Reality TV Update: Tears for Fears

The origin of Dr. Mid-Nite
so Alana from King of the Nerds will never forget it.

Everybody was crying their little hearts out on my reality shows this week. On King of the Nerds, Genevieve bawled like a baby when Kevin Smith criticized her performance in a debate on superheroes. On Project Runway, Ben broke down because his past difficult relationship was causing him to make a lousy dress. On the new show The Job, everybody was weeping because they were all out of work. Join the crowd, hons.

There is so much reality I must watch these days, I had to DVR everything. Thursdays will be especially bad when Comic Book Men returns next week. Then Kevin Smith will be on opposite the Nerds and Project Runway. I guess I'll have to DVR the late-night rerun of one of them. Plus, Amazing Race starts next Sunday as well.

I was trying to catch up today, but my partner was downloading the broadcast of the Met's Siegfried which is seven hours long and has been in the machine for months. We've also been trying get the DVD recorder and the Slingbox to be be simultaneously attached to the cable box and they were conflicting, but that's another story.

Anyway, King of the Nerds got to my favorite topic: comic book superheroes. After the aforementioned debate, two members of the losing team--Genevieve and Alana--were sent to the Nerd-Off to answer superhero trivia questions. Alana foolishly claimed she was such an expert on the topic she didn't need to study and then missed one of the easiest questions: What year did Superman first appear? Even I knew the answer was 1938. In addition, in a multiple choice question, she could not name which character with a doctor in his monicker had an actual medical degree. Answer: Doctor Midnight, a blind physician who fights crime. (I knew that one because Dr. Midnight was a member of the Justice Society of America who often made guest appearances with the Justice League of America.) Alana claimed she hadn't heard of any of these characters because she didn't start reading comics until the 1990s. So she was eliminated. I did like her but she played on the "Poor Me" bit too much.

Benjamin on Project Runway (the blond Australian) was throwing his own pity party by creating this nightmare of an evening gown with straps clumsily twisted around the model. He should have been eliminated not Cindy whose shiny pink mini-dress with a sloppy, unzipped back was not so great, but better than Benjamin's train wreck. BTW, judge Zac Posen looked like a guest villain on Batman or a campy uncle from Bewitched with that maroon dinner jacket and Edwardian cravat.

I caught the first episode of CBS's The Job where candidates get their dream position if they have a heart-warming enough story. Why can't all interviews be in front of a studio audience and hosted by Lisa Ling? Next week Joanna Coles will be among the hiring. Didn't we have enough of her on Project Runway All Stars?