Equal opportunity TV watching

There's definitely a lot of TV out there that I just don't care for (e.g. all Law and Orders, CSIs, medical shows, etc.) but sometimes I'm really amused by the wide range of random stuff I do watch. Here are two shows that I've been following lately that are pretty much on the opposite sides of the spectrum from each other:

iCarly: I'm pretty sure I'm completely out of the target audience for this show as a) I'm not a preteen, and b) I'm not the parent of a preteen. But for some reason I just find it really funny. It stars Miranda Cosgrove (who I remember as the little band manager girl from School of Rock, but who's apparently more famous in the Nickelodeon world from Drake and Josh, which I've never watched) as Carly, a middle-school aged girl who makes a web show called iCarly with two of her friends, Sam and Freddie. Carly's really nice and sweet and normal but somehow manages to not be boring, Sam's kind of obnoxious troublemaker but somehow manages to be kind of lovable, and Freddie's kind of neurotic geek who has a huge unrequited crush on Carly but somehow manages to be really funny. Oh and Carly lives with her wacky artist older brother Spencer because her dad is in the military or something. Um, yeah. I don't know, I think I like it because it's just upbeat and uncomplicated and predictable. Although I suppose my watching this show isn't that much of a surprise considering I watched things like Even Stevens and yes, Lizzie McGuire through college and did watch and enjoy the High School Musical movies as well...

Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Gauntlet III: So, moving on from happy, clean preteen fare to...PURE TRASH. I've never actually watched any of Road Rules and I stopped watching the Real World a couple of seasons ago but somehow I still manage to get sucked into these challenges. And I mean, it's just ridiculous. The number of times some of these people keep coming back is crazy...according to wikipedia, Beth's been on SEVEN of these challenges and Coral and Katie have been in six?? And the funny thing now is that most of the people on these challenges haven't even been on either RW or RR...they were originally from the Fresh Meat season. And they keep coming back. These people know the deal, and they're completely shameless. I mean, the number of hookups this season is totally unbelievable...from the very first episode! And of course, there are the fights...really stupid and intense fights. And yet I can't stop watching it all. I suppose what keeps me is the fact that while the Real World is now pretty much ONLY hookups and fights, at least this show has the challenges, and at least there's the possibility of getting rid of annoying people. Last week's episode had Coral and Beth facing each other in the Gauntlet, which I have to admit was kind of awesome...