Loyola Greyhound

Issue date: 2/5/08 Section: Arts & Society

Media Credit: MCT campus Paris Hilton achieved fame by being...Paris Hilton.

With the first decade of the 2000s on the brink of ending, it seems that popular culture has firmly established itself as an Internet-infused black hole of people famous for being famous. Reality shows spin off each other so much that they are constantly blurry, both in language and entertainment value. Celebrities constantly come and go in the limelight for reasons that people either do not know about, do not care about or are so mundane that they may as well not even exist. The birth of this poisonous cycle of vapid popularity, though, is something that is certain. It stems from the reality show.

Although it is almost impossible to completely trace the life of the reality show (at least without taking up the entire Greyhound), the spin-off cycle can certainly be tracked to a single source, "The Surreal Life." In 2003, a group of out-of-work (some may say washed out, but I am being nice) celebrities banded together to be thrown in a house and filmed 24/7. (Sound familiar? The very first reality show, "The Real World" began this concept; the concept and the show continue to grow strong.) In Season 3 of this show, two of the "characters" fell in "love," rapper Flavor Flav and B-movie actress Brigitte Nielsen. In Season 4, "America's Next Top Model" winner Adrianne Curry and Christopher Knight, a.k.a. Peter Brady, followed the trend. Both couples ended up creating their own shows after meeting on "The Surreal Life," and thus came the birth, and subsequent huge popularity, of the reality show spin-off.

Flavor Flav took his spin-off a step further. After his relationship with Nielsen failed, their mutual reality show following their lives together, "Strange Love," came to a sad end. Not wanting to let go of the limelight (again) just yet, Flavor Flav searched for some love on his next reality show, "Flavor of Love." As a result of "The Surreal Life," Flavor Flav was able to have not one spin-off to call his own, but two.

Soon after the Season 2 finale of "Flavor of Love," yet another spin-off show sprouted. This time, the object of affection was Tiffany Pollard, better known as "New York," her Flavor-given nickname. She was the runner-up in both seasons of "Flavor of Love," but after failing to win Flav over, she decided to turn the tables.

Continued...

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