With most of the stupid shows on TV, I can still kind of get why the show is popular; what the show has to offer some people.

But with this...I can not understand for the life of me why anybody gives a crap if the guy who played Joey on Full House can figure skate.

WHY is this show popular?!

Why?

I think George Costanza gave the best answer to your question when he was explaining to Jerry why people liked the idiotic comedy of Kenny Banyaw:

"People like stuff they don't have to think about."

A dancing competition, on its own, might be interesting. But I'm with you in wondering why it suddenly becomes a ratings boost to insert some D-list 'celebrities' to a formula.

I can see why some people like reality shows (they are about *real people*, and people can easily relate to them). But celebrities inserted into reality shows? You're right...it is a puzzle. A couple ideas are that maybe people like seeing the human sides to celebrities (celebrities acting like real people), or maybe it gives people pleasure to see that even famous people have career ruts (this is why there are so many shows with crappy celebrities: even beautiful, talented people fail sometimes!)

I don't think that you will ever see "real people" on a reality show. That is unless they don't know they are on camera. I'd say Joe Millionaire was about as close to reality as it gets when it was time to tell "Bimbo A" that Joe Millionaire was anything but. Other than that, watching D-list celebs do dumb things may be more realistic than watching Average Joe's attack their 15 minutes with mindless vigor.