by H.G. Hess

Created on: February 22, 2008

My first encounter with E! was quite a few years ago with a show called "Talk Soup". It was basically a mockery of talk shows which explored funny moments, strange guests, and downright bizarre stuff. Other than that, I didn't really watch the channel. I wasn't that into celebrity news, but then again maybe it was because images of Britney, Lindsay and Paris weren't being shoved down my throat like they are now. But E! seems to have exploded since then, due in part to our obsession with everything Hollywood as well as the creation of some reality shows featuring very popular celebrities.

With the ongoing increase of interest in celebrity lives, E! has become the main source for celebrity news. E! has spawned quite a few extremely popular reality shows, like "The Simple Life," "Keeping Up With the Kardashians," and my all-time favorite "The Girls Next Door," which is a reality show depicting the lives of Hugh Heffner's three girlfriends. Even Snoop Dogg has jumped on the bandwagon with "Snoop Dogg's Fatherhood" which is a reality show about Snoop's family life. E! even has it's own "late night" show featuring Chelsea Lately, who combines comedic celeb-talk with hilarious sketch comedy bits.

Although many would proclaim that E! is nothing more than junk television, I love it and think it's a great channel. In fact, I watch it almost every day. E! succeeds both in informing us about celebrity's lives through it's "news" series E! News and E! True Hollywood Stories- a series that delves into the lives of celebrities in a documentary-like fashion, and also makes light of celebrity's lives through shows like The Soup and its hilarious Daily 10, which both explores the celebrity news of the day while also poking fun at it. Lastly, it entertains us with celebrity-based reality shows that are far more interesting than reality shows that are game-based or based on "regular" people.

But does E! live up to its name? Is it really an entertainment channel? That's up to the individual person to decide. Now that I'm hooked on E! (pardon the pun), I can only recommend that people who want to know more about celebrities, or just people looking to make fun of celebrities make sure they watch it!

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