Burning question

I've mentioned before that I work at a big box retailer and most every Monday night I pull a bunch of new DVDs, books, and video games. It's my main/only window into mainstream pop culture, and a recurring lesson that this is something to avoid whenever possible.

Case in point: reality TV. I'm not going to go into the standard jokes about how everyone on these shows are selfish, childish, mentally deficient signs that humanity is doomed, because it's not Jersey Shore or Real Housewives of Liberty City that I'm talking about. I'm talking about the "weird occupation" strain of reality shows. The shows about people making gourmet cupcakes, buying lapsed storage spaces or working pawn shops.

I'm not saying there can't be any interesting stories in these lines of work, but given how obvious the tricks are to create dramatic arcs or tension, wouldn't it just be easier to write actual scripts and get some unknown actors? LA is full of them, how hard can it be to find someone that can pretend to be a pastry chef or tattoo artist? Frig, you can probably some actual pastry chefs or tattoo artists that dream of getting into acting. Boom! Problem solved right there.

But that's not my real issue. I don't work in television, maybe there is some argument regarding the low costs and high enough ratings that convinces executives even if there is no artistic or intellectual merit to these shows.

No, my real question is: why are these shows released on DVD?

I am dead serious here. I want to know. Is there someone who said 'You know, the third season of Storage Wars had a great string of episodes. I wish I could watch them right now as a marathon!'? Or 'That one episode from the second season of Cake Boss was a revelation to me. It really changed my life.'

These shows are supposed to be the television equivalent of white noise, right? Something to fill dead time or go-to marathon fodder on lazy weekends. I mean, nobody actually follows these shows, looking for real storylines or character growth, right? Right?

No, I can't see DVDs of this shit as anything more than a waste of resources, and it is just baffling that there are people signing off on the production of them. Do they expect to sell enough copies to justify it? I wish I knew, because this just confounds me.