How did you get into Reality TV.....and then get out?

Over the years since 2000, when the phrase "reality TV" suddenly became attractive to producers thanks to the smashing sccess of Survivor, it seems like they made a reality show from everything under the sun.

And by 2004, when people started noticing how fake or staged it was, producers covered themselves by acknowledging that fact to make any naysayers seem stupid for opening their mouths.

But the "actual" question is: When did you personally get into reality TV?

I'll start off by saying, it was NOT Survivor, NOR American Idol, and NOT EVEN The Real World.

It was from Jackass, back in 2001, when I was randomly browsing channels, then I spotted some guy sliding himself down a hillside only to get pounded on the way down, and for a short time, I was hooked. But when I lost interest in that it came up again in 2003, when my Mom and sister would hog the TV to watch Joe Millionaire, while I had to sit through it. This was also around the time FOX became Reality Show Central, but after the whole thing, I felt extremely underwhelmed from the experience, thinking that I wasted all that time for such a predictable outcome just because everyone else was doing it

But then I though to myself maybe it was a fluke and I can try again, next time with the Joe Schmo Show, which was a jab at reality TV, which I felt somewhat satisfied with. By 2004, I decided to give one last shot at it with VH1's The Surreal Life, which I enjoyed for the first two seasons especially the second, but by the third one things were starting to change as the characters in that season sort of tested my patience for most of the time waiting for them to do something fun or interesting, and the fourth seaon wasn't much better with even less interesting people than the last one, with the only interesting thing was seeing Verne Troyer all drunk and naked shouthing "elric elric" (who knew he was a fan of Full Metal Alchemist?), and by season five, I was out.

Since then I sort of lost all interest in reality shows, especially since the "Greatest Moments" clip shows usually give away all the good stuff anyway. It's not so much because I realized how "unreal" it is but by just how plain "uninteresting" the majority of the shows were, where only about five of the 200 or so choices had anything to enjoy, and how it wasn't worth it in the long run, where I have since reverted back to good old scripted shows, movies and cartoons for my entertainment.

So, what was your experience like with Reality shows?