The reality TV shows we'd actually win

NPR | By Stephen Thompson,

Linda Holmes, Glen Weldon, Aisha Harris, Candice Lim, Rommel Wood, Jessica Reedy

Published August 21, 2024 at 9:28 AM EDT

Ted Allen on <em>Chopped.</em> — Ted Allen on *Chopped.*

Part of the fun of reality TV is putting yourself in the shoes of the people you're watching. Maybe you'd make a great Real Housewife. Maybe you could win The Amazing Race. Maybe you could even win the fickle hand of The Bachelor. We're not here to make friends, but we are here to pick the reality shows that we think could thrive on.

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Stephen Thompson

Stephen Thompson is a writer, editor and reviewer for NPR Music, where he speaks into any microphone that will have him and appears as a frequent panelist on All Songs Considered. Since 2010, Thompson has been a fixture on the NPR roundtable podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, which he created and developed with NPR correspondent Linda Holmes. In 2008, he and Bob Boilen created the NPR Music video series Tiny Desk Concerts, in which musicians perform at Boilen's desk. (To be more specific, Thompson had the idea, which took seconds, while Boilen created the series, which took years. Thompson will insist upon equal billing until the day he dies.)

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Linda Holmes

Linda Holmes is a pop culture correspondent for NPR and the host of Pop Culture Happy Hour. She began her professional life as an attorney. In time, however, her affection for writing, popular culture, and the online universe eclipsed her legal ambitions. She shoved her law degree in the back of the closet, gave its living room space to DVD sets of The Wire, and never looked back.

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Glen Weldon

Glen Weldon is a host of NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast. He reviews books, movies, comics and more for the NPR Arts Desk.

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Aisha Harris

Aisha Harris is a host of Pop Culture Happy Hour.

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Candice Lim

Candice Lim is a production assistant at Pop Culture Happy Hour. Prior to joining NPR in 2019, she interned at several publications, including The Hollywood Reporter, WBUR and the Orange County Register. She graduated from Boston University with a bachelor's degree in journalism and is proudly from Fullerton, California.

Rommel Wood

Jessica Reedy

See stories by Jessica Reedy