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Reality TV is, for many, something of a guilty pleasure.

Maybe it’s that Kardashian shite, maybe it’s Geordie Shore, but at some point you realise the lines are becoming very blurred between what you watch for entertainment and what’s happening in the world.

Take for example what’s going down across the pond in America. Today will see fired FBI Director James Comey testify at the US Senate Intelligence Committee hearing.

He will talk about one of the biggest stories in American political history, the Russians meddling in the election and how Trump and his team might have been involved.

He has already released his written statement ahead of the hearing – it makes for very good reading HERE – but the main event kicks off at 4PM our time.

It’s huge, yuuuuuuge even, and now it”s become another episode in the TV show called Let’s Watch America Burn with host Donny D.

Below from Quartz:

Bars are hosting watch parties for what some are calling “The James Comey Show,” TV networks are promising wall-to-wall coverage—CNN is even running a countdown clock with the hours, minutes, and seconds until the testimony begins—and America is eating it up.

The hearing begins Thursday at 10am ET. Several TV networks, including CNN and Fox News Channel, will start their coverage an hour earlier—not unlike a pre-game show for a major sporting event…

Several bars around the country will open early on Thursday for viewing parties. One such establishment, Duffy’s Irish Pub in Washington DC, is promoting the hearing as the “James Comey Show” and, in a nod to a recent Trump gaffe on Twitter, is offering a “covfefe cocktail,” which it described on its Facebook page as “like drinking the Kool Aid but only a small group of people know what’s in it.”

One DC-area bar, Union Pub, plans to give away free drinks each time Trump tweets about the Comey hearing once it gets going, as the US president is reportedly considering taking to Twitter, as per usual, to air his grievances.

That’s a screenshot, by the way, don’t feel the need to click for the video.

So perhaps the pivotal moment of the US Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, and you’re all invited to raise your glasses and join in on the fun.

It’s kind of like every year when the State of the Nation address takes place. Social media waits, baying for blood and red hat battles and expulsions from Parliament, and then we all turn off when the furore dies down and JZ starts spouting the usual nonsense.

That’s if you’re not hammered from the State of the Nation drinking game: honourable member – shot.

I suppose if you can’t beat them, join them – you can watch it live below from 4PM. Bring the popcorn.

[source:quartz]