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rewards at the end.

But the thing I feel what attracts viewers the most to these shows is the protagonist vs. the antagonist. The psychologists have done a very good job singling out the "heroes" and the "villains" from the group of contestants. The villains are the ones that we love to hate and the heroes are the ones that we love to love. In the shows there are situations where the heroes and villains struggle for the ultimate prize. The viewers are the spectators where most of them are cheering for the heroes or the underdogs. Shows like Survivor and Apprentice personify that neverending struggle between "good" and "evil." That's a struggle that will always attract viewers.

Asides from the struggle between good and evil, there are other conflicts such as conflicts of skin color, religious preference and views, political views, stands on certain topics(Iraq, abortions, same-sex marriage, homosexuality), and various other subjects. These conflicts add to the drama and climax to those shows. And we want to stay tuned and see all tension build up until the very climatic explosion.

It always makes for good consersation during school and work most of the time. When I worked as a substitute teacher, each morning I come in I hear the teachers and administrators in their own little circles talking about what happened in last night's episode. All these conflicts make for good gossip material. Gossip is pretty mainstream in the United States. But asides from conflicts, there are other things on the various TV shows that provides a lot of gossip material.

The second biggest thing to gossip about are romances and love triangles. We're all watching hoping to see who and who hook up or who and who to break up. For some odd reason we like to gossip about romances, love triangles, whom cheated on whom, etc as if it was hardwired into our brains. That alone attracts a lot of female viewers. Once you see a romance blooming, you're definitely going to hear about it the next day at either school or work. There's almost no way to get past that. And yes, a lot of females like to gossip. Especially teenage girls. That's going to be a total nightmare for school teachers.

Then there's my favorite thing to gossip about, people making fools of themselves on TV. One prime example is the show with Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie called The Simple Life where the two of them have to live "simplistic" lives. Once I heard about the show, it gave me a lot of gossip material. During an interview, Paris Hilton did not know what a Walmart was. To her, it was a place with walls where people hang out at. There's a lot of people who can't resist taking potshots at the two of them.

This is why we keep watching these shows. The network executives and producers have honed getting viewers glued to the TV sets to an artform. First few years it was a science with trial and error. Now they're at a point where they can make shows that'll get us hooked. Like it or not, Reality TV is here to stay. The networks make so much money off of selling commercial space that they're not going to let their cash cows go. To the networks it rounds down to ratings. With ratings, it rounds down to the almighty dollar.

If you want to avoid getting hooked onto such shows here are a few actions:

- Go out somewhere(movie, game, dinner, etc.)
- Play online games. More people are getting into online gaming than watching TV shows.
- Read a book.
- Watch Cartoon Network which is one of the few channels I watch nowadays.

There will always be at least one show that get viewers hooked. The networks make money and we get gossip material. It seems somewhat of an interesting trade.

Learn more about this author, Can Tran.
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