There is the real world and then there is the world of television game shows.

There could be an embassy bombing.  There could be a mass shooting at a rally or at a mall, or in an elementary school or at a university.  There could be yet another person killed by cops for driving while black, standing while black, or breathing while black.

But in the midst of that, whatever may have transpired today, there are two things you can count on: Wheel of Fortune at 7:00 pm and Jeopardy at 7:30 pm.

Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy are recorded well in advance of their air dates, so we can hardly expect those shows to be topical.  But we can and should expect our local television stations to be topical.  We should expect station managers, and the owners who hire them, to be sensitive to the day’s events and substitute community-based programming for the time-slot fillers that usually air in the early evening.

But that would be a little too creative.  And cost a little too much money.

Some are interested in solving puzzles and answering trivia questions in the wake of police officers being assassinated or the next black person unjustly killed.   Who are the escapists who would rather watch game shows than face facts?  The answer is too close to home.

Sadly, it’s not like television gets real when Jeopardy is over.  Americans can maintain their privileged disconnect from reality by switching to The O’Reilly Factor at 8:00 pm.