A Quote by James Wolcott

In the voyeurism of Reality TV, the viewer's passivity is kept intact, pampered and massaged and force-fed Chicken McNuggets of carefully edited snippets that permit him or her to sit in easy judgment and feel superior at watching familiar strangers make fools of themselves. Reality TV looks in only one direction: down.

James Wolcott

Quote Topics

Carefully Chicken Direction Down Easy Edited Familiar Fed Feel Fools Force Her Him Intact Judgment Kept Looks Make One Direction Only Pampered Passivity Passivity Is Permit Reality Reality TV Sit Strangers Superior Themselves TV Viewer Watching

Quote Author

James Wolcott
American - Critic
Born: December 10, 1952

The only difference in reality TV and the other TV is that the scriptwriters for reality TV are not union. I have been on reality TV shows. Believe me, my friends: It's not just improv and whatever happens when the cameras are rolling.

Rush Limbaugh

I think reality TV is so popular because it makes everyone in the country feel like, 'Hey, I can be on TV. I can be a star overnight.' I think America also has a little voyeurism in their hearts.

Shanna Moakler

We set ourselves up for it with the reality show. You've seen me and Nick go at each other's throats on TV. They've got all these people giving their opinions on our marriage and how we handle it when they are watching an edited TV show.

Jessica Simpson

It's not easy to go from reality TV to being taken seriously as an artist, so I don't think I'll be doing reality TV again because of that.

Chanel West Coast

I was very curious, that's why I think my reality TV seems normal. I watch a lot of reality TV because I am so interested in people and observing people. From a very young age I can remember watching a woman with a guy and she's rolling her eyes and he's pleading with her and I would think, she doesn't want to be with him, he's in love with her, she likes this other guy and I would make up these stories in my head about these people. That helps me sort of profile people and that is a key to being able to read people.

Daniel Negreanu

For all reality TV, and all the viewers of reality TV, just be entertained. Don't invest your feelings, your heart, your soul into reality TV. It is entertainment. And that's all that it should be.

Shaunie O'Neal

People are on their computers more than watching TV, because you can only watch voyeur TV, which is basically what reality shows are, for so long.

Stephen Root

Without arts programmes there's only reality TV, and reality TV needs the arts to show it what reality is.

Billy Connolly

The day that I saw Whoopi Goldberg on television, I cried so hard because I kept looking at my daddy going, 'Oh my God. There's somebody on TV that looks like me! She looks like me! Yay! I can be on TV! I can be on TV! I can do it! Look at her - look at her! She looks just like me.'

Leslie Jones

I'm a musician. I've done TV, but I've never really been a reality TV star, and it's not the route I'm looking to go down, and when I do TV, I want it to be connected to music.

Tulisa

Reality TV now doesn't feel reality TV when it started. The line between reality and fiction is blurred. So many of these people are phony or shallow, in their own right. If you've ever watched any of The Real Housewives, or those types of shows, they're all performing. Even though they're real people, they're performing.

Portia de Rossi

I don't really watch any TV. I'll glance at the TV sometimes if my wife's watching 'Empire' or 'Scandal.' I'll sit with her for an episode. But I don't have a TV show that I watch.

Masai Ujiri

All reality TV shows are a triumph of voyeurism. They choose contestants who are ill-suited and slightly freakish.

Terry Wogan

I have lots of favorite shows, but not reality! I don't like reality TV so much. I'm saddened by people who don't show respect to each other and to themselves. It's horrible. Unfortunately, that's demonstrated a lot on reality television.

Barbara Mandrell

I've seen [Donald Trump] appear in a film or a TV show cameo or the tabloids, and he's a grotesquely distasteful human being and always has been, always made me want to take a shower. But other people fell in love with him as a reality star. So does that mean that the entertainment industry is doing something wrong? I think reality TV answered that question a long time ago: Yes, it's doing something terribly wrong. But there's some great reality TV, and I'm not bagging on it completely.