Grim reality

At her About.com game show blog, Carrie Grosvenor has begun her annual coverage of Big Brother. It's her blog, of course, and she can cover any show she wants. But Big Brother does seem like quite a stretch for our little game show genre.

In fact, it's beyond a stretch and right into Deepest Reality. Sure, the houseguests or whatever they call them on Big Brother do play games. But the show mostly concentrates on their kvetching about each other. You know, those lovely interpersonal relationships that characterize reality TV.

Over at BuzzerBlog Alex Davis has started covering America's Got Talent, one of the talent hunts that also fall outside a strict definition of traditional game shows. And at Game Show Newsnet they spend most of their time on non-traditional shows. I don't even recognize a lot of the names they toss around in their "lightning round" items.

Yes, I've also covered some things that aren't traditional game shows, like Improv-a-Ganza and a few of GSN's other experiments. But I try not to stray too far. Not saying it makes me better or worse, just different. I'm too uninterested in reality and other related genres to follow all those shows.