Do Reality Show Spoilers Actually Spoil Anything?
Heads up. I Love Money spoiler alert. Srsly, don't read any further if you care deeply about this soiled VH1 reality competition show (in which cast members from other soiled VH1 reality programs compete for... well, money). Someone called Hoopz wins. LA Rag Mag was at the Fox Reality Really Awards (yes, apparently this exists) last night and the results of the show were divulged. The question we have is: does this make a difference? Will you still watch or has the spoiler truly spoiled? Remember when those Project Runway spoilers were leaked? Well, they kinda turned out to be fake, but still! 25,000 of you guys clicked and—I'm assuming because why else would you possibly care—25,000 of you watch the show. So you were prepared to soldier on, despite knowing some of the results. Which, I guess, says something positive about elimination-based reality programming: that you're willing to enjoy the ride as much as the giddy final destination. Which means that the producers are doing something right in their efforts to craft worthy hours of television. Because the other option would be that watching seasons of these shows is nothing but a depressing slog to the bitter end. That—and I would posit that this is the case with a show like America's Next Top Model—if you knew the winner up front you'd just sort of clap your hands and say "yup, that's it! Moving on." Which would probably be good for the world but bad for people like me who make their sad livings with exhaustive and silly recaps of these shows. I like the idea that the early episodes aren't just means to a finale. There's something progressive and achieved in each individual installment. And that either indicates that we're not wasting our time with these things, or that we are, in fact, wasting even more time than we'd ever imagined. Either way, look at those Fashion Week PR spoilers all you want, because you'll probably keep watching the show and reading about it here anyway, yeah?? And, I suppose, if you can hear the television over the squishing and moaning sound of your brain dying, you can keep watching I Love Money, too. Even though you now know that Hoopz wins. Hoopz wins, y'all. Hoopz wins.