When you’re on TV you put yourself out there for “public consumption.” And consume the public does! The judgments, leaps of logic, mocking, and undue praise, all of it is really a trip. The beauty of the Internet is that all of these thoughts, “observations,” and judgments get posted for the world to see. But this also means is that each member of the public that did post their thoughts, ended up putting themselves out there for consumption as well. And now it’s my turn to judge and comment! Oh, what fun : )

I believe there to be three types of viewers/fans of The Apprentice (and most other reality shows from what I can tell):

The Professor. This type of viewer/fan has the strongest opinion of all. They believe themselves to be the expert on the show, and attempt to dissect every second of the footage and assign astronomical value to it. They believe what they see on TV to be what actually happened. They claim that they understand editing goes on, but build their opinions and feelings in exactly the way the editors intend. Once their opinion is formed, anything to the contrary be damned, they have their story and their sticking to it!

The “Realist.” This type of viewer/fan watches the show, but takes everything they watch with a grain salt. They typically hold the more moderate of opinions. They listen to interviews, try to read between the lines, and look for inconsistencies in the editing/extra footage, etc. The show is entertainment for them– they like the show, but fundamentally accept that editing, in most cases, is done in bad faith. The primary intent in the editing is to tell a story with an end-result that makes the show seem credible more so than it is to represent “reality.” They form their opinion of each and every character often in spite of the editing.

These two types of fans who make up 95% of the posters/bloggers about the show. The other 5% seems to be made up of cast members themselves, friends, family and probably people who work on the show.

The last type of viewer doesn’t really read or post about the show. They watch the show as pure entertainment. They laugh, mock, roll their eyes and then forget about the show 15 minutes after it’s on. And they, from personal observation, are the vast majority of viewers.

And then there’s a tiny splinter group that I have to talk about. The Experts.
The experts post about the show in some kind of professional capacity. They attempt to take away business lessons, executive/workplace lessons, psychology lesons…everything, but mostly business lessons. I’ve been told that every season, cast members will write to these wonderful people and tell them that they’ve drawn lessons that are waaay off base. “Lessons” that are not only not based in reality, but are also sometimes the opposite of what happened. What I, and others, have gotten back from these experts is that ‘if it wasn’t shown on TV, it’s like it never happened. And that by going on reality TV this is the risk we take.’ The idiocy of “learning” from infinitesimally small snippets of a reality TV gameshow, in which hours and hours of footage are edited down to mere seconds, and attempting to draw wisdom from it is so very laughable. But if going on a reality TV show allows for us to be consumed and commented on, someone posting their “lessons” opens them up for commentary on as well. And so there–anyone who thinks you’re creidble as an executive coach, publisher, business consultant, whatever based on your “analysis” of a game show called the Apprentice– you deserve each other : ) I will say there are a few notable exceptions: there are those who actually interview the contestants and try to find out what actually happened to get at the lessons/theories they want to discuss. They may choose to not believe what the cast says, but at a minimum, they acknowledge that seconds on TV isn’t a basis for an accurate judgement. But they are exception. There are also those like cast-favorites’ Mike and Marjie who know there is so much more out there, and facilitate getting that other side out there.

I write this not only for me (and my joy of resuming posting to this blog daily), but for my fellow castmates who either read the message boards/blogs/myspace updates all throughout the season, or browsed them at Derek’s house last Thursday for the first time : )

And yes, Marisa, we enjoyed watching you reading TWOP that night as much as anything else that entire weekend.