All this goes back to Political Correctness in programming - today you have the token gay guy on Big Brother and the Gay Couples on Survivor and Amazing Race, not to forget the token old man or old couple. Reality shows all play by that rule.
But if we are talking race, no show is more PC than The Price is Right: their could be one black person in the audience of 300 people and that person will make it on stage, thus at least get to spin the wheel. You might say "what's wrong with that?" I say nothing EXCEPT it is obvious to me that they must keep TWO sets of names to draw from a hat - that I think is wrong.
Being PC today has its sickening moments, doesn't matter if it is race, life-style, age or other factors. I'm a Big Brother fan, watched that TV series and bought the Live Feed for 16 years now - never missing a season. The first thing to come to mind, who is the token "Old Man" and token "Gay" and by gay I usually mean a man, women who are gay are discriminated on reality TV much of the time. And don't forget the token "Old Man".
My issue is NOT having people of color and gay people oor old people on TV - it is JUST the opposite - why must we have only one? Both Survivor has had gay couples including this season starting this week, and so has the Amazing race - as was the case last year, but typically they have "token slots" to fill and there has never been 2 gays on Big Brother - I assume the Network is afraid of a "Show-mance" as it is call between to men or women, but they feed off of straight couples hooking up.
And (sad note for most of us) the token old man om Big Brother this season was only 42 years old - lol. Donny, a Grounds Keeper sent packing from the Big Brother house about 3 weeks ago, made it further than most the "old men" in the house had in previous years. The token gay, Frankie just got booted about a week ago. But I say, stop limiting it one of each, let people you think as charismatic come into the house, even if there are three gay men or women or 4 old men - stop trying to satisfy the "minimum requirements" to keep the masses happy.
I do think CBS is scared to death to deal with a truly gay romance for 3 months in the BB house - but they still have to make sure the gay population is always satisfied with having one to represent them. That is just hypocritical to me.
I wrote CBS with a suggestion for a season's theme, I call GENERATIONS which is to have THREE people in their TEENS, 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s giving them the right number of players they need AND to represent all demographics - I never got a reply. Strangely the people who pay for Big Brother's live feed average in the late 40s, as is the case of the viewers of the televised shows (which is three shows a week) and you can tell by the advertisers. The majority of players in the house are in their early to mid 20s - far from the demographics of the viewers - I think that is because as we age, it's nice to remember when we had the seemingly limitless strength to compete in some very tough competitions - not to forget, younger people are doing almost anything besides being glued to the TV for hours and hours a week.
I know it is all JUST HOW TV has to work to keep everyone happy, but when scouting players and they are looking for the perfect token Gay Guy or perfect Old Guy and Black guy or girl, it seems wrong to me. They need to get past that foolishness and if the want to be entertaining, just pick the 14-16 players that will make for good TV, no matter how many people with race, age and sexual preference there is in the house.
Oh.... and if you think I'm crazy about the Price is Right, watch it today (or any/every day) and tell me they're NOT drawing names from two different hats.
