Hoarding part 2

So I started by thinking about why do I watch this? Why do enough people watch this for it to be a SERIES of television shows? Because that means that there is an audience of people to watch it, and there are enough people whose lives are like this and who are willing to be on television to film a bunch of episodes, and both of those are significant.

For watchers, there are multiple aspects. I think that as a viewer I feel a sense of "oh at least I'm not that bad" - I only have one junk room not a house of junk. I think there is the fascination similar to driving past a car wreck on the highway, you drive past slowly staring as if to learn some lesson from witnessing it. I think there is also an element of hope - they tend to wrap it all up in an hour or half an hour so you can walk away thinking about happy endings. I suspect there are also people who like to watch it and laugh at the people on the show (because I know that some people just enjoy being mean). Why is there reality TV in general?!

For the people on the show, I suspect that there is a sense of desperation. And that they are compensated in some way (whether that is in services that help them to deal with the problem or whether they are paid cash outright, I don't know). Hmm, for a few it maybe an attention getting mechanism. Some may be pushed into it by other people. I think there is also a sense of hope - "maybe these people can help me finally get it together." And I think that Oprah and Phil Donahue (remember him) made it ok to bare it all on TV.