TVSquad

Reality shows are an easy target. At their worst, they combine narcissistic competitors in a state of arrested development with manipulative editing and piss poor production values. They are base, coarse, often times racist and tedious beyond belief. They bring out the worst in us - our collective desire to see other people humiliated.

Fortunately, all reality shows are not the same. I mean, would Tim Gunn be involved in anything that wasn't a class act? Shows like Project Runway and, to some extent, The Amazing Race redeem an otherwise unfortunate genre littered with wife-swaps, cat fights, strangers picked to live in a house and competitive testicle eating. There is plenty of good among the bad, and in my neck of the woods, certain reality shows are as much "must see TV" as any scripted program. I'm looking for the same thing in both anyway - emotional truth.

How often does this kind of opportunity come along? Beginning Wednesday, January 17th, Bravo viewers will be able to bitch and moan directly to the network's Senior Vice President of Production and Programming Andy Cohen via "Watch What Happens," a live-streaming online program. Each week Andy and a handful of Bravo's reality stars will dish with fans on "what the hell happened." "Jeffrey, neck tattoo? Talk to me." "Mike, did you really think the whole John Belushi persona would take you far in the world of haute cuisine?"

More information has been released about VH1's latest reality outing - ego trip's The (White) Rapper Show. What we reported to you in early November remains the same - the show, which premieres on January 8th, is a reality competition which pits lily white MCs against one another in search of the next Eminem or Adrock.

Now, you wouldn't expect another lame reality show from the team behind ego trip, would you? For the uninitiated, ego trip was a New York-based hip-hop magazine that started back in 1994. The publication covered underground sounds with wit and attitude. They were the "arrogant voice of musical truth." While the magazine folded years ago, ego trip remained at large through a series of books - ego trip's Book of Rap Lists and ego trip's Big Book of Racism. They partnered with VH1 on ego trip's Race-O-Rama and TV's Illest Minority Moments. Given their track record, it would be a huge disappointment were The (White) Rapper Show to suck.

VH1 has given the greenlight to a slate of new primetime reality series featuring music celebrities. Of course, some of those celebrities are more famous than others.

While most of the shows promise the same car accident, "can't help but stare" cringe-worthiness of the unfortunate Surreal Life, at least one or two of the promised series sound vaguely entertaining.

Here are the six titles in development: