God, America, and Ryan Seacrest

I would be the last to claim that “reality” TV reflects reality in any more than a distorted, often grotesque, way. Still, sometimes I do think that moments of truth slip through the carefully choreographed nonsense.

For instance, we were watching American Idol last night (yes, yes – get all the chortling out), and there was one point where a roomful of AI hopefuls are waiting to hear whether they’re going to proceed to the next round. And you see all the people in the room (maybe 20-30 kids) holding hands in a prayer circle!

The wife observed: “Reality TV makes you realize how religious most of America is,” and that struck me as a true observation. On most network TV religion is presented (when it is presented at all) largely as I imagine most people in Hollywood perceive it: ridiculous and/or threatening. Reality TV, for all its many, many vices, occasionally gives us a moment of insight – like what a very large part of the rest of the country looks like: religous and basically normal.