PASADENA, Calif. — Giuliana and Bill Rancic have allowed themselves to be convinced that what Americans want to see on TV is a reality show about their practically perfect marriage.
Bill, who was the first winner on "The Apprentice," wed Giuliana, an E! News anchorwoman, in a special that aired on — what else? — the E! Channel. And now they're starring in "Giuliana & Bill," which airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. on E!'s sister channel, Style (and repeats at various times throughout the week).
The show chronicles their practically perfect life. Oh, they have their little problems — he lives in Chicago; she lives in Los Angeles — but they're not exactly at each other's throats.
"This is a very positive show. ... It makes being married cool," Bill Rancic said. "There's no flipping over of tables and screaming and cursing at each other. It's just a very positive, very loving show because that's who we are."
But that's not exactly the formula for a successful reality show, is it? Flipping over tables, screaming and cursing has made for great ratings over the years.
Happily married couples don't give you that kind of drama.
"Well, I don't think there's no drama," Bill Rancic said. "I think the drama that exists in the show is real drama. It's real drama that every couple experiences. I think we're very relatable to the people who are watching this show because everything that we go through, they've probably gone through in their lives."
Ah, yes. Who among us hasn't appeared on multiple reality shows? Who among us doesn't have the kind of money the Rancics have?
"The drama does come from … the drama that a lot of newlyweds go through in moving into a house and thinking about starting a family — that sort of thing," Giuliana Rancic said. "No, we're not trash TV. ... I feel like people don't want to see that much anymore."
Can that be true? Is America really turning its back on trash TV, or are the Rancics just kidding themselves?
"Well, I think if you look at the ratings, I think they're kidding themselves," said Mike Fleiss, who knows a little something about successful reality shows.
His long list of trashy successes includes "Shocking Behavior Caught on Tape," "Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionare?," "Are You Hot?" "The Bachelor," "Hitched or Ditched" and "There Goes the Neighborhood."
"The big shows are still the ones that give you the high-octane drama," Fleiss said. "And I don't think that's ever going to change. I don't know how you would dial that down.
"What do you want? Just to be sort of milky and soft? I think that it doesn't necessarily have to be a train wreck, but some sort of bumping is good because you need conflict in all storytelling. And I think that that applies to reality, too."
Speaking of train wrecks, Fleiss has one headed our way over on E! "Living Lamas," which will debut sometime in November, features Lorenzo Lamas; his daughter, Shayne, who, not coincidentally, was on "The Bachelor"; some of Lorenzo's ex-wives and other children — and Lorenzo's estranged son, A.J.
They're saving some of this for the show, but Lorenzo and A.J.'s estrangement reportedly stems from A.J's affair with Lorenzo's then-third wife.
It's easy to mock and make fun of it, but people are already talking about "Living Lamas." And it has yet to air an episode.
And nobody is talking about "Giuliana & Bill," which is already on the air.
I'm not for a moment suggesting that "Living Lamas" is preferable to "Giuliana & Bill." But I am suggesting that the Rancics are living in a dream world if they really believe what they said about the state of reality TV.
"This show probably wouldn't have worked three or four years ago because it was all trash on these reality shows," Giuliana said. "It was who was the loudest, who was the meanest, who was the nastiest, who was cheating, who was cussing. ... When you watch a lot of these reality shows, you go, 'I never want to be that.' "
True. But people do watch.
"I'm just kind of sick of it," she said.
Yeah, me, too. But trash TV attracts viewers. And as long as it does, it's not going away.
e-mail: pierce@desnews.com