( CNN ) -- Summer is a time for grilling , relaxing and apparently getting your life together -- at least on television . Those lazy , hazy days this year are featuring reality shows aimed at everything from weight loss to ego adjustments . Programs such as NBC 's `` Losing It With Jillian Michaels '' and `` Breakthrough With Tony Robbins , '' as well as VH1 's `` You 're Cut Off '' and `` Bridal Boot Camp '' are part of a hot trend offering audiences plenty of self-help viewing along with their lemonade and barbecues . `` During the summer , people are more tuned into those types of pursuits , '' said Deborah King , author of `` Truth Heals : What You Hide Can Hurt You . '' `` [ Viewers ] are thinking more about health , how to feel better and how to feel healthier so they are more inclined to go that route . '' Dog-day television viewing has changed in the past decade , based a great deal on the success of the reality program `` Survivor , '' which helped kick off the reality TV craze when it debuted in May 2000 . Before CBS premiered the series , which drops contestants in the wilderness to compete against each other for $ 1 million , summertime viewing was pretty blah and standard , said Al Norton , who blogs about television at his site , Two Tivos to Paradise . `` It was only 10 or 15 years ago that summertime was all about reruns , '' Norton said . `` I think there is a general feeling among viewers that your standards for what you are willing to watch are a little bit lower during the summer . '' The self-help shows are also more conducive to viewers ' TV habits in the warmer months as opposed to series such as `` Lost '' or `` Fringe , '' where the audience is called upon to remember plots from week to week , Norton said . `` In general , the viewing audience is less in the summer because people are on vacation , the weather is nice and people are out . People are n't necessarily going to follow a show every week , '' he said . `` Most of those self-help shows are pretty self-contained . '' That means viewers can hop in and out of such shows , without missing a beat . Check out an iReport review of `` Losing It With Jillian Michaels '' Laura Baron hopes audiences do that for her new series . Baron serves as the life coach on VH1 's new summer reality series `` You 're Cut Off , '' which bills itself as a `` princess rehab '' for `` nine spoiled rotten princesses . '' The women , who believe they have been chosen to participate in a show called `` The Good Life , '' are moved into a home and forced to forgo all of the amenities they enjoyed in the real world . Baron said people are looking to shed more than just heavy coats when the weather turns warmer . `` People are probably more open in the summer and looking at themselves , '' `` When you are doing self-help in the winter when it 's dreary outside , your journey is not as fulfilling . There is something about summer that offers possibilities . '' Author King agreed and said such reality shows are also tapping into the viewing public 's desire to improve their health and wellness , even if it 's vicariously through watching others . `` I 've seen the interest in such programming increase from year to year , '' said King . `` It 's something people are concerned about and focused on more and more . ''
Summer time has become destination TV for self - help reality shows . ` ` Losing It With Jillian Michaels '' and ` ` You 're Cut Off '' aired this summer . TV blogger says self - help shows lend themselves to repeat viewing . Fitness coach says summer is a season that ` ` offers possibilities ''