TV

You'd be forgiven for thinking that everything on television right now is reality programming. It's not technically true, of course, but it feels like it.

What definitely is true might be more disturbing: The most popular series on television are unscripted. And based on the fallout from the Writers Guild of America and the suspect post-strike strategy of the broadcast networks, you might as well pencil in those stats for next season, too.

Except the Nielsen numbers could go up by then.

American Idol, Dancing With the Stars, Survivor, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Deal or No Deal, 60 Minutes, Moment of Truth, Oprah's Big Give, Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader — in the last two weeks those unscripted series have been dominating the Top 20 shows on television.

And those are just the massively popular ones.

Even mediocre reality shows have continue to glut the marketplace — Beauty and the Geek, Big Brother, Celebrity Apprentice, The Biggest Loser, American Gladiator, The Bachelor, My Dad is Better Than Your Dad, Wife Swap, America's Next Top Model, Supernanny and even The Price is Right.

For people who don't like unscripted or "reality" programming, this must seem like more proof that the country is spiraling deeper into ignorance. Certainly, television critics often feel this way. And people paid to write dramas and comedies for television — they always believe we, as a country, have lost interest in stories.

The truth is never that clearly distinct, nor easy to suss out. Yes, the WGA strike opened the door for more reality fare — cheap and easy to produce — to waltz in. And yes, there could be something to the notion that American audiences just find it easier and more entertaining to watch game shows and unscripted sing-alongs, dances and quizzes than, say, another police procedural or a desperate-to-be-funny comedy.

But what of these notions:

The scripted shows this fall weren't very good.

The scripted shows from the last several seasons have been oddly similar.

The sitcom still hasn't made a comeback.

Some unscripted fare is the only thing families can watch together.

Some unscripted fare is just flat out more entertaining than fictional series — comedy or drama.

Certainly television's Death Star — American Idol on Fox — has been proof of at least some of those notions, drawing upward of 30 million viewers, which is unheard of in this fragmented, multichannel universe. And even when the numbers decline — and hopes of the bloom wearing off that killer rose float across the industry — it still crushes everything in its path. Why? Well, for a lot of Americans, the last two reasons above certainly apply. Families are watching together and they find Idol more entertaining than pretty much anything else — and have for years now.

Another gigantic hit is Dancing With the Stars, a reality series that, probably more than Idol, seems to generate the most wrath among people who actually never watch it. Why? Because, on the face of it, the show seems patently stupid. In most incarnations of the series (we are now in Season 6), there really aren't many so-called "stars." At least not A-listers (and, let's not kid ourselves here — even B-listers). Plus, it's ballroom dancing. Who watches that? And it's just another competition show, a la Idol. What's the difference?

Even if all of those gripes were true, it doesn't matter. The audience always decides. And once again, they've decided to watch. In droves.

It's pointless to get upset with Dancing With the Stars or beat the death knell for intelligent TV. Here's why — the show is more creative than it's given credit for. There are some strangely cheesy and retro introductions that seem to be wink-wink ironic. There's even an element of video-game face-off foolishness mixed in. It's a genre-bending stew, so self-aware as not to be an accident. Like Idol, there's also an extraordinarily well-conceived online presence with bonus material to keep up the interest level week-to-week. And lastly, the most obvious element — it's entertaining and fun.

That's an easy thing to forget when you're longing for the complexity of The Wire or the movie-quality nature of The Sopranos or some of the sharper, more cynical humor at play in Weeds and Californication. Sometimes viewers just want to be entertained without effort.

See, reality television isn't offensive culturally or a terrible idea business-wise if it's merely part of the menu — one of many options.