On this epic blogging challenge, I have finally reached day 10. And what’s the topic for this day … What is your guilty pleasure? According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a guilty pleasure is defined as “something pleasurable that induces a usually minor feeling of guilty.”
Oh guilty pleasures. There could be so many … and there is such a wide range of guilty pleasures. You could have them in: food, drinks, television shows, books, clothes, pampering, shoes, etc. There are so many things. So when it came time to write this post, it did take me a little while to focus on what my guilty pleasures are.
Then I finally thought of what the biggest guilty pleasure is … reality TV shows. My husband will call it my “smutty” TV shows. There are so many of them too. I have a few that I watch religiously. So, I’ll stick to them …
Guilty Pleasure TV Show #1 … Keeping Up with the Kardashians
Most people either love the Kardashians or hate them. You can count me in the first category. I LOVE ME SOME KARDASHIANS. Their social media accounts have been viewed more than once by me. I watch the show every chance I can … even if it is on reruns. Hell, their matriarch and I share the same name … Kristin. [Fun fact for those of you who didn’t know that Kris Jenner’s first name is actually Kristin.] I just can’t stop watching the “K” ladies.
For those who aren’t fans, you are probably screaming at me. “Why, Kristin, why?” “Why do you love them?” “What is it about them?” I can honestly say, I’m not sure why. There isn’t one specific thing about them that I love the most. It’s everything. Do they have their drama? Yes. But everyone has drama in their lives. Isn’t the drama what we love about them? It makes for great TV, and seeing how they handle it is what draws us in every week.
A few of the things that I love about the Kardashians is their family unity, boss lady status, and women empowerment. Even if they’re having drama together, they still have each other’s backs. They’re always there for their family. It’s wonderful. They are all bosses. In every sense of the word. Whether they are conquering the fashion world or becoming one of the youngest moguls ever, they’re dominating. Who wouldn’t love that? And let’s not forget about their women empowerment. They have never thought “I can’t do that because I’m a woman”. They show through the TV show how determined they are and how they are conquering their fields. And to boot, they are bad ass women. No matter what you think of the show, you can’t deny this.
And if I had to pick a favorite … it has to be Khloe. Sorry ladies!
Guilty Pleasure TV Show #2 … The Real Housewives of …
Now there is a whole franchise of Real Housewives shows on Bravo. It really is hard to choose just one to watch and adore. The ones that I personally love are: Atlanta, New York, O.C., Beverly Hills, and New Jersey. There are things about each show that I love. And people for that matter.
The first Real Housewives show that I fell in love with was The Real Housewives of New Jersey. The big hair. The accents. My thoughts of the possible ties to the mob (yes, I used to be a big Sopranos fan). People of Italian decent. Seeing how these affluent people live. The food and culture. It was awesome. It was a whole different world than I was used to. Not to mention that Jersey in the beginning had one thing the others didn’t … Caroline Manzo.
Now Caroline Manzo was a forced to be reckoned with. While other ladies screamed and cursed and threw fits, Caroline didn’t. She was quiet. She was sincere. But when she got mad, you knew it. She was a force to be reckoned with. The show really did focus around her and the Manzo clan, until her departure from the show. There was even a spin-off for a couple of seasons. While I still watch the show, it hasn’t been the same since Caroline left.
Here are some of the other Real Housewives that I love so much …
NeNe Leakes (Atlanta)
Lisa Vanderpump (Beverly Hills)
Bethenny Frankel (New York City)
Tamra Judge (O.C.)
Guilty Pleasure TV Show #3 … Jersey Shore
I can’t help but love this show. When I first heard about it, I thought there was no way MTV was doing a show about “guidos” at the beach. Then I watched it. At first I didn’t know what to make of it. But as I watched, I fell more and more in love with this show. The “characters”. Their drama. It was awesome for the audience. Not to mention one of the guidos (I’m talking about you DJ Pauly D) is from my state … Rhode Island. It was another show where I couldn’t imagine the life that these people had, so I was intrigued. I had to find out about these people. I had to watch the drama of their lives.
For the most part, the ladies were my favorites of the show. I love Pauly and Vinny. They have extreme bromance down to a T. But I loved the girls. My favorite out of all of them (sorry Jennie, Sammy, and Deanna) is Snookie. Now Nicole aka Snookie is a short “meatball” who always seemed to have drama. But I loved her. I always rooted for her. Especially when she was going through all of her drama with her now husband. It’s so nice to see how much she has grown as a person. She is an amazing mother and wife now.
A show is doing well??? Time for a spin-off!
With a few of the show franchises, have come some spin-off shows. What’s a spin-off show? It is when a character is so loved by the audience that they get their own show. Now the Kardashians have had several spin-offs from Keeping Up With the Kardashians, following the ladies all over on their way to domination. MTV even tried for a second Jersey Shore type show, Floribama. [I don’t watch that one.]
For the sake of this post, I’m going to focus on spin-offs from one franchise. The Real Housewives. And to narrow it down more, Atlanta and Beverly Hills.
Guilty Pleasure TV Show #4 … Don’t Be Tardy
When watching the Real Housewives of Atlanta, there was a presence in the first five seasons that could not be denied. She has even made an appearance since her departure from the show back in 2012. Who could I be talking about? The undeniable and awesome Kim Zolciak-Biermann.
Kim has released a song entitled “Tardy for the Party” which birthed the title of her spin-off reality show; “Don’t Be Tardy”. And you definitely don’t want to be tardy for this show. It’s hilarious and real. Watching Kim and her husband, Kroy, parent their children and see what they go through is so entertaining. This show is about Kim’s life and what is going on it. What is Brielle doing? What about Arianna? KJ? Kash? The twins? [I love seeing the twins, since they are Emily’s age. I feel like a playdate between Emily and the kids would be epic.]
One of my all time favorite parts of this show, Kim and Kroy’s relationship. They have a love like you never see. When so many people are easy to jump to divorce, Kim and Kroy come through. They are amazing together. You can tell that they balance each other out. It’s so wonderful to see that their love is going strong through all of the tough times that they go through.
[Also, I love listening to Kim’s podcast; House of Kim. I have an iPhone, so I can get it on the Apple Podcasts app. It’s awesome. Check it out.]
Guilty Pleasure TV Show #5 … Vanderpump Rules
While watching the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, one of the ladies that you follow is Lisa Vanderpump. She is a restauranteur with many successful restaurants under her belt. In this show, we get to see the ones that she has in California. For those who don’t watch, these are Villa Blanca, SUR, Pump, and now TomTom. As you might be able to tell, the show Vanderpump Rules follows Lisa and the staff of one of her most popular restaurants, SUR.
Through the years, we’ve gotten to know a lot of the employees there. Some of my personal favorites are Brittany, Ariana, Lala, Stassi, and Scheana. I love the guys too … (as Lisa calls him) Schwartzy is my favorite. As with any reality show, I love watching the drama and the craziness of their lives. Who is dating who? Did so-and-so sleep with him or with him? Has he really cheated on her AGAIN? Who did what while they were drunk? What will they do next?
There is always so much drama between the crew at SUR. It is nice to see when they all have each other’s backs as well. In this current season, we learn about Lala’s father passing away. She mentions how all of the girls were there for her. It’s wonderful that even though there might be drama between them, they can still all get together to be there for their friend.
One thing you can say about the crew at SUR, no matter how much drama is going on in their lives they really do seem to be like a big family. It might be a dysfunctional family, but still a family. I can’t wait to see what happens next.
As you have read, my guilty pleasure is reality TV shows. What is your guilty pleasure? Leave me a comment below and let me know.
I found all of the images that you see in this post through a Google search. They were then edited a little through Canva, only to be resized. The first image was created through Canva. Besides the first one, I do not take credit for the other images.
