Reality

If the success of Reality, an intervention program for first-time drug and alcohol offenders, is best measured by the number of repeat offenders, then Maryland's three-year statistics are glowing.The state's 5 percent recidivism rate matches the 1-in-20 repeat-offender rate in Tennessee, where the program began nine years ago. The Tennessee program has had about 6,000 participants, compared with more than 800 in Maryland.Terry Ober, the former Maryland state trooper who was recently appointed Reality's national coordinator, called the 5 percent figure "a proven barometer."

When tennis star and Wimbledon runner-up Andy Roddick saw the hosts of ESPN's Pardon the Interruption criticizing the U.S. Tennis Association's new marketing campaign for the U.S. Open Series on July 19, he was delighted. So delighted, in fact, that he went on the show the next day to explain why the series really is "Summer's Hottest Reality Series." "I think it's just [kind of an] easy promotional tool to make people pay attention," Roddick said to hosts Jay Mariotti and Michael Wilbon, "which it did because you're talking about it."

On a rainy night in early fall, reality and reality television improbably converge in Westminster's Shoppers Food Warehouse. Susan Thornton grocery shops. And producer Giles Pike videotapes Thornton as she shops. "I'm so glad you had to do this because I really had to do this," Thornton says to Pike. Of course, reality must take a back seat when Pike, himself, gets into the shopping cart for some harrowing action shots as Thornton pushes him around the store and nearly mows down another customer.

Move over, Omarosa. The D.C. Beltway has a couple of new villains in town inching their way towards most-hated status. Catherine "Cat" Ommanney, the British-born housewife given to making cringe-worthy racially charged comments, and Michaele Salahi, the infamous White House crasher who recently had a run-in with Whoopi Goldberg on "The View," have been scene-stealers for their bad behavior since "The Real Housewives of D.C. " premiered earlier this...

Reality starlet Audrina Partridge swears The Hills, MTV's highest-rated show, is real. Truth be told, it has to be. No scribe worth his guild card should lay claim to a show constructed like a doughnut: The center (bland, goody two-shoes Lauren Conrad) holds scant interest -- it's all the surrounding unhealthy ingredients that tempt us: ambitious ex-friend Heidi Montag; her svengali fiance Spencer Pratt; hanger-on Justin "Bobby" Brescia; stern boss Lisa Love. Blogs, tabloids and other media have complained in recent days and weeks about fiction in the reality drama, which depicts Conrad, Partridge, friend Whitney Port and Montag living it up in Los Angeles.

At this stage in David Bowie's career - Reality is his 26th studio release in 36 years - it's not realistic to expect or demand wild reinvention. Comes a point when there isn't much ground left to break. So it's refreshing to hear that instead of hopping aboard some inappropriate youthful bandwagon and rapping, Bowie is merely aiming to rock hard a bit, sing some moody ballads and more or less play to his musical strengths. Bowie once again reconnects with longtime producer Tony Visconti and asserts his rock chops from the get-go on "New Killer Star," an infectious rocker that alludes to the events of Sept.

Jon Stewart, the master caster of "fake news," will deal with more reality per minute hosting the Oscar show tonight than he does anchoring any episode of The Daily Show. A slew of topical and fact-based pictures have largely erased the boundaries between documentary and feature nominees. One Oscar contender recounts the true story of a writer sucking the available humanity from the friends of a murdered family and from their drifter-killers on his way to achieving a literary milestone: a "nonfiction novel."

On the outside, Scott Baio looks like he has it all. Good looks, money, friends, a pretty blond girlfriend. On the inside, he's one screwed-up dude. And for viewers of VH1, that's going to make for a lot of fun in the coming weeks. Baio is the centerpiece in the reality show Scott Baio is 45 ... and Single, making its premiere tonight. It's an entertaining, emotional hour built around the one-time Hollywood hunk's quest to find out why he's still single. Oh, how we love to watch stars struggle!

If you miss Jose Canseco - and, really, who doesn't at this point? - for the small fee of $9.99 and airfare to Los Angeles, you can compete for a chance to spend a dream day with Jose and possibly win one of his prized baseball possessions. Even better, the whole thing will be captured by camera crews for a new reality show starring Jose and the handful of fans who come up with the most imaginative and outrageous ideas for their day with the Prince of Performance Enhancement. My first reaction to this was that Jose had reached a pathetic new low, which is no small task.

Brace yourself, more is on the way. While industry analysts say that network programmers crossed a line this week with Fox's "Who Wants to Marry a Multimillionaire?" network executives say they can't stop. The cheap cost, big buzz and relatively high ratings that such "reality" programs generate are like a narcotic, impossible to resist, they say. The network addiction started with the massive success of ABC's game show "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire" and followed with a seeming flood of knockoffs now on the air. The flood became a tidal wave this week with "Who Wants to Marry a Multimillionaire" -- a two-hour program featuring would-be brides competing to be chosen as the wife of a mystery tycoon seated in the shadows on stage.