Five reality shows that are begging for tune-ups

"Hell's Kitchen"
The first of Gordon Ramsay's two Fox series never really had any redeeming value. The prize awarded to the last contestants tended to change after the show ended and thus seemed irrelevant, but the alleged chefs were always the series' biggest jokes. Watching them try to run a kitchen while being screamed at and insulted required no intellectual or emotional engagement, but was still endlessly entertaining.

While Ramsay continues to throw things and yell every word and insult he can think of, his shtick is as stale as Simon Cowell's alleged insults, and the increasingly incompetent chefs have stripped the show of any cooking competition credibility it may have had. A fifth season of "Hell's Kitchen" has already been taped, but after it airs, it's time to shut it down for good.

"America's Next Top Model"
That "America's Next Top Model" hasn't managed to produce a top model isn't really to blame for its decline, because the show has always been more about Tyra Banks mentoring and yelling at her "girls" than about producing real models.

In recent seasons, though, Tyra's heart doesn't seem to be in it as it once was, perhaps because she's distracted by her talk show and other reality projects. But combine that with how virtually identical the models, challenges, and episodes seem from season to season, and it's just become a bore.

"Big Brother"
The winter edition of "Big Brother" proved one thing: a group of idiots locked in a house for three months isn't necessarily entertaining. Also, a winter edition of "Big Brother" was a bad idea, in no small part because tracking the houseguests' antics can be a full-time job, and obsessive viewers need nine months to recover.

For season 10, executive producer Allison Grodner is promising a return to the show's original format, with none of the houseguests having pre-existing relationships, which hasn't happened since the show's third season. Maybe that will help, but if not, it's time for some innovation, perhaps in the form of new producers, not ones who produce the show as if they're trapped in a bubble with no outside world contact.

At the very least, the show needs to keep itself in the summer, where the heat and humidity is so oppressive we have no choice but to stay inside and spend time with a group of narcissistic, stupid jerkfaces.

Andy Dehnart is a writer who publishes reality blurred, a daily summary of reality TV news. Find him on Facebook.

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