T he uber-rich and the wanna-bes from last week's reality TV series The Hamptons ought to be ashamed. Ashamed, I say, because as they were buying heirloom tomatoes, trying to jostle their way into photos with Candace Bushnell, or going to "big hoochie-mama parties" (as one revolted viewer described the show to me), the men and women of Boston 24-7 were working. And they weren't doing nice work, either. They were queasily examining bloody trial evidence, putting out fires, and inspecting dead bodies. The denizens of ABC's new reality-news series, which started on Tuesday and concludes on June 12, are a noble, passionate, workaholic lot -- and they've already done a great deal to redeem the much-maligned realm of reality TV. The Hamptons , gorgeously lit money porn masquerading as a four-hour "reality miniseries," nearly had me throwing in the towel on the reality genre. Much of this stuff is horrible but addictive: the rubbernecking thrill of Jerry Springer and his ilk, the evil games...

T here it was, like a burp that resurrects the memory of a junk-food binge: Celebrity Boxing 2 . And this after Fox put out a week of miserable series finales only roaches and rats could survive: the undead horror that was The X-Files got a stake put through its heart, and Ally McBeal was finally kicked out on her neurotic no-ass. It was nearly too much to handle, but those of us who watch Fox -- the roaches and rats of the TV world -- are still standing. Despite losing much of its negligible charm from the first go-round , Celebrity Boxing still managed to be somewhat entertaining. Celebrity bride Darva Conger pummeled former Olympian Olga Korbut. Ron Palillo, of Welcome Back, Kotter fame, appeared in the form of a fey woodland sprite, bleached pixie cut and all, and received a horrible beating at the hands of Dustin "Screech" Diamond from Saved by the Bell . Manute Bol, a 7-foot-7-inch former NBA player from Sudan, swatted at former NFL celebrity William "The Refrigerator" Perry in...