Reality TV is no spring chicken these days. Unscripted television actually started back in the 40s with the first Candid Camera series in 1948. Then PBS ran a series, An American Family, in 1973. Taking another leap forward you’ll find COPS, which first aired in 1989 with the bold idea of forgoing the smooth, polished look of studio camera and embraced the home video style instead. Then three years later MTV put out the never-ending series, The Real World, which provided everyone with round the clock camera coverage of a group of strangers learning how to hate each other in all new ways.

All of these shows laid the foundation for what would become the keystone theme of the Reality TV genre, elimination game shows. This road was paved by CBS’ Survivor in 2000 and has gone on to yield a total of 14 seasons in a mere 7 years. Unfortunately, there is no immunity idol to keep viewers safe from the increasingly high ratio of Reality TV to the old fashioned scripted comedies and dramas. The Reality TV genre is becoming worn out, overdone, and less welcome in our living rooms.

Thankfully, Alt Text over at Wired News has some creative and humorous “geek” themed suggestions to breathe live back into the genre. I don’t think we’ll ever see any of these make it, but that’s alright, they’re still good for a laugh. A sampling of his ideas includes OS Swap:

Each week, two geeks are chosen to swap computers. For maximum drama, each computer runs a different operating system. Can a Mac user adapt to Windows XP? Can a fan of Debian Linux stand a week using Red Hat Linux? The first 20 minutes of the show are usually spent sputtering and rearranging desktop icons, followed by long speeches about how the contestant’s regular computer never crashed or had driver problems and it smelled like honeysuckle and it could cure hives with its screensaver.

You can read through the rest of his ideas over at Wired News.

Thanks to Corey for his suggestion of this article. It was thoroughly enjoyed.