Click here to visit the new home of AOLTV!

Hot on HuffPost TV:

See More Stories
EDITION: U.S.
CA Canada US United States UK United Kingdom
Powered by i.TV
May 26, 2012

Introducing our reality-free feed

by Keith McDuffee, posted Apr 2nd 2008 2:20PM

tv squadThere's no getting around it -- there's a crapload of reality shows on TV. The writers' strike wreaked havoc on television programming as we knew it this year, so not only did returning reality monsters like American Idol and Dancing with the Stars come back, but we were blindsided with new ones; this is a TV website, so we're not going to ignore this enormous elephant in the room.

We've gotten some requests for a "reality-free" page, where you won't see any posts related to reality television as posted here on TV Squad. Behold, the Reality-Free page! Like other categories, you can subscribe to that category's RSS feed as well. We've just started using it today, but it will continued to feature any non-reality TV posts from now on.

Link Squad

Add a Comment

Sign in »
*0 / 3000 Character Maximum

32 Comments

Filter by:
kevjohn

Thanks, guys (and gals). Glad to see the 'terrorists' won this one. "Reality-free" = best thing ever.

The only problems are that now that the only RS I watch (Hell's Kitchen) has returned to the air, I'll have to go to "reality-enabled" site to check the rundowns. I might just skip that though because the guy reviewing it seems to have nothing but hate to spew at it. Great, my show is the only reality show that doesn't get a TV Squad reviewer fawning over its magnificence. The other problem is that I'll miss all the rather frequent pictures of Sanjaya's sister and that buxom airhead from Big Brother.

April 03 2008 at 1:40 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
dave

Thank you. I watch none of the reality shows and am not interested in the reviews...

April 03 2008 at 11:18 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jim

Wow. I'd never be conceited enough to think I tipped the balance, but the fact that you did this so soon after I e-mailed about it still makes me respect the way you listen to your readers. Thanks for the new setup.

April 03 2008 at 9:38 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Scott Schrantz

Don't waste your time trying to understand the haters. They just like to make noise. What I don't understand is why TV Squad would be pandering to them, and in a way that puts the burden on their writers to mark more than 50% of the articles as "Reality-Free". What they should have done is implement a way to view the site with the "Reality" category removed. But I guess that change would have to be made inside the Blogsmith code that runs the site, and they're at the mercy of the Weblogs Inc. mothership to do that.

So while it kind of feels like letting the terrorists win, I guess they had to do what they had to do. The haters sure weren't going to do what the rest of us do, which is just skip over the articles we have no interest in and keep quiet about it.

April 03 2008 at 1:43 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Scott Schrantz's comment
Karen

I agree. I have no idea why the scroll button is so hard for some people to use?

But I will by happy to not have the hater comments on the reality shows, and since it doesn't require me to do anything extra...go for it!

April 03 2008 at 8:53 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Joe

Why all the hate of Reality shows. I really enjoy Survivor and Amazing Race. Plus I also like Big Brother but not this year. Real boring people.

Do people really hate reality shows or is it all the bad game shows people like to call reality shows? I would really like to know that.

April 02 2008 at 11:49 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Joe's comment
Karen

I don't hate reality shows. I don't watch them, so I don't know them well enough to hate them. But from what I can see on commercials and the endless reports on them every-freakin'-where I turn, I can tell that they're not something I care about. I don't like the kind of singing they embrace on AI, I have no interest in the challenges on Survivor (nor do I really want to hear the opinions and self-reflection of the people involved), the interpersonal tensions of Big Brother or any of the other We're-Gonna-Throw-A-Buncha-Folks-Together-and-Watch-Them-Implode shows. If I want to watch dysfunctional interpersonal relationship, I'll walk around my workplace.

I'm not sure why you're assuming the decision reflects a huge widespread hatred of reality shows. If there really was such hatred, the shows themselves would be gone! But there ARE so many of them that they seem to be taking over the feeds on TVSquad, the same way they took over the recaps on TWoP. If TVSquad included daytime soaps, I'd want to find a way to filter all that out as well. Doesn't mean they're not popular. Means they ARE.

April 03 2008 at 8:39 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Joost Schuur

This is great, but since you seem to have to add a post to the 'reality free' category for every item now, if you ever forget, subscribers of the new feed won't see that posting.

April 02 2008 at 10:32 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Gudlyf

You can get to it over on the left, under 'TV Squad Reporter'. Sorry it's in such an obscure spot, but being at the top helps us remember to add the category when needed.

April 02 2008 at 8:05 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
DanGarion

About damn time. I think you should just make a different TV Squad for reality CRAP. But what do I know...?

April 02 2008 at 7:17 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Roger Rees

Is there any way to set up RSS feeds so that only selected categories get delivered? I don't know much about the tech behind RSS, so I don't know if that's even possible.

April 02 2008 at 4:59 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
mrbooze

This is the greatest gift Tvsquad has ever given me.

Thanks TV Bunny! Bawk bawk!

April 02 2008 at 4:44 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply

Follow Us

TV Squad Hot Topics

From Our Partners