One potential bright spot in America’s fiscal tragedy — our arts and culture now forcibly skews closer to reality. Consider MoMA’s assortment of modular homes, which have suffered the same fate as the real-life housing market. Alas, there are worse woes ahead — such as the recent cancellation of Lipstick Jungle or confusion over a Sex & the City sequel. To most people, this sort of news heralds the end of a crapulent spate of television brought on earlier this year by yet another SATC clone.

Even in the unscripted arena, the CW’s Stylista is teetering awfully close to cancellation hell. Clearly, all of these casualties and uncertainties have forced this fluffy genre of meta-TV to embrace reality and inspired networks to develop shows capable of connecting with their target demo. Apart from Gossip Girl, that is, which continues to coast on its dubious depiction of “the poor.”