As I’ve said before, I have this thing for reality TV shows. And before I get taken to task again for calling it that, I’m just using the shorthand everyone else seems to have adopted so you’ll know what I’m talking about. I don’t think of them as real. I think of them as high-production game shows.

This is true of every one of them: the just-ended “Project Runway” (and how disappointing was Michael’s collection?), the just-started “Top Chef,” the ongoing “America’s Next Top Model” (my 12-year-old daughter’s favorite show).

I know these are edited for high drama. I don’t care. I love cooking, and the other two indulge my daughter’s fascination with fashion.

(She asks sometimes if I think she might be a model when she’s older. I tell her it depends on the fashion of the day, knowing she might be 5’9″ one day but doubting she will be the requisite 123 pounds. And that’s a good thing.)

Tonight is “Amazing Race” night – game show plus exotic adventure.

But it all began for me with “Survivor,” which I latched onto right away, telling my husband I loved it because it combined game show and soap opera. (Curiously, when we married, I didn’t watch any soaps, but he was hooked on “Santa Barbara” and taped it daily. Where is A Martinez now?)

There is another “Survivor” addict among the parents on my son’s hockey team. This is a very good thing, because Thursday involved a full day at the office including three political candidate interviews, pulling together Haunted Forest decor, giving up and ordering pizza, then trotting one child off to a JV football game before heading to a board meeting. I was standing by the boards at 8:20 p.m. waiting for the hockey game to begin, when it registered that one-third of my show had passed.

Looked to scorekeeper’s box. Told nice lady I forgot to set my VCR. Watched her son roll his eyes. But he was kind enough to root through their car this afternoon to look for the tape for me.

There’s a place in the world for escapism. Mine is in the Cook Islands.

This post originally appeared on ourMidland.com, the online home of the Midland (MI) Daily News. Republished with permission.