Reality

No, not real life reality. Reality as seen on television.

Tonight, the fourth season of The Apprentice debuts on NBC. And before that, of course, over on CBS, is the latest season of Survivor. "TA" looks to be watchable from an eye candy standpoint: several of the guys are pretty hunky, at least based on their publicity photos. Survivor's premiere last week was good, although the hunk factor is fairly non-existent there.

And then the season premiere of my own favorite reality television series, The Amazing Race (or, TAR) begins next Tuesday. The eighth edition will consist of family members racing as part of teams of four -- as opposed to the traditional two-person team format. Sigh. We'll see how that idea plays out.

And my friend Patrick has been trying to get me to watch America's Next Top Model, a proposition which fills me with both horror and interest. Horror at the show itself, and interest because it does mean I get the opportunity to gab with Patrick on the phone one extra hour each week.

Speaking of which, I think our sorta-tradition of chatting on the phone while watching a specific television show began back in 1992, with the debut of MTV's The Real World.