Final thoughts on WWRLD (with gifs!)

I've commented on Ryan Lochte's E! reality show What Would Ryan Lochte Do? a couple times previously, both negatively and postively, and since the show finished up last week, I figured I would give some final thoughts on it.

Basically, I really loved this show. No, I don't think it's going to get another season- the ratings were terrible, even in a post-Olympic year, and by next year there'll be some other B-lister that E! wants to make a reality show about. Nor do I think it really helped to grow the sport of swimming, which was supposedly the goal of the show - it gave more visibility to swimming, sure, but I feel like the majority of viewers were current or past swimmers. I don't think the average E! viewer would tune into the show and all of a sudden decide that they want to start swimming.

That all being said, the show was entertaining every week. There were moments where it was horribly scripted and cheesy (the entire saga with Jaimee, for example), but more often than not it was hilarious. A few examples:

• When Ryan didn't know how long to cook a homemade pizza, he didn't look it up online - he called a local pizza restaurant and asked them for advice.
• When that girl tried to show off her dance moves and Ryan was just shocked at how bad her dancing was.
• When he was just as excited to meet Carmen Elektra as I was when I met him.
•  All of the random hilarious faces he would make during talking heads.
• And this crowning moment that summed up the hilarity of the show in the finale when they asked him about a girl he had presumably hooked up with earlier in the same episode:

Also, as a lady, I fully enjoyed the amount of times he was on screen in his underwear. Or shirtless. Or dancing shirtless. Or in suits, which for the right guy can be just as good as shirtless.

I also think that, other than the scripted weirdness, the show did a good job of portraying Ryan as he actually is. Or at least, how he was when my friends and I got to party with him in Charlotte after the Grand Prix earlier this month.

(It's my blog and I'll brag if I want to, okay???)

When people have asked me how he was, I always just say that he was a fun guy. He was dancing and chatting with people and taking pictures with anyone who wanted one. When I took a picture of him with one of my friends, which was photo-bombed by Cullen Jones, Ryan got really excited and took the phone and said "Oh, you guys gotta take a pic with Cullen, you're gonna want that!" and proceeded to take a picture of the two of us with Cullen. Later on, we did some of the thirty shots he had bought for everyone in the surrounding area in the bar and Ryan yelled "turn it up!" just like he did on the show. When we left, he had a hot girl on each arm. He was charming, hilarious, and fun, and I feel like the show did a good job of portraying him as such.

All in all, I wasn't disappointed with WWRLD. It was a great half hour that I looked forward to every week, and I won't be deleting the episodes from my DVR any time soon.

(and all gifs were made by me, I feel like they make the post 100000% more awesome so enjoy!)