Reality Bites - Ben may not believe that I would watch Jerry Bruckheimer's Amazing Race 3 rather than Aaron Sorkin's West Wing, but the former is much more amenable to social viewing, my preferred way of watching appointment television. Besides, who can resist all that gay-friendly content? You know, with real gay people, not heavy drama surrounding gay adoption or some other political issue. (CBS's stealth might end up changing a lot more attitudes than NBC's polemics.)

Speaking of "realness," I came in for some criticism this weekend for my habit of watching a lot of so-called reality TV, and it got me thinking. Just because game shows like Survivor, AR3 and Road Rules involve interpersonal skills to a greater extent than Jeopardy, does that make them qualitatively different? Even Real World or Trading Spaces can be viewed like game shows if you think about it. Yes, the producers have come up with innovative ways to make the game more interesting by involving more of the contestant's character and personality traits, but should that be a reason for scorn? The lady doth protest too much, methinks. I'll take my reality TV any day.