Reality TV and Work

So I was watching The Bachelorette last Monday night (purely for unintentional comedy - I love how seriously the contestants take themselves and the show, even though they are about a 7% succes rate at this point.). Anyway, Ed had decided to leave the show. Why? According to Ed, his boss functionally said that he didn't care if he was falling in love, he needed him back at work. So IN THIS ECONOMY Ed chose employment over about a 10% chance to date a Canadian girl for six to nine weeks.

Smart move on Ed's part.

This is something that I've always wondered about with reality shows. The turnaround on the shows themselves are fast...ish. But I've always wondered how one maintains employment and particpate on the show. I'm picturing that Ed's conversation with his boss went something like this...

ED: Hey Boss, y'know how I'm good-looking, have a job that isn't bus driver or garbage man, am reasonably successful, and reasonably good looking?
BOSS: Uh... whatever. Why?
ED: Well I got accepted to be on The Bachelorette.
BOSS: Hunh?!?!
ED: Yeah, it's a show where a bunch of dudes get picked over by a reasonably hot girl and then one person winds up with her.
BOSS: OK...
ED: So I need one to eight weeks off, to be on the show.
(Let's take a minute to go LIVE inside the head of Ed's boss: There is no possible way this fool is going to woo this bachelor-girl - or whatever it's called - successfully. He'll be back in a week. Remember when he hit on that one girl at the client. Man, did he blow that. There's no way this girl)
BOSS: Sure, go for it.

Then I'm pretty sure that Ed watched the first episode, and was stunned that his employee survived past the first week, and called Ed and said, "Uh... yeah... I need you back."

When someone goes on a reality show, they either must be self-employed, have a really great boss, or needed a good excuse to say, "F*CK IT! I'm out!"