Game shows have a long history of cruelty.
But for all their underlying nastiness, game shows have maintained a friendly veneer. I think it's the trash talk shows that, in the early '90s, started to tear down TV's nice facade. Then we all got to watch as lives crumbled before us. Game shows were so late in lifting the nicey-nice pretense that their cruelty has been almost refreshing. When the castaways ran out of rice earlier this season, he offered them the hard choice of more rice in exchange for their shelter.