Are you suggesting that the producers of this "reality" show may have manipulated it so that the "reality" that came out was more in line with what their focus groups told them the viewers wanted to see?
I watched the end of the first season and all of the second season. They haven't started airing the third one here, but I know there were some people on the previous seasons that didn't know how to boil an egg.
There's a great little restaurant in the referenced NYC area called, I believe, Hell's Kitchen! [For non-NYCers, this is where WEST SIDE STORY takes place.] Since THE DAILY SHOW and THE COLBERT REPORT have both taken up residence in the area, nice restaurants are springing up to serve the hungry audience members who pour out of the two studios Mon-Thur...
DISCLAIMER: I have been a hungry audience member at both shows...