REX
It's a phrase that up and down the country accompanies a frustrated bout of channel hopping or another lacklustre flick through the television guide: "I hate reality TV."
There seems to be a sense that reality TV should be beneath us, that does not befit upstanding members of society.
Really we Britons love it.
To take an example in 2012 Edwina Currie accused I'm A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! of "ritual humiliation".
What has she been up to recently?
Among other things, standing on a rotating platform in Australia with former World Superbike Champion – and now King Of The Jungle – Carl Fogarty having molasses and cockroaches dumped on her head.
And her fellow campmate Michael Buerk, just before he took up residence in the jungle, admitted to being "very sniffy about reality TV".
Both of them had the time of their lives and won a host of new fans, as did their fellow celebrities currently brightening up Saturday and Sunday nights on Strictly Come Dancing.
Truly we have been blessed with a glut of brilliant reality TV with the Apprentice and The X Factor both on at the moment as well.
All of them boast viewing figures of at least 6 million with Strictly topping the table with a staggering 9.2 million.
It is hard to argue with the statistics.
Simply put, our professed hatred of reality TV is not borne out.
The top shows are genuinely excellent.
Strictly manages to provide both hilarious comedy – who could forget John Sergeant's furious stomping? – and high-class dancing – Alesha Dixon was so good as a contestant she became a judge for the next series.
It is an old critique of The X Factor that Bob Dylan would never have made it to boot camp let alone the live finals but that completely misses the point.
The X Factor is all about light entertainment.
At the end of it there comes another single from another warbler and its fans impatiently itch for the next iteration.
The cast of The Only Way Is Essex are now so famous they have themselves ended up on celebrity reality shows
That is why it is has been so successful for so long.
We just have to remember that The X Factor is no more trying to find the next Bob Dylan, John Lennon or Mick Jagger than the Apprentice is trying to unearth the next Richard Branson, Donald Trump or Alan Sugar.
As any true fan knows the Apprentice is really all about the intrigue, back-stabbing and sheer idiocy.
Anybody looking for tips on how to become an entrepreneur would struggle.
Anybody who loves ludicrous soundbites is in exactly the right place.
Highlights from this series include "this world is as big as our oyster", "I always excel expectations" and "I am perfectly rounded in the world of business".
Lord Sugar's acerbic put-downs remain a joy to hear even after 10 series.
These shows are successful for the same reason as Disney movies – the whole family can enjoy them.
Toy Story is on the surface a film for children but it is packed with quips that fly over kids' heads but make their parents and grandparents chuckle.
Strictly has both an antiques expert and a slinky pop singer.
I'm A Celebrity featured a Playboy bunny and also our columnist and former Tory minister Ann Widdecombe.
These shows are equally capable of entertaining a teen and a grandparent.
It is a difficult circle to square but they have managed it.
As a result there cannot be many people who do not sit down for at least one evening a week with a cup of tea (or perhaps something a bit stronger) to watch some reality TV.
These shows are followed by tribal fans who are fiercely loyal and devour the live shows, spin-offs, interviews and reams of news coverage.
And most of us happily watch our own favourites with religious devotion before hypocritically casting snide aspersions about the alternatives and, yes, claiming to hate reality TV.
Deep down we all know it's not as worthwhile as visiting a gallery, going for a run or reading a book.
Just because it's a guilty pleasure doesn't make it less of a pleasure.
Perhaps the main reason why reality TV is so snobbishly despised is because of what some people view as the bottom end of the market.
The Only Way Is Essex, Geordie Shore and Made In Chelsea each follow their own group of people in, you've guessed it, Essex, Newcastle and the West London borough of Chelsea.
BBC
These new "scripted reality" shows might be little more than anaesthetic for the mind but they are wildly popular, so popular in fact that the genre boasts its own channel, the newly launched ITVBe.
What on first viewing appears to be mindless drivel has an amazing capacity to suck the viewer into its world and has made the stars into major celebrities almost over night.
The cast of The Only Way Is Essex are now so famous they have themselves ended up on celebrity reality shows.
Mark Wright strutted his stuff in this year's Strictly and last year Joey Essex did so well on I'm A Celebrity... that he came fourth.
Reality TV was not always so frowned upon.
In its early days it was really a form of documentary.
Seven Up was first aired 50 years ago and followed the lives, at intervals, of 14 children.
The people behind the show said they were doing it "because we want to get a glimpse of England in the year 2000.
"The shop steward and the executive of the year 2000 are now seven years old."
This reality TV is not only far from trashy it has lived on long beyond the year 2000.
Fifty-six Up was shown in 2012 with the young children now in middle age.
Those former children include among their number a district councillor, a forklift truck driver and a musician.
The district councillor, Neil Hughes, grew up wanting to be an astronaut and failing that a coach driver.
He didn't succeed in his dream of going to Oxford University, dropped out of Aberdeen University and went on to spend time living in a squat and was later homeless.
But he turned his life around, became a district councillor in Cumbria and even ran for Parliament.
Following his life is not a wanton or mindless pursuit. His is a heroic story of failure and redemption.
Neil Hughes seems like a character from a Victorian novel but it is reality TV we have to thank for telling us his story.
Forty years ago we had The Family starring the Wilkins.
This warts-and-all look at their life was pioneering at the time.
Watching it now the intimate portrayal of their lives does not even seem intrusive and all the hallmarks of the modern fly-on-the-wall show are so familiar they have been rendered completely unremarkable.
More than anything else on television up to that time The Family showed us that ordinary people's everyday lives are not just a subject for television but a fascinating one.
Decades since the first fly-on-the-wall documentary perhaps nowadays the schedules are too full of reality TV.
But all these shows wouldn't be made if we really did hate them.
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