Let’s face it: Audrina Patridge was never the life of the party on “The Hills.” At best, she was a confidante to the main character (whether it was Lauren Conrad or Kristin Cavallari) who occasionally got her own storylines. With that in mind, it is unclear why anyone would give her her own reality show, but they did.

What do you get when you throw 12 award-winning chefs together in the same room? Well, normally, I’d expect to get an absolutely fabulous dinner, but I’ll take the next best thing—a new season of “Top Chef Masters” on Bravo, premiering Wednesday at 10 p.m.

A recent SAT Reasoning Test essay prompt stirred controversy after asking whether the airing of choreographed reality TV is harmful to its audience. Even though the prompt explains the basics of what reality TV is, the question is definitely much more familiar and intuitive to someone who has seen a wealth of reality TV shows in the past.

Andie and Alex gave their opinions on the state of reality television a few weeks ago, but the discussion isn’t over. Their arguments opened something inside of me, something dark and repressed, like the first time I saw “The Proposal.” I thought I should share what I’ve found on the state of reality television.

The 20th season of “Survivor” premiered last Thursday, and somehow I still care. “Survivor” was the show that launched the genre of reality TV, and in the past decade, it has changed the television landscape. This show is a brilliant representation of somewhat primal human behavior when set outside of civilization. This new season brings together heroes and villains of 19 seasons past.

Reality shows fill up my time and schedule with reason: They make me laugh, gasp and cry (not really). I love reality shows because they are entertaining without being pretentious. They know what they are, and they don’t pretend to be anything different. I should clarify, though, which reality shows I’m talking about.

As reality programming comes to dominate the television arena, requisite stereotypes of characters have emerged. It seems that every show has a few main staples that no good reality show can do without. But the one role that I am particularly interested in exploring is the role of the “bitch.” The “bitch” has appeared on [...]