Explains the origin of the recent meteoric explosion in Reality TV: Uses the main production company as focal point. Not to long and informative.

Civilization might have been better served if, on that fateful evening in 1997, John de Mol--the owner of Endemol, had just called it a night and gone to sleep. But he couldn't stop brooding about television. It was close to midnight, at the end of a long and fruitless brainstorming session, when someone had mentioned Bioshpere 2--the American media stunt that locked four men and four women in a giant glass bubble in the desert for …

…over last year's $50 million. Want a good chuckle watching people like you fumble rudimentary tasks after two days of no sleep? Tune in to Ednemol's Exhausted, one of several new shows likely to air this year. Linda de Mol says her brother is starting to kick back a bit now. Don't count on it. Brace yourself: Independence just might inspire him to inflict yet more hidden cameras, bile pizzas and spinning airplanes on TV viewers.