Please pack your knives and go.
Who can’t love a show that ends with that line?
In their quest to capture our viewing attention, the producers of reality game shows bank on the use of these taglines to differentiate themselves from the rest of the shows on TV, especially other shows in their genre. This practice was arguably seeded by The Donald on his show The Apprentice when he eliminated potential business apprentices by saying “You’re fired.” The trend could also be attributed to an earlier game show called The Weakest Link. It was hosted by a feisty Brit named Anne Robinson who eliminated her losing contestants by proclaiming “You are the weakest link. Goodbye!”, certainly one of the most memorable lines in recent American television game show history.
The sheer success of these early shows spawned dozens, if not hundreds, of new shows based on the concept of “reality”, most of them using a tag line of their own. Here are a couple of my other favorites:
“Our friendship is finished. TTYN.” - Paris Hilton, Paris Hilton’s My New BFF
“You’ve been dropped. Get the fuck outta here.”- 50 Cent, 50 Cent: The Money and The Power
And possibly the most annoying, “You’ve been chopped”, from Chopped host Ted Allen.
But why do we watch these so-called reality shows? Who’s reality do they portray? Can I really relate to Paris Hilton as she ponders her new BFF or 50 Cent as he chooses who to invest his money in? No. But a subject I can relate to is cooking. And there is no shortage of cooking shows on networks like Bravo, food, and Travel channel. My favorite, however, has to be Top Chef on Bravo. Not only does it employ the delicious hostess Padma, but it satisfies my desire to learn as I watch television. The competition between the chefs allows me to cheer for the ones that I like and root against the ones I don’t, all the while learning from their skills(and mistakes) in the kitchen.
What’s your favorite reality show tagline?
