Reality TV, for me, is a bit like chickens watching a rotisserie. It's been said a million times before, but reality TV has got absolutely nothing to do with the way we live our lives. There is a problem with the naming of it, which means that it would need a rebranding to become honest. However, if reality TV became honest, then it would have to be called something like exploi-TV or dry hump TV.

Television always goes through fads and trends. Once upon a time, you couldn't move for DIY shows. We had Charlie Dimmock becoming a national star and Linda Barker was on every advertisement on every single channel every moment of the waking day. Now, they are lost to the annals of TV history with their shelves and spades. Since then, it's been wall-to-wall 'reality', and we're reaching saturation point.

With the phone-in scandals, I think that people will be wary of opting for a vote to a bunch of people who have taken our money and done very little with it. Also, our newspapers are filled with moo-heads like Chantelle, Jade Goody and post-modern working girls like Danielle Lloyd and Charlie Uchea. Add all these gals together and sadly, not a brain cell you will find. Of course, the blokes from reality shows have been equally odious, but for some reason, (possibly the lack of tits) they seem to fall off the radar more quickly.

It seems that the nation is fascinated by the banal and titillating. Instead of watching and reading about genuinely fascinating people, Britain has used its time blinking mindlessly at celebrity magazines and websites, and checking Facebook status updates. It seemed that TV had a good balance of tat and talent (because, let's be honest, we all like a bit of tat now and again), but now, people, often very intelligent ones, are happy to lap up Jeremy Kyle type shows and check Facebook every ten minutes to see if anyone has changed their profile photo or added a SuperJugz application or something.

With this fascination for all things involving 'real' people, 2008 should see people tiring. The stations do have great shows sneaking out... maybe the broadcasters will have the balls to promote them. There are websites that deal with opinions and try to generate debate (cough cough) so that brains are stirred and prodded into action. It would be an empty snipe to demand an upturn in standards or something... that's not the point I'm making. All I want is some balance back. 2008 will no doubt see more fakery scandals, more reality shows and more social networking websites set to dull the senses. With that, I think people will begin to yearn for something with a little more substance... something a little more provoking. 2008 could be the year that coffin nails are prepared for reality TV.