Reality TV - Do we really hate these people?

Hayden from MasterChef. Life saver from Cronulla, great cook, articulate and thoughtful. But sadly for many, no longer on the show!

As I write this blog Hayden is at home slicing and pickling his daikon lamenting what could have been. If he hadn't stuffed that up last night, he would be TOP 5 in Master Chef. But instead, because he didn't rinse the salt off his finely mandolined Japanese vegies, he sits at home, in Cronulla, on a rainy day.

Dannii from MasterChef. A Top 5 contender, seems nice enough, but cries at the drop of a hat and doesn't appear to have as much culinary talent as some of the other contestants who have already left the show.

But possibly more interesting than imagining Hayden with his Daikon, is to think about why we care so much about Hayden. And Kate and Dannii. You see it's struck me over the last few weeks, that we viewers of reality TV tend to find ourselves inextricably linked and a part of the lives of the contestants. I think it's kind of weird.

Billy from Master Chef. Great guy, really funny, creative chef with a cool attitude. Lost a challenge and no longer on the show.

It began with nasty hate pages being set up on Facebook in seasons and other shows past and this year, it manifests itself in people everywhere commenting on Facebook, in the office, on busses and in the press about the level of annoyingness of the contestants. It seems that without even meeting these people, after watching them in their heavily edited TV show sound bites, we decide that we know them and sometimes, they annoy us so much, we hate them!

Now I'm not up on a high horse here. I am one of the people with very strong opinions about contestants on The Block (love Waz and Polly and Katrina and Amie) and Master Chef (really liked Peter and Billy, not mad on Dannii and Ellie, don't mind Alana, couldn't STAND Sun and think Michael's really sweet). You have to wonder how these people deal with all these opinions in the community.

So let's take the less likeable (in my opinion) people on these shows. Like Josh. As in Josh and Jenna on the Block. Did anyone else see his altercation with the site foreman was UNBELIEVABLE?? I mean seriously, this guy was super rude and disrespectful. Now I don't know much about building sites I gather the site foreman is the dude who makes sure they all do the right thing on site. They have to adhere to building and safety regulations and he ensures they stay within the rules. And last night Josh went nuts because the foreman quite reasonably asked him to move some plasterboard (am I in too deep here?). Anyway, you get my point. After one episode and one appalling performance, I now have strong opinions about Josh. And they aint nice!

Waz and Polly from The Block. Nice couple, never annoying, good fun but not all that successful in the show so far.

So is that fair do you think? Do you have to be super thick-skinned to be on reality TV shows to cope with the feedback and fallout once you leave, find yourself voted off or after you stuff up pickling a Daikon?

Probably. I'm trying not to write them off so easily now. I'm trying to see that maybe they are the victims of ruthless editing aimed squarely at showing the contestants at their best, worst and most emotional purely to get good ratings. I mean surely all this negativity about people we don't even know can't be good for our own health nor the zen levels of the community. And who knows, maybe under that kind of pressure with just fifteen minutes left on the clock and a whole duck to de-bone, stuff and truss that maybe I too would start crying as my soufflé flops and my caramel sauce burns.