Reality Shows Brought Game Shows To Primetime

So Lundy and I got on the topic of Reality TV yesterday, I think in relation to the Writer's Strike, and he stated something that I hadn't realized; Reality shows are game shows. See, I don't watch Reality shows ... I watch watch what the DVR (it isn't a TiVo yet, grrrr!) records: LOST, Battlestar Galactica, Nova, Naked Science, Daily Show, Colbert, etc --- but I was watching when they began. I recall watching season one of The Real World, and it wasn't a game show. All of the members got paid equally and got to live in the swanky digs that MTV provided. Nobody won or got booted off, unless you count the comic who got voted out of the house in Real World's second (I think) season. So maybe The Real World originated that vote-to-kick-somebody-out concept too. Anyway, it still wasn't a game show, and it survived for a few seasons that way. But thanks to Survivor and its deformed children, it's all game shows (except The Osbornes, which was great fun).

Now, when I think gameshow I'm thinking The Price Is Right or Wheel Of Fortune. Daytime shows. But Reality shows don't ride in the back of the mini-van. They're occupy, and some would argue, dominate Primetime. And if I've got my dates right, they brought up some more traditionally formated game shows with them, because Survivor predated Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, right?