While we love bringing you what’s new and cool and educational in media, we thought it would be fun to share with you our own staffer’s favorite guilty pleasure TV shows. Admit it–or only to yourself– we all have those shows we love to watch when the kids are asleep and we’re not uh, listening to NPR or committing Cervantes to memory.
Some of the picks here actually threw us for a loop! We always knew we had a mad vampire fan among our ranks, but who knew we had a daytime soap opera addict too?
Liz : God help me, I need a Real Housewives 12-step program. I’m hard pressed to choose a favorite between Beverly Hills, New York, and New Jersey, all of which I find endlessly fascinating and sadly cathartic. (Come on – you love it when the mean girl finally gets hers.) I just know that if Kyle Richards and I ever met, we’d be BFF forever and ever. And we’ll have lunch with Andy Cohen once a week at The Ivy.
[see more guilty pleasure TV picks after the jump. You can make fun of us later!]
Honorable Mention: Speaking of rehab, I can’t help but be captivated by the heart-wrenching stories on Celebrity Rehab with Dr Drew. I feel personally invested in the recovery of all those people now, and I sure am rooting for them.
Kristen: A woman addicted to eating toilet paper. Another who sleeps with her
blow dryer. Just two reasons why I’m now addicted to TLC’s new show My
Strange Addiction. Plus it makes me feel better that I check the lights
way too many times before I go to bed.
Honorable Mention: Toddlers & Tiaras. What isn’t there to love about stage moms and little girls running
around in $2500 dresses and full faces of make up? I just have to make sure my daughter never sees
it.
Christina: There is something wickedly satisfying about watching thoseuber-rich “have it alls” coming to The Millionaire Matchmaker for help
in the love department. Matchmaker Patty has a way with words,
especially for those 50-somethings who want a little 20-something arm
candy. But what I really want to see is a match—this mama likes a
happy ending.
Delilah: Now that True Blood has hit the big time, I’m proud to be a long-time
Charlaine Harris fan. I’m strictly Team Eric, in case you’re wondering,
even in the episode where he was dolled up in a navy velvet tracksuit
while Pam highlighted his sexy vampire hair. Start with a telepathic
barmaid, then add in werewolves, werepanthers, fairies, maenads, and
voodoo, and you’ve got a recipe for a bloody good time.
Honorable Mention: Frisky Dingo on Adult Swim, because I laugh like a
twelve-year old boy when vulgar billionaire playboy/sociopath Xander
Crews and battles cartoon monster and presidential hopeful, Killface.
Mir: My shame is twofold; I don’t just watch Bridezillas,
I make my husband watch it with me. But hear me out: The very best way
to strengthen a relationship and conclude that whatever petty
differences exist, you are still way more sane than most of the rest of
the population is to watch crazy women flipping out about their “special
day” while beating down the men who they supposedly love. I’m telling
you, we conclude every guffaw-filled viewing with my husband telling me
how awesome and laid-back I am. (If you know me, you know why that’s
priceless.)
Honorable Mention: Goes to Monsters Inside Me. There was actually an episode called “Maggots in my Head.” Yes.
Betsy: To be fair, I got hooked on The Young & The Restless
my senior year of High School when I had Mono, but have been a loyal
viewer ever since. I have stuck with it through dozens of evil twin
story lines, endless miraculous coma recoveries, and the never-ending
saga of Victor and Nikki. My favorite thing is when I can sneak away and
“watch my stories.”
Honorable Mention: I can’t decide whether Sister Wives is completely horrifying, or if having some extra hands around the house would be pretty awesome.
Julie: I’m already compulsively tidy, but watching Hoarders
has reassured me that at least my family will never be buried under a
mountain of dead plants, empty ice cream cartons, and thirteen years’
worth of National Geographic issues. (You may scoff, but those babies
are weighty.) Though if my kids’ rooms get to be unreasonably messy, I
might start using the show as a scare tactic.
Honorable Mention: A few of my very best friends (ahem, Liz and Kristen) introduced me to Jersey Shore last
February, and as sick as I am of Sam and Ronnie–Who isn’t? GAH–I
still love that trainwreck of a show.
So, spill it mamas! What are your favorite guilty pleasure TV shows?
[all photos property of their respective networks]
Thanks to XFINITY from Comcast, which helps you watch all your favorite shows from anywhere, and whose sponsorship allowed us to shame ourselves here. The views expressed here are solely that of the Cool Mom Picks team and do not necessarily represent the views of Comcast or its partners. But we bet they like Real Houswives too.
And if you want to join us, you can catch free clips and full episodes of shows like My Strange Addiction, Millionaire Matchmaker, and True Blood on Fancast from Xfinity.
I am a HUGE Real Housewives fan as well. By the way this is one of the funniest articles you ladies have ever posted.Thanks for the laugh this morning.
General Hospital is my Guilty Pleasure show. I’ve been watching since 1983!
If you love Jersey Shore (kind of, sorta, whatever) Jerseylicious (about a bunch of heh-dress-uhs just tryin’ to get uh-lawng) is just that!
Mine is America’s Next Top Model. Every.Season
“Leverage” on TNT. “Sometimes bad guys make the best good guys.” It mixes current events with drama, humor, and slight of hand hijinks. Most importantly, the good guys always win. The writers are brilliant and most of the cast and crew tweet. It’s what got me on Twitter! Lighthearted entertainment with a serious look at real-world corruption. My once a week TV cocktail with fruity plastic drink sword of justice.
Thanks for making me feel normal.I thought I was the only one who loved some of those shows. Have a great day!
I’ll say it: I watch “True Blood.” What’s more, I was telling myself it’s not a guilty pleasure. And even feigned shock when I saw it listed here. But OK, OK. It’s soaking in the guilty pleasures bucket and it’s great.
I don’t get much time for TV. So I make my selections wisely. However, I do DVR Grey’s Anatomy for deep eye-roll purposes, it appears. (“This is no ER,” I say far too often while watching.)
Also, just started watching Glee on DVD. Corny, cheesy and hammy. The show’s a whole platter of guilty pleasure.
Oh no! True Blood is a guilty pleasure? I’m in trouble. GO TEAM ERIC! -Kristen
Burn Notice is my favorite show, partly because I think Jeffrey Donovan is so hot and partly because it’s a great spy show without nudity and foul language.
Oh god. I try so hard not to admit this shit. But Toddlers and Tiara’s in set on my DVR.
I’m also sorta digging Sister Wives. Just because it’s so wrong. I’m convinced that it will come out soon that he’s really a pot smoking hippy from California any day now.
Ok, reality tv is a train wreck – let’s stand up and LOOK AWAY. I do love me some great character fiction – Burn notice is a fav and how about Eureka for the science geeks (and science geek lovers as my husband loves it too). I have to give some props to some dearly departed shows, Lost and Battlestar Galactica.
There are a bunch of shows on TNT or TBS or some such and I have absolutely no idea what they are about, who’s in them, if they are new or old or syndicated. Burn Notice is at the top of that list.
i am in love with 16 and pregnant and teen mom series ! it is probaly because i was a teen mom and i thank the lord i did not have to go through what some of these moms do ! my hubby loves watching it too!
Well when given time always love to watch my soaps and Thanks for the good laugh
I love the shows Say Yes to the Dress, and also Whose Wedding is it Anyway? and Platinum Weddings. I haven’t had time to watch them lately but when both kids were napping on the weekends I would watch marathons of all of them. I watched the whole first season of the Real Housewives of NY one weekend. We were all drawn in like watching a train wreck but couldn’t keep up with it after that.
I’m 100% about HBO shows, BRAVO and obsessed with game shows (yes..game shows). Sunday nights the kids have always known it’s dinner in the playroom so we have one night of Adult TV. It started with the era of Sopranos now it is True Blood and Entourage one season and the best is yet to come with Boardwalk. Every other night of the week we have the TV family time (only an hour) be a game show we have recorded so we at least can talk and interact and root for people instead of numbingly staring at a screen…but when the kids go to bed – bring on BRAVO TV!!!