Richard Jones' Log: Average Joe, a footnote

"Below-average secrets" talks about a couple of fairly crappy "hooks" used by reality shows in their desperate attempts to get viewers. One example is the hugely promoted mystery change to Big Brother. I don't watch the show, but the ads promoting the big mystery were unavoidable - played once or twice every hour for the last couple of months. Then they go on to talk about the big secret being used as a hook to get people to watch Average Joe:

As they walked the orange-filtered beach, out came Larissa's big news: she told Gil how she had once - what? Killed her parents? Sold nukes to al-Qaeda? Traded sexual favours for free BLT subs?

No. Larissa had once dated Fabio. Yeah, and? Well, and nothing. That was it.
...
Apparently just dating Fabio was enough for Gil, whose dumping of Larissa was so spontaneous they staged it several times for the cameras, resulting in a lovely continuity blooper involving a large piece of vanishing luggage.

One of our radio stations actually had a competition recently where people could ring in with what they thought was the worst ever hook used by a reality show. Apparently the Survivor promos for one episode had this whole thing about a shark attack, with dodgy music and funny camera work. Apparently it turned out that one of the "survivors" caught a baby shark.