"Your Shot at Love has Ended."

by Kelly Kreiner

I will admit that I watch quite a bit of television. Since my TV frequents MTV and VH1, even if I don't intend to watch a dating show, I end up seeing reruns and catching a whole season on accident. It's sad, I know. But, through these shows I can see that they fall victim to the "lowest common denominator" problem. This problem "assumes that 'mass culture', 'low taste' and 'mass audience' are more or less synonymous." These shows are low in taste and are created for the vulnerable media consumers.

the shows that come to mind are Flavor of Love, Daisy of Love, Rock of Love, Real Chance of Love, Shot of Love (with Tila Tequila), and I Love New York...of love. Just kidding. They're not really creative with the titles. Flavor of Love tried to find love for Public Enemy member Flavor Flav. I have to be honest, I don't know why women were signing up to date him. I Love New York was a spin-off of Flavor of Love and Daisy of Love was a spin-off of Rock of Love with Bret Michaels. It's not top quality programming, here. Somehow, though, Flavor of Love season 2 managed to have 3.3 million viewers--a record for VH1 at the time.

I feel like these shows are for people who have nothing better to watch, which I guess is occasionally me. However, the problem with these shows aimed towards the "lowest common denominator" isn't that they are low taste and quality, it's that they are the view that other countries see of Americans. These are the shows being shipped overseas and the shows that even young American viewers are watching to see what "grown-ups" are like. Do you want to be compared to Flavor Flav? Do you want people to think you have More to Love? (Yes, a dating show based on the fact that the bachelor likes plus-sized women.) I know TV executives want to produce something (anything) that people will watch, but maybe they should look more into the global and even home effects of it. Until then, I guess I'll catch a rerun and see what happens at the next elimination.