quality television programming

Several times my friend's and I have had what I call a "Television Channel Draft." How it works is that you get a group of people together and you begin picking tv channels in a traditional draft format. The premise of the whole thing is that for the rest of your life you can only watch programs and games on the channels you pick. Now as many of you probably would have guessed, my first pick was always espn. However, after that it starts to get a little more challenging. I'm a huge fan of the discovery channel, the history channel, and comedy central; however, over the past year or so two channels have emerged as my personal picks for the second and third best channels on television. Coming in at number three has to be A&E. I'm sure many of you are thinking, isn't A&E that channel that had Murder, She Wrote and McGyver when I was a kid. Well yes, but over the past year or so A&E has become a powerhouse in true reality television. Groundbreaking shows such as The First 48, I Survived and my personal favorite, Intervention, have moved A&E to close to the top of my list. But there is another channel that has come even further than A&E in terms of upgrading its programming. Of course, that channel can be none other than the infamous...VH1.

I used to feel very differently about VH1 and the programs on it. VH1 used to be one of the worst channels on television. Shows like Pop-up Video and Behind the Music were flat out terrible. Even some of VH1's relatively recent shows like I Love the 70's/80's/90's and those stupid countdown shows were the same bullshit over and over where the network took a sort of funny concept and killed it when they added the commentary of some of the worst comedians on tv. But about a year or two ago VH1 came up with one of the biggest innovations in TV history: celebreality.

The original show that started the change was the infamous Surreal Life. Although the show itself was relatively hilarious copy of MTV's real world, its lasting legacy is that it was the great-great-grandfather of all of the great shows currently showing on VH1. It began with a pretty terrible spin-off called Strange Love which was a love show between surreal life celebs Flavor Flav and Brigitte Nielsen. However, Flav and Brigitte's love didn't flourish, so Flav did the only responsible thing and went on a bachelor type show called Flavor of Love and the rest is history. Over the next few seasons several other spin offs were spawned and excellent titles such as I Love New York, Rock of Love, Charm School, Real Chance of Love, and the ultimate spin off, I Love Money, began being broadcast. If you love stupid people making asses out of themselves, then you will LOVE all of these shows. Currently, there are three absolutely awesome shows airing new episodes on VH1: (in no particular order) Rock of Love Bus, Tool Academy, and I Love Money 2. As each of the seasons progress I'm sure I will comment on all of these shows, but for now I want to talk about last night's episode of I Love Money 2.

Heat is an idiot. Actually he may be one of the stupidest people who has ever made it on tv (Tamara excluded obviously). I can't believe how big an idiot he is. In the episode's challenge, Heat was his team's captain and got to choose who on his team would get to box in each round of a best of seven series. His team was up 3-2 with only two fights remaining, and Onyx was due to fight with for the other team. Now before the challenge Onyx had formed an alliance with Heat, the Entertainer, and 20 Pack to throw the challenge. All Heat had to do was put anyone with half a chance up there, and the challenge was over. Instead he chooses the smallest girl on his team, Prancer, which basically meant there was no way Onyx could throw the challenge without exposing the alliance. So Onyx beat Prancer setting up a chance for Heat's team to lose the cahllenge. Although Heat's team still ultimately won the final fight and the challenge, he ended up exposing his spy on the other team, destroying an excellent opportunity to sabotage later challenges. And that wasn't even Heat's biggest mistake! During the power outing, Heat went out with Onyx, Buckwild, and Leilene to try to determine who he would send home. Of those three Leilene was obviously the worse competitor and was the only one not offering to be a spy for Heat. However, during their one-on-one time Heat was seduced by Leilene and they began to make out. Heat asks what she would be willing to do to stay, and although you don't really hear an answer (cough...cough...blowjob), Heat decides to keep Leilene and send home Onyx, destroying his chance to hurt the other team. What an idiot. The exact same thing happened on I Love Money 1: Heat fell in love with Destiny, lost focus, got his girl stolen by the Entertainer and then was sent home. I predict a repeat performance. Heat is an idiot, and he will be gone within 5 episodes. Regardless I am real excited for next week's episode, and hopefully the green team, my personal favorite, can get a win and send someone like Heat, 20 Pack, or the Entertainer home. And don't forget about the series premier of T.I.'s Road to Redemption tonight. Although it's on MTV and not VH1, you've gotta love that celebreality!