To expand on my earlier post: reality TV is popular not just because of cost, but because it really taps in to the relationship between the media and the viewing public.
More than a few writers have recently commented on the growing exhibitionism of society (American society in particular)--not (just) sexually, but the way people search for validation by being acknowledged. It's a "Look at me!" world, and blogs, networking sites, webcams, and reality shows are filling it. Likewise, we like to watch; honestly, how many of us haven't searched through countless profiles of people we don't know on Site X, just to click on an interesting face or a quote. You read a blurb about them, and bam--that's everything you think you need to know about them. It's pressing the flesh without the germs.
Think of Twitter--a site that millions of people log on to, for messages equivalent (or identical) to "It's totally freezing rite now!1 LAWLZ", or "I just took a mad shit." This one columnist noted how, just for grins, she created a Twitter account to see what it was about. Before she'd made a *single* "tweet", she had 12 subscribers. This sounds like a tangent, but it isnt: a world with Twitter, LJ, and UBBs is one inseparable from the rise of reality television.
"But that's just my opinion; I may be wrong..."