For me, to do a reality show is like sending myself to actor's graveyard. I feel like I should wait and create my own projects... do independent movies before I would have to go and do reality shows. Or produce one and come up with one on my own!

'So You Think You Can Dance' comes on as a high-minded leap up the evolutionary ladder from other reality shows - on this one, you're supposed to learn something, and the guest judges are fellow dance professionals rather than actual celebrities.

Reality shows. I'll watch them, but I won't tell anyone I'll watch them. I remember when the first British 'Big Brother' was on. I watched that Nasty Nick. I never watched it since, but I watched the first one. I was mesmerized. Don't tell anyone!

I believe that reality shows are extremely important for the talented. Contestants get a platform where they can prove their talent. If they are good at what they do, their life is made. Personally, reality shows have helped me get fame and money.

When people first started watching UFC, it seemed like a no-holds barred event... early on it looked like all the fighters were crazy. Actually, there are a lot of techniques, and the reality shows have let people see the fighters behind the scenes.

There's a stigma about reality shows and the people who star in them. Reality shows mean your career will end, your marriage will be cursed, you have to fight and/or throw a drink, or you're going to end up broke and a has-been when the series ends.

I have a thing against reality shows. I think they are so fake. I think they are produced before they begin. I think people know where they're going, what they're going to say, what the situation is. These things just don't happen and you know that.

You can't really class all reality shows together. For instance, 'Top Chef' is about talent and competition. 'Big Brother' is more like what happens when you get all those narcissistic personalities crammed in together... and there are limits to that.

Now, having had this experience, I can't say really what they were looking for. I don't know their minds. But every time I see a reality show, it seems that the most entertaining parts on other reality shows are when they make their guests look foolish.

I've been approached many times to write all sorts of books about my past and my personal life. I get interest from people who want to do reality shows, and somebody just offered me a huge amount of money to write my spiritual memoirs. I'm just not interested.

I found myself trying to work within the Los Angeles system. I had an agent and a manager, which I still do, and going to meetings with networks about game shows and reality shows and projects that weren't mine. It was fun, but it wasn't what I'd set out to do.

As a viewer, I love to watch reality shows, and being a part of the industry, I feel it helps a lot. There are a lot of talented artists in small towns and villages of India, and these shows are a huge platform to showcase their talent and bring them to the forefront.

You know what, I don't really watch a lot of cooking shows, but what's great about them is that it inspires a lot of the younger generation so, you know, with cooking shows and reality shows and the social media, I think it really makes our industry a hotter industry.

I used to watch some of the reality shows about models, and then, weirdly, now I try to incorporate into my fashion shoots the skills I learnt from watching those shows. It's like, thanks Tyra, 'cause you've given me, like, all the cool tips. Like how to smile with your eyes.

'American Idol' is sometimes lumped with reality shows and it has that element - folks-next-door battling it out in a contest. But instead of fighting leeches, bugs, parasites and each other, as on CBS's 'Survivor' and other shows that imitate it, the 'American Idol' contestants, of course, sing.

Even in reality shows, how they look at black women like they're the monsters - snatching wigs, and weaves and wigs, weaves and wigs, basically, and throwing water and stuff. That's how people see us often, as we are the enemies of things. I wanted to change that because that's not a good example.

You watch these reality shows and say, 'Oh, I would do that, except for eating all the gross stuff.' These reality shows are like everyone's little guilty pleasure. To have an opportunity to be on one, why not? Anybody who says, 'No, I don't want to be on one' is kind of lying in the back of their heads.

In a deep metaphysical sense, all that is conditioned is illusory. All phenomena are literally 'appearances,' the outer masks in which the One Reality shows itself forth in our changing universe. The more 'material' and solid the appearance, the further is it from reality, and therefore the more illusory it is.

I was offered a lot of reality shows in the past. I continue to be offered things like 'The Surreal Life.' I did one in 2002, right after the attacks on the World Train Center. It was called 'Celebrity Bootcamp.' It sounded exciting and cool when they presented it. When you get down to it, it was corny and cheesy.

People ask me all the time, 'Are you fed up with reality TV?' At the end of the day, it can affect my career in the sense that the more reality shows there are, the less scripted dramas out there, but I can't ever really knock them. I started on 'Popstars,' which was a reality talent show. I have respect for them.

Of course it worries you as an actress to stay away from projects. I was approached for many TV soaps as well as reality shows. But, to stay away from work was my decision, and I'd glad to be part of such an interesting and unique concept like 'Ghar Jamai.' I am happy that I am playing a role that is so relatable.

The booming popularity of alligator hunting, sparked by reality shows like the History Channel's 'Swamp People,' is easy to understand: It's an exotic blast of adrenaline. But there's a culinary upside as well, with gator boasting a delicate light-pink meat that, to me, falls somewhere between veal and wild turkey.

People were fed up with reality shows about midgets getting married and weird Jerry Springer talk shows. There had been a real dry spell of intelligent family-oriented viewing: the type of program that Mom, Dad and the kids can all watch together. With 'Lost,' there are just so many characters for people to invest in.

There's a confusing message that we're sending people now, that lots of money can made off of simply having a lot of followers and having no discernible skills or talents. I don't know if I'm in a minority or if it's just a guilty pleasure for people, but I think the preponderance of reality shows is of great detriment to human beings.

Personally, I'm not into reality shows - I can't even name a reality show that I was a really big fan of, altogether as a whole, not just from MTV. Like, if ABC has another reality show, I'm like, 'Oh God, another reality show.' But people love them. 'The Hills', 'Laguna Beach'... those do extremely well. It's just a personal preference.

I really want to emphasise this - 'Strictly' is a positive show. It's interesting that it gets cast into this, understandably, the ordinary net of reality shows, but there's no part of it which feels nihilistic or unpleasant. It's all about learning something and doing well, and you feel this overwhelming sense of people wanting you to do well.

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