"Outback Jack" -- what're the odds he actually from the Outback?

[ForrestGump]

Saw ads for the upcoming 'reality' show, Outback Jack, and the first thing I thought was "dude, I bet he's not even from the Outback." I just checked on Google and, sure enough, I answered the question that I meant this thread to pose: he's an occupational health and safety officer from East Melbourne, about as far away from the Outback as it's possible to get in Australia. Too pretty for the Outback, anyway -- that place ages men and women like you wouldn't believe.

So he's not from the Outback and, in keeping with the journalisit integrity we've come to expect from 'reality' TV, he's not named Jack. He's named Vadim. And the Average Joe people weren't named Joe, either. What's the world coming to?

To his credit, though, he is allegedly a big-time outdoors enthusiast and sportsman, with a lot of trophies won, so the odds are good that he actually knows his way around the Outback and its various hazards and beasties. Good luck to him as he works his way toward fame, fortune, and perhaps niknik with the show's airheaded American girls.

Anyway, I was deeply disturbed by the commercial because of my skepticism over the focal dude being an Outbacker and, more so, because the women featured seem to be (are certainly painted as) really, really, really annoying. I've had the misfortune of dealing with such Americvan princesses in the field and it's not only far from fun, it's dangerous and generally A Very Bad Thing. The line about destroying the Outback and replacing it with a shopping mall would be potent evidence that the show's scripted or that the subjects are playing up for the cameras were it not for the fact that I've more than once heard similar sentiments from carbon-copies of the willfully ignorant shallow bimbos that US mass media so painstakingly celebrates (hello, Jessica Simpson) as some kind of ideal. Sick.

Look on bulletin boards here in LA and you'll see casting calls for what seems like an endless array of 'reality' shows. It's a sick trend that, if anything, is only deepening. Those of us who find most (or all) of these shows basically offensive on one level or another should be prepared to remain offended for a good few years yet should we stray at the wrong time to any of the increasing number of broadcast and cable channels that are producing these shows.