Reality Television
CALEV BEN-DAVID - Jpost.com

"Who needs 'reality television' when you live in Israel? Just being a citizen of this country is enough to make you feel you're participating in a reality television program.

The world's eyes (and news cameras) are upon us, and every day there are fiendish new challenges that seemed designed to test our mettle. Call it Survivor: Israel, or Zionist Fear Factor.

Maybe this explains my disinterest in all the Israeli versions produced in the past year of such hit US reality shows as The Amazing Race, Big Brother, The Bachelorette and American Idol. What's more, these programs haven't really offered any interesting local twists on their American originals.

Instead of an amateur singing contest, why not a competition in which Israeli soccer fans vie with each other to see who can be the first to be thrown out of a stadium for obnoxious behavior? And rather than a single woman choosing from among a flock of hunky male suitors, why not have outcast Shinui MK Yosef Paritzky being wooed by different parties as he decides how to cast his sole Knesset vote on each proposed bill?"

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