airing the laundry

When I was flipping through the channels on the car radio, I stopped when one local radio station had one of those "relationship" experts on the air.  Normally I think those "experts" are not truly legitimate, and normally I wouldn't have continued to listen.

However, fielding questions from callers, one woman wanted to know if her husband was cheating on her. So, the radio host proceeded to do the "rose ceremony".

I admit...I was a little intrigued.  What is the "rose ceremony"?

The radio host would call her husband under the guise of an employee at a heating company doing a satisfaction survey, and for answering a few questions, the respondent would get a dozen of long stemmed roses delivered to whomever they wanted, for free.

I assume they do this so they can find out if this man would have the roses delivered to his wife, or to someone else.  

Luckily, he did say he wanted to send them to his wife, and in the card he would write..."to the greatest woman in the world whom I love so much.  I love you".

Is this normal practise of this radio station?  What if he was going to send them to someone else?  What if he was going to send them to his mother?  What exactly did that phone call resolve or establish other than entertainment for the masses, and a potential family disaster with the caller.  Did they have children?  Was there more to the story?  How often does this rose ceremony occur on air?

Honestly, I was baffled and a little disgusted.  I'm not sure how this is ethical, and I wonder where "entertainment" has gone (on the television, I thought shows were starting to clean up their act...as I wrote here). 

When will there be a time when we as spectators, decide that enough is enough, that what we find as "entertainment" shouldn't be a distorted and contrived reality that is set up for failure, just to get ratings.   

I believe in doing the laundry, not airing it...and maybe some things should just remain behind closed doors.  


What do you think about all these "shock/reality" shows?