I’ve got blood on my hands.I’m one of the people who ate up “Flavor of Love” in 2006, increasing VH1’s audience by 14 percent. VH1 noticed I was watching and promptly added seasons and spin-offs. “Flavor of Love” begat “I Love New York,” “Rock of Love” and “Charm School,” each birthing reality show babies in turn. I couldn’t get enough spitting, weave-pulling or trash-talking. The lack of dignity or class on any given show fascinated me.”Megan Wants a Millionaire” was “Flavor of Love’s” great-great-great grandchild. It followed Megan Hauserman, former cast member on multiple VH1 reality shows, as she searched for a wealthy beau. I never saw an episode, but heard through the grapevine “Megan Wants a Millionaire” was just another of VH1’s dumbed-down programs, no different from any other “Celebreality” show. I had grown tired of the formula by this point – although most of VH1’s other viewers have not. Ratings for similar shows are good.
“Megan Wants a Millionaire” was canceled last week, after contestant and rumored finalist Ryan Jenkins was found dead by apparent suicide. Jenkins was wanted for the gruesome murder of his wife, Jasmine Fiore, whose body was found on August 15 in a dumpster outside Los Angeles, badly beaten and mutilated.Jenkins and Fiore met and married in Las Vegas, shortly after “Megan Wants a Millionaire” finished taping. Jenkins later completed filming on “I Love Money 3,” and was rumored to be the winner.Jenkins was charged with assaulting Fiore earlier this year. He also had a 2005 assault charge involving a previous girlfriend. In a statement to celebrity news website TMZ regarding 51Minds, the company that produced “Megan Wants a Millionaire,” VH1 said: “51Minds was not aware of Ryan Jenkins’ record when it cast him … The company did have in place what it thought was a thorough vetting process that involved complete background checks by an outside company for all contestants on its shows. Clearly, the process did not work properly in this case.”Clearly.VH1 sought out trashier and trashier characters for their shows, often exponentially worse than their predecessors. They tried to impress viewers with the most horrible, disgusting people they could find. It worked. I watched.Ryan Jenkins was the extreme example of the “crazy,” volatile, entertaining reality show star. VH1 found exactly what they were looking for.Now the network is scrambling to distance itself from Jenkins. It doesn’t want viewers to feel like I do – like the exploitation of increasingly crazier people on television has desensitized us so we crave even more “entertaining” characters and situations, resulting in the casting of wilder, less stable people who are then rewarded for this behavior with shows of their own.My passion for the “Flavor of Love” girls’ crazy behavior encouraged this casting technique.I became both bored and disgusted with reality TV more than a year ago. But losing my viewership wasn’t enough to dissuade VH1 or other channels from continuing to lower the bar of acceptable conduct. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Tom Calderone, president of VH1, recently said “he wants to bring a more ‘redemptive’ feel to the network’s reality programming.”  Perhaps Calderone will successfully transform what has customarily been the inherent appeal of reality television, and perhaps other networks will follow. I’d be pleased to see more reality programming like “American High” or “Project Runway” – insight into our culture or real talent and skill. Best-case scenario, a brutal tragedy raises national consciousness and taste levels so reality television becomes an engaging microcosm of who we are.Worst-case scenario, a brutal tragedy occurred, and reality television stays exactly the same.Sara Boyd is a 22-year-old general studies junior from Baton Rouge.—-Contact The Daily Reveille’s opinion staff at [email protected]