Bachelor Pad

After a hiatus of several years Fear Factor is back bigger and more daring than ever before. Reality shows are so popular today, mainly because they give viewers a glimpse into lives of real people who are living real events most of us seldom encounter (or would ever choose to). With a theme similar to the enormously popular Survivor, Fear Factor makes reality stars out of everyday people who can stand the test of some pretty dangerous stunts and dares when they compete against one another for a monetary reward. The prize of $50,000 is a big incentive and one that makes otherwise sensible folks take risks most of us are barely able to watch! Now there are four teams, each consisting of two people to a team who have been involved in some previous relationship with each other. Not being able to complete a stunt spells elimination and as host Joe Rogan says in a disclaimer "The stunts were supervised and designed by professionals! They're extremely dangerous & shouldn't be attempted by anyone at any time or anywhere!"

Reality television has come a long way but a shoot off competition seems to be heading in the wrong direction. But the premise works! This popular program combines sharpshooting with challenging elimination rounds until there is only one left standing. Beginning with sixteen contestants who are then split up into two teams (eight to a team) they face a variety of shoot off challenges. They have time to familiarize themselves with each weapon used with help from a well experienced trainer before taking on the next challenge and the team with best scores will win the day's competition and are safe from elimination (similar to other reality show competitions but with guns). Colby Donaldson, from the TV reality series Survivor hosts Top Shot and he will hand out the $100,000 prize. Contestants include retired police officers, a former Federal Air Marshall and firearms instructor, former Marine and US Army soldier who is a 4 time winner of the "Rifle Expert" award, member of the USA National Rifle Team, and a competition shooter that was platoon commander with the British Army. They are a very capable and competitive group of contestants that make this much more than merely a shooting range competition.

Talk Show the Game Show is a television show where guests compete in comedic challenges inspired by talk shows. Host Guy Branum challenges the guests to perform tasks such as giving a monologue on a random topic or playing a game of "Name That Fruit." The guests are judged on their performance by a panel of celebrity judges.

"Forged in Fire" is a reality television show that airs on the History Channel. The show features four bladesmiths who compete against each other in three rounds of challenges to create a variety of bladed weapons, including swords, knives, and axes. Each round presents a unique set of challenges that test the bladesmiths' skills and creativity. The winner of each round then moves on to the final round, where they have five days to create a historic weapon from scratch.

American Idol has consistently been one of the most watched reality TV shows of all time and continues to draw huge audiences as each new season begins. Most of the previous winners have gone on to have amazing careers in show business. Winning contestants like Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Ruben Studdard, Taylor Hicks, Lee DeWyze, and Jordin Sparks have gone on to success both professionally as well as financially. Judges have changes recently but the original three (Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul, and Simon Cowell) were perhaps the most entertaining part of the show because they are each strong personalities themselves and tend to stand out while voicing their own unique opinions regarding what talent is all about. Ryan Seacrest has been MC for the entire run of American Idol and he is a former disk jockey who knows something about musical talent himself. Viewers get to watch some contestants stumble and fail because they simply don't have what it takes to perform while the occasional super talent will come along and truly shine, then move on to become the next American Idol.

The four "professional buyers" in this reality based program offer up plenty of laughs as well as some serious buyers envy when they find treasure troves of merchandise in repossessed storage lockers. Of course they also get "stung" a certain amount of the time because it's not a perfect world after all. Whether they bid on lockers containing an extremely valuable collection of comic books, old collectible cars, or junk jewelry it is just by chance that they luck out and find a treasure among the trash left behind by those who failed to pay their storage locker fees. The main buyers on this show, along with some intrepid newcomers to the bidding process, take their chances because they cannot enter the locker or open any boxes inside. Dan Dotson, real time auctioneer, offers up some intriguing lots each week and the "pro buyers" who follow him around include Darrell Sheets, Barry Weiss, Dave Hester, and Jarrod Schulz (the youngest collector). Each episode depicts the challenging world faced by collectors and also shows how so much of someone's life can be left behind in storage.