My Opinion Didn't Count

While in Las Vegas over the summer, our family decided to take part in a television screening. The kids thought it would be fun and were hoping for a hilarious sitcom or some new fantastical reality show. I was just hoping it wasn't something scary, where I'd have to find the exit with Middle Child, who tends to freak out easily.

Our group of 25 was ushered into a little room and we were seated in front of our own computers, with little black hand-held devices. After answering some preliminary questions on the computer screen (presumably to discover which of us was really the targeted audience), we had to put the hand-held device in our lap and turn the dial continually during the program. The dial went from 0-100 and the more interesting the show was to us, the higher we were supposed to turn the dial.

Within the first 10 seconds of the screening, I knew that my dial would unlikely get past a 5! It was a reality show about a group of grizzly middle aged and older men, on a quest to find gold in Alaska. The only time my dial went anywhere above 10 was during an argument one of the men was having with his wife about leaving. Otherwise, the show was a real snoozer. Middle Child could barely keep her eyes open, and I'm sure that she was disqualified because she was unable to keep moving the dial (a little difficult to do when you truly have zero interest in the show). The suffering ended after 40 minutes and we had to answer some post questions on the computer. Husband, who will sit through an episode of 'American Pickers' even deemed the show to be dull. I glanced around and everyone in the room looked as though they had struggled to remain awake.

This past Friday night, as I was chuckling through an episode of 'The Soup' (I know) in our bedroom, Husband came upstairs and told me to turn on the Discovery Channel. And there it was. 'Gold Rush: Alaska'

I tried. I really did......