mirror Ball trophies on Dancing with the Stars, there were a lot of huge events this year in the world of reality television.
Here’s the Good, the Bad and the Ugly of reality TV in 2010.
The Good: Tabitha and Napoleon’s Choreography on So You Think You Can Dance
The new format with the all-stars had some kinks to work out, and the season was marred by numerous injuries, but what made it all worth it were the increasingly jaw-dropping dances dreamed up by the brilliant Nappy Tabs. From ninjas to politicians to clowns, the hip-hop duo provided most of the best routines, including the brilliant psychiatrist routine between Twitch and ballet dancer Alex Wong.
The Bad: The Brigade on Big Brother 12
I actually enjoyed the Brigade for a while, but in the end, watching an alliance demolish the competition from start to finish makes for rather dull television. Especially painful were the final few weeks when Hayden, Lane and Enzo won everything, resulting in a series of predictable and yawn-inducing episodes. While it might be the best alliance in the show’s history, it made for some of the most boring TV.
The Ugly: Bachelor Pad
I’ll admit that I didn’t watch most of Bachelor Pad. But if the painful groans of embarrassment my colleague Meghan Carlson let out every Tuesday morning over the summer were any indication, the only thing I missed was two hours of nausea. Having seen clips of the disastrous pie-eating contest, I can tell that the Bachelor franchise sunk to new, degrading lows with this series, ruining whatever little goodwill the show had left after countless seasons of hot tub make-out sessions.
(Images courtesy of FOX, CBS and ABC)
Senior Writer, BuddyTV
John watches nearly every show on TV, but he specializes in sci-fi/fantasy like The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural and True Blood. However, he can also be found writing about everything from Survivor and Glee to One Tree Hill and Smallville.
