The Judging Panel

It's not hard to tell the difference between a guilty-pleasure reality competition show and a genuine, talent-based competition. However, I think I have found one key clue: the judges. 

If the judges usually agree, it's probably legitimate (Project Runway, Top Chef). If they are really experts in the field and have a good eye for talent, they will logically reach the same conclusions. Sometimes it's a matter of taste-- but if the judges, across the board, agree in the quality of performance or product, it's a higher-quality show. 

However-- you know it's a joke when the judges are always fighting (American Idol, America's Next Top Model). I've often felt that their comments and judgements were arbitrary, unfounded in reality and even self-contradicting...and this is a huge signal that they have no idea what they're talking about. 

What's the most annoying to me is when the winner on a low-quality show (ANTM) becomes very, very clear later in the season. For example, Danielle (now Dani). She won most competitions, was completely gorgeous and polite, and was a sure bet to win. So what did the judges do to make it seem as if there was any doubt? They started telling her (out of nowhere) that she needed to work on her accent. Yes. Her accent surely will destroy her career as a model. It's a stupid, cheap way to create 'suspense' and is a red alert on the reality show bullshit detector. 

I just noticed that the two examples of quality shows I used are on Bravo...and the two poor examples have the word "America" in the title. Perhaps another indicator of quality. If it has the name of our country in it, it sucks. If it's on Bravo, it's awesome. So simple!