"Reality TV" redirects here. For the channel formerly known as "Reality TV", see
Zone Reality.
Reality television is a
genre of
television programming that documents supposedly unscripted real-life situations, and often features an otherwise unknown cast of individuals who are typically not professional actors, although in some shows
celebrities may participate. It differs from
documentary television in that the focus tends to be on drama, personal conflict, and entertainment rather than educating viewers. Reality TV programs also often bring participants into situations and environments that they would otherwise never be a part of. The genre has various standard tropes, including "confessionals" used by cast members to express their thoughts, which often double as the shows' narration. Reality TV shows often have a host who asks questions of the participants and comments on the proceedings. In competition-based reality shows, a notable subset, there are other common elements such as one participant being eliminated per episode, a panel of judges, and the concept of "immunity from elimination."
An early example of the genre was the 1991 Dutch series
Nummer 28, which was the first show to bring together strangers and record their interactions.
[1] It then exploded as a phenomenon in the late 1990s and early 2000s with the global success of the series
Survivor,
Idols, and
Big Brother.
[2] These shows and a number of others (usually also competition-based) became global franchises, spawning local versions in dozens of countries. Reality television as a whole has become a fixture of television programming. In the
United States, various channels have retooled themselves to focus on reality programs, most famously
MTV, which began in 1981 as a
music video pioneer, before switching to a nearly all-reality format in the early 2000s.
There are grey areas around what is classified as reality television.
Documentaries,
television news,
sports television,
talk shows, and traditional
game shows are not classified as reality television, even though they contain elements of the genre, such as unscripted situations and sometimes unknown participants. Other genres that predate the reality television boom have sometimes been retroactively grouped into reality TV, including
hidden camera shows such as
Candid Camera (1948), talent-search shows such as
The Original Amateur Hour (1948), documentary series about ordinary people such as the
Up Series (1964), high-concept game shows such as
The Dating Game (1965), home improvement shows such as
This Old House (1979), and
court shows featuring real-life cases such as
The People's Court (1981).
Reality television has
faced significant criticism since its rise in popularity. Much of the criticism has centered on the use of the word "reality", and such shows' attempt to present themselves as a straightforward recounting of events that have occurred. Critics have argued that reality television shows do not accurately reflect reality, in ways both implicit (participants being placed in artificial situations), and deceptive or even fraudulent, such as misleading editing, participants being coached in what to say or how to behave, storylines generated ahead of time, and scenes being staged or re-staged for the cameras. Other criticisms of reality television shows include that they are intended to humiliate or exploit participants (particularly on competition shows); that they make stars out of either untalented people unworthy of fame, infamous personalities, or both; and that they glamorize vulgarity and materialism. Professional
screenwriters have expressed concern about the popularity of a genre which does not require scriptwriting.
History[edit]
Television formats portraying ordinary people in unscripted situations are almost as old as the television medium itself. Producer-host
Allen Funt's
Candid Camera, in which unsuspecting people were confronted with funny, unusual situations and filmed with hidden cameras, first aired in 1948, and is often seen as a prototype of reality television programming.
[3][4]
1940s–1950s[edit]
Precedents for television that portrayed people in unscripted situations began in the late 1940s.
Queen for a Day (1945–1964) was an early example of reality-based television. The 1946 television game show
Cash and Carry sometimes featured contestants performing stunts. Debuting in 1948,
Allen Funt's
hidden camera show
Candid Camera (based on his previous 1947 radio show,
Candid Microphone) broadcast unsuspecting ordinary people reacting to pranks.
[5] In 1948, talent search shows
Ted Mack's Original Amateur Hour and
Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts featured amateur competitors and audience voting. In the 1950s, game shows
Beat the Clock and
Truth or Consequences involved contestants in wacky competitions, stunts, and practical jokes.
Confession was a crime/police show which aired from June 1958 to January 1959, with interviewer
Jack Wyattquestioning criminals from assorted backgrounds.
[6] The radio series
Nightwatch (1951–1955) tape-recorded the daily activities of
Culver City,
California police officers. The series
You Asked for It (1950–1959) incorporated audience involvement by basing episodes around requests sent in by postcard from viewers.
1960s–1970s[edit]
First broadcast in the
United Kingdom in 1964, the
Granada Television documentary
Seven Up!, broadcast interviews with a dozen ordinary 7-year-olds from a broad cross-section of society and inquired about their reactions to everyday life. Every seven years, a film documented the life of the same individuals during the intervening period, titled the
Up Series, episodes include "7 Plus Seven", "21 Up", etc.; it is still ongoing. The program was structured as a series of interviews with no element of plot. However, it did have the then-new effect of turning ordinary people into celebrities. The first reality show in the modern sense may have been the series
The American Sportsman, which ran from 1965 to 1986 on
ABC in the United States.
[7][8] A typical episode featured one or more celebrities, and sometimes their family members, being accompanied by a camera crew on an outdoor adventure, such as hunting, fishing, hiking, scuba diving, rock climbing, wildlife photography, horseback riding, race car driving, and the like, with most of the resulting action and dialogue being unscripted, except for the narration.
Another precursor may be considered Mutual of Omaha's
Wild Kingdom which aired from 1963 through 1988. This show featured zoologist Marlin Perkins traveling across the globe and illustrating the wide variety of animal life on the planet. Though mostly a travelogue, it was popular in syndication and new episodes were produced through the eighties.
[9] In the 1966
Direct Cinema film
Chelsea Girls,
Andy Warhol filmed various acquaintances with no direction given; the
Radio Times Guide to Film 2007 stated that the film was "to blame for reality television".
[10]
1980s–1990s[edit]
Producer
George Schlatter capitalized on the advent of videotape to create
Real People, a surprise hit for NBC, which ran from 1979 to 1984. The success of
Real People was quickly copied by ABC with
That's Incredible, a stunt show co-hosted by
Fran Tarkenton; CBS's entry into the genre was
That's My Line, a series hosted by
Bob Barker. The
Canadian series
Thrill of a Lifetime, a fantasies-fulfilled reality show, originally ran from 1982 to 1988 and was revived from 2001 to 2003. In 1985, underwater cinematographer Al Giddings teamed with former
Miss Universe Shawn Weatherly on the NBC series
Oceanquest, which chronicled Weatherly's adventures scuba diving in various exotic locales. Weatherly was nominated for an
Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in informational programming.
[13] COPS, which first aired in the spring of 1989 on
Fox and came about partly due to the need for new programming during the
1988 Writers Guild of America strike,
[14] showed police officers on duty apprehending criminals; it introduced the
camcorder look and
cinéma vérité feel of much of later reality television.
The series
Nummer 28, which aired on
Dutch television in 1991, originated the concept of putting strangers together in the same environment for an extended period of time and recording the drama that ensued.
Nummer 28 also pioneered many of the stylistic conventions that have since become standard in reality television shows, including a heavy use of soundtrack music and the interspersing of events on screen with after-the-fact "confessionals" recorded by cast members, that serve as narration. One year later, the same concept was used by MTV in its new series
The Real World.
Nummer 28 creator Erik Latour has long claimed that
The Real World was directly inspired by his show;
[15] however, the producers of
The Real World have stated that their direct inspiration was
An American Family.
[16] According to television commentator
Charlie Brooker, this type of reality television was enabled by the advent of computer-based
non-linear editing systems for video (such as produced by
Avid Technology) in 1989. These systems made it easy to quickly edit hours of video footage into a usable form, something that had been very difficult to do before (film, which was easy to edit, was too expensive to shoot enough hours of footage with on a regular basis).
[17]
The series
Expedition Robinson, created by television producer Charlie Parsons, which first aired in 1997 in
Sweden (and was later produced in a large number of other countries as
Survivor), added to the
Nummer 28/
Real World template the idea of competition and elimination, in which cast members/contestants battled against each other and were removed from the show until only one winner remained (these shows are now sometimes called elimination shows).
Changing Rooms, a program that began in 1996, showed couples redecorating each other's houses, and was the first
[citation needed] reality show with a
self-improvement or
makeover theme. The dating reality show
Streetmate premiered in the UK in 1998. Originally created by
Gabe Sachs as
Street Match, it was a flop in the United States; however, the show was revamped in the UK by
Tiger Aspect Productionsand became a cult hit. The production team from the original series went on to create popular reality shows
Strictly Come Dancing,
Location, Location, Location, and the revamped
MasterChef, amongst others.
[citation needed] The 1980s and 1990s were also a time when
tabloid talk shows came to rise, many of which featured the same types of unusual or dysfunctional guests who would later become popular as cast members of reality shows.
Reality television saw an explosion of global popularity in the late 1990s and early 2000s, with the successes of the
Big Brother and
Survivor/Expedition Robinson franchises. In the United States, reality television programs experienced a temporary decline in viewership in 2001, leading some entertainment industry columnists
[who?] to speculate that the genre was a temporary fad that had run its course.
[citation needed] Reality shows that suffered from low ratings included
The Amazing Race (although the show has since recovered and is in its 27th edition),
Lost (unrelated to the better-known
serial drama of the same name) and
The Mole (which was successful in other countries).
[18] However, this proved not to be the case for stronghold shows
Survivor and
American Idol, which both topped the U.S. season-average television ratings in the 2000s:
Survivor led the ratings in
2001–02, and
Idol has the longest hold on the No. 1 rank in the
American television ratings, dominating over all other primetime programs and other television series in the overall viewership tallies for eight consecutive years, from the
2003–2004 to the
2010–2011 television seasons.
Internationally, a number of shows created in the late 1990s and 2000s have had massive global success. At least ten reality-television franchises created during that time have had over 30 international adaptations each: the singing competition franchises
Idols,
[19] Star Academy [20] and
The X Factor, other competition franchises
Survivor/Expedition Robinson,
Big Brother,
Got Talent,
Top Model,
MasterChef, and
Dancing with the Stars, and the investment franchise
Dragons' Den. Several "
reality game shows" from the same period have had even greater success, including
Deal or No Deal,
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, and
Weakest Link, with over 50 international adaptions each. (All but two of these franchises,
Top Model and
Dragons' Den, were created by either
British producers or the Dutch production company
Endemol; and even
Dragons' Den, which originated in
Japan, has had most adaptations be based on the British version.) In India, the competition show
Indian Idol was the most popular television program for its first six seasons.
[21]
The 2000s saw the launches of three television channels devoted exclusively to reality television:
Fox Reality in the United States, which existed from 2005 to 2010;
Global Reality Channel in
Canada, which lasted two years from 2010 to 2012; and
Zone Reality in the United Kingdom, which operated from 2002 to 2009. In addition, several other
cable channels, including
Bravo,
A&E,
E!,
TLC,
History,
VH1, and
MTV, changed their programming to mostly comprise reality television series during the 2000s.
[22]
During the early part of the 2000s, network executives expressed concern that reality-television programming was limited in its appeal for DVD reissue and
syndication. DVDs for reality shows in fact sold briskly;
Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County,
The Amazing Race,
Project Runway, and
America's Next Top Model all ranked in the top DVDs sold on
Amazon.com, and in the mid-2000s, DVDs of
The Simple Life outranked scripted shows like
The O.C. and
Desperate Housewives. Syndication, however, has indeed proven problematic; shows such as
Fear Factor,
COPS, and
Wife Swap in which each episode is self-contained, can indeed be rerun fairly easily, but usually only on cable television and/or during the daytime (
COPS and
America's Funniest Home Videos being exceptions). Season-long competitions such as
The Amazing Race,
Survivor, and
America's Next Top Model generally perform more poorly and usually must be rerun in
marathons to draw the necessary viewers to make it worthwhile (even in these cases, it is not always successful: the first ten seasons of
Dancing with the Stars were picked up by
GSN in 2012 and was run in marathon format, but experienced very poor ratings). Another option is to create documentaries around series including extended interviews with the participants and outtakes not seen in the original airings; the syndicated series
American Idol Rewind is an example of this strategy.
COPS has had huge success in syndication, direct response sales and DVD. A Fox staple since 1989,
COPS has, as of 2013 (when it moved to cable channel
Spike), outlasted all competing scripted police shows. Another series that has seen wide success is
Cheaters, which has been running since 2000 in the U.S. and is syndicated in over 100 countries worldwide. In 2001, the
Academy of Television Arts and Sciences added the reality genre to the
Emmy Awards in the category of
Outstanding Reality Program. In 2003, to better differentiate between competition and informational reality programs, a second category,
Outstanding Reality-Competition Program, was added. In 2008, a third category,
Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition Program, was added. In 2007, the
web series The Next Internet Millionaire appeared; it was a competition show based in part on
The Apprentice, and was billed as the world's first Internet reality show.
In 2010,
The Tester became the first reality television show aired over a video game console.
[23] By 2012, many of the long-running reality television show franchises in the United States, such as
American Idol,
Dancing with the Stars and
The Bachelor, had begun to see declining ratings.
[24] However, reality television as a whole remained durable in the U.S., with hundreds of shows across many channels. In 2012,
New York Magazine's
Vulture blog published a humorous
Venn diagram showing popular themes across American reality shows then running, including shows set in the U.S. states of
Alaska,
Louisiana and
Texas, shows about cakes, weddings and
pawnbrokers, and shows, usually competition-based, whose title includes the word "Wars".
[25] The Voice, a singing competition franchise created by
John de Mol that started in 2010, is the newest highly successful reality television franchise, with almost 50 international adaptations.
Duck Dynasty, a
hunting-themed reality series featuring the Robertson family that founded
Duck Commander, in 2013 became the most popular reality series in U.S. cable television history. Its fourth season premiere was viewed by nearly 12 million viewers in the United States, most of which were in rural markets. Its rural audience share has ranked in the 30s, an extremely high number for any series, broadcast or cable.
[26] In 2014,
Entertainment Weekly and
Variety again noted a stagnation in reality television programs' ratings in the U.S., which they attributed to "The diminishing returns of cable TV's sea of reality sameness". They noted that a number of networks that featured reality programming, including Bravo and E!, were launching their first scripted shows, and others, including
AMC, were abandoning plans to launch further reality programs; though they clarified that the genre as a whole "isn't going anywhere."
[27][28]
Subgenres[edit]
There have been various attempts to classify reality television shows into different subgenres:
- A 2006 study proposed six subgenres: romance, crime, informational, reality-drama, competition/game, and talent. [29]
- A 2007 study proposed five subgenres: infotainment, docusoap, lifestyle, reality game shows, and lifestyle experiment programs.[30]
- A 2009 study proposed eight subgenres: "gamedocs", dating programs, makeover programs, docusoaps, talent contests, court programs, reality sitcoms, and celebrity variations of other programs.[31]
Another categorization divides reality television into two types: shows that purport to document real life, and shows that place participants in new circumstances. In a 2003 paper, theorists Elisabeth Klaus and Stephanie Lücke referred to the former category as "docusoaps", which consist of "narrative reality", and the latter category as "reality soaps", which consist of "performative reality".
[32] Since 2014, the
Primetime Emmy Awards have used a similar classification, with separate awards for "
unstructured reality" and "
structured reality" programs, as well as a third award for "
reality-competition" programs.
Documentary-style[edit]
In many reality television programs, camera shooting and footage editing give the viewer the impression that they are passive observers following people going about their daily personal and professional activities; this style of filming is sometimes referred to as
fly on the wall or
factual television. Story "plots" are often constructed via editing or planned situations, with the results resembling
soap operas – hence the terms
docusoap and
docudrama.
Documentary-style programs give viewers a private look into the lives of the subjects.
Within documentary-style reality television are several subcategories or variants:
Soap-opera style[edit]
Although the term "docusoap" has been used for many documentary-style reality television shows, there have been shows that have deliberately tried to mimic the appearance and structure of soap operas. Such shows often focus on a close-knit group of people and their shifting friendships and romantic relationships. One highly influential such series was the American 2004–2006 series
Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County, which attempted to specifically mimic the primetime soap opera
The O.C., which had begun airing in 2003.
Laguna Beach had a more cinematic feel than any previous reality television show, through the use of higher-quality lighting and cameras, voice-over narration instead of on-screen "confessionals", and slower pacing.
[33] Laguna Beach led to several spinoff series, most notably the 2006–2010 series
The Hills. It also inspired various other series, including the highly successful British series
The Only Way Is Essex and
Made in Chelsea, and the Australian series
Freshwater Blue.
Due to their cinematic feel, many of these shows have been accused of being pre-scripted, more so than other reality television shows have. The producers of
The Only Way Is Essex and
Made in Chelsea have admitted to coaching cast members on what to say in order to draw more emotion from each scene, although they insist that the underlying stories are real.
[34]
Another highly successful group of soap-opera-style shows is the
Real Housewives franchise, which began with
The Real Housewives of Orange County in 2006 and has since spawned nearly twenty other series, in the U.S. and internationally. The franchise has an older cast and different personal dynamics than that of
Laguna Beach and its imitators, as well as lower production values, but similarly is meant to resemble scripted soap operas – in this case, the television series
Desperate Housewives and
Peyton Place.
Subcultures[edit]
Professional activities[edit]
Shows that show people working in the same non-business location include
Airport and
Bondi Rescue.
Financial transactions and appraisals[edit]
One notable subset of shows about professional activities are those in which the professionals haggle and engage in financial transactions, often over unique or rare items whose value must first be appraised. Two such shows, both of which have led to multiple spinoff shows, are
Pawn Stars (about
pawn shops) and
American Pickers. Other shows, while based around such financial transactions, also show elements of its main cast members' personal and professional lives; these shows include
Hardcore Pawn and
Comic Book Men. Such shows have some antecedent in the British series
Antiques Roadshow,
[36] which began airing in 1979 and has since spawned numerous international versions, although that show includes only appraisals and does not include bargaining or other dramatic elements.
"Structured reality"[edit]
While for "documentary-style" shows it is implied that the events shown would still be taking place even if the cameras were not there, in other shows the events taking place are done overtly for the sake of the show. These shows differ from "reality competion" shows or "reality game shows" (see below) in that participants do not compete against one another.
Special living environment[edit]
Some documentary-style programs place cast members, who in most cases previously did not know each other, in artificial living environments;
The Real World is the originator of this style. In almost every other such show, cast members are given specific challenges or obstacles to overcome.
Road Rules, which started in 1995 as a spin-off of
The Real World, started this pattern: the cast traveled across the country guided by clues and performing tasks.
Big Brother is probably the best known program of this type in the world, with around 50 international versions having been produced. Other shows in this category, such
The 1900 House, involve
historical re-enactment, with cast members living and working as people of a specific time and place. 2001's
Temptation Island achieved some notoriety by placing several couples on an island surrounded by single people in order to test the couples' commitment to each other.
U8TV: The Lofters combined the "special living environment" format with the "professional activity" format noted earlier; in addition to living together in a
loft, each member of the show's cast was hired to host a television program for a Canadian cable channel.
Court shows[edit]
Originally, court shows were all dramatized and staged programs with
actors playing the litigants, witnesses and lawyers. The cases were either reenactments of real-life cases or cases that were fictionalized altogether. Among examples of stage courtroom dramas are
Famous Jury Trials,
Your Witness, and the first two eras of
Divorce Court.
The People's Court revolutionized the genre by introducing the
arbitration-based "reality" format in 1981, later adopted by the vast majority of court shows. The genre experienced a lull in programming after
The People's Court was cancelled in 1993, but then soared after the emergence of
Judge Judy in 1996. This led to the debuts of a slew of other reality court shows, such as
Judge Mathis,
Judge Joe Brown,
Judge Alex,
Judge Mills Lane and
Judge Hatchett.
Though the litigants are legitimate, the "judges" in such shows are actually arbitrators, as these pseudo-judges are not actually presiding in a
court of law. Typically, however, they are retired judges, or at least individuals who have had some legal experience.
Investments[edit]
The globally syndicated format
Dragons' Den shows a group of wealthy investors choosing whether or not to invest in a series of pitched
startup companies and
entrepreneurial ventures. The series
Restaurant Startup similarly involves investors, but involves more of a game show element in which restaurant owners compete to prove their worth. The British series
Show Me the Monet offers a twist in which artworks' artistic value, rather than their financial value, is appraised by a panel of judges, who determine whether each one will be featured at an exhibition.
Outdoor survival[edit]
Self-improvement/makeover[edit]
Some reality television shows cover a person or group of people improving their lives. Sometimes the same group of people are covered over an entire season (as in
The Swanand
Celebrity Fit Club), but usually there is a new target for improvement in each episode. Despite differences in the content, the format is usually the same: first the show introduces the subjects in their current, less-than-ideal environment. Then the subjects meet with a group of experts, who give the subjects instructions on how to improve things; they offer aid and encouragement along the way. Finally, the subjects are placed back in their environment and they, along with their friends and family and the experts, appraise the changes that have occurred. Other self-improvement or makeover shows include
The Biggest Loser,
Extreme Weight Loss and
Fat March (which covers weight loss),
Extreme Makeover (entire physical appearance),
Queer Eye,
What Not to Wear and
How Do I Look? (style and grooming),
Supernanny (child-rearing),
Made (life transformation),
Trinny & Susannah Undress and
Bridalplasty (fashion and cosmetic makeover and marriage),
Tool Academy (relationship building) and
Charm School and
From G's to Gents(self-improvement and manners). The British programme
Snog Marry Avoid? takes participants who usually have a wild dress sense or wear excess make-up and "fakery" and makes them look more presentable.
The concept of self-improvement was taken to its extreme with the British show
Life Laundry, in which people who had become hoarders, even living in squalor, were given professional assistance. The American television series
Hoarders and
Hoarding: Buried Alive follow similar premises, presenting interventions in the lives of people who suffer from
compulsive hoarding.
Renovation[edit]
Some shows make over part or all of a person's living space, work space, or vehicle. The American series
This Old House, which debuted in 1979, features the start-to-finish renovation of different houses through a season; media critic
Jeff Jarvis has speculated that it is "the original reality TV show."
[37] The British show
Changing Rooms, beginning in 1996 (later remade in the U.S. as
Trading Spaces) was the first such renovation show that added a game show feel with different weekly contestants.
[citation needed] Other shows in this category include
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,
Debbie Travis' Facelift,
Designed to Sell,
While You Were Out and
Holmes on Homes.
Pimp My Ride and
Overhaulin'show vehicles being rebuilt. Some shows, such as
Restaurant Makeover and
Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, show both the decor and the menu of a failing restaurant being remade.
Social experiment[edit]
Another type of reality program is the
social experiment that produces drama, conflict, and sometimes transformation. British TV series
Wife Swap, which began in 2003, and has had many spinoffs in the UK and other countries, is a notable example. In the show, people with different values agree to live by each other's social rules for a brief period of time. Other shows in this category include
Trading Spouses,
Bad Girls Club and
Holiday Showdown.
Faking It was a series where people had to learn a new skill and pass themselves off as experts in that skill.
Shattered was a controversial 2004 UK series in which contestants competed for how long they could go
without sleep.
Solitary was a controversial 2006-2010
Fox Reality series that isolated contestants for weeks in
solitary confinement pods with limited sleep, food and information while competing in elimination challenges ended by a quit button, causing winners to go on for much longer than needed as a blind gamble to not be the first person to quit.
Hidden cameras[edit]
Another type of reality programming features
hidden cameras rolling when random passers-by encounter a staged situation.
Candid Camera, which first aired on television in 1948, pioneered the format. Modern variants of this type of production include
Punk'd,
Trigger Happy TV,
Primetime: What Would You Do?,
The Jamie Kennedy Experiment and
Just for Laughs: Gags. The series
Scare Tactics and
Room 401 are hidden-camera programs in which the goal is to frighten contestants rather than just befuddle or amuse them. Not all hidden camera shows use strictly staged situations. For example, the syndicated program
Cheaters purports to use hidden cameras to record suspected
cheatingpartners, although the authenticity of the show has been questioned, and even refuted by some who have been featured on the series.
[38] Once the evidence has been gathered, the accuser confronts the cheating partner with the assistance of the host. In many special-living documentary programs, hidden cameras are set up all over the residence in order to capture moments missed by the regular camera crew, or intimate bedroom footage.
Supernatural and paranormal[edit]
In hoax reality shows, a
false premise is presented to some of the series participants; the rest of the cast may contain actors who are in on the joke. These shows often served to parody the conventions of the reality television genre. The first such show was the 2003 American series
The Joe Schmo Show. Other examples are
My Big Fat Obnoxious Boss(modeled after
The Apprentice),
My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance,
Hell Date (modeled after
Blind Date),
Superstar USA (modeled after
American Idol),
Bedsitcom (modeled after
Big Brother),
Space Cadets (which convinced the hoax targets that they were being flown into space),
Invasion Iowa (in which a town was convinced that
William Shatner was filming a movie there) and
Reality Hell[41] (which featured a different target and premise every episode). Other hoax shows are not intended for comedic effect and do not include actors. In some shows, a person of wealth and/or power has their identity disguised so that they can go among less-privileged people in order to see them in their natural state and judge their worthiness for largesse; the other participants are not told the true nature of the show during filming. Popular examples include
Undercover Boss (though that show is also intended to let bosses see their business more accurately) and
The Secret Millionaire. Other shows, though not hoax shows per se, have offered misleading information to some cast members in order to add a wrinkle to the competition. Examples include
Boy Meets Boy and
Joe Millionaire.
Reality competition/game shows[edit]
-
- See also: List of reality television game shows
Another subgenre of reality television is "reality competition", "reality
playoffs", or so-called "reality game shows," which follow the format of non-tournament
elimination contests. Typically, participants are filmed competing to win a prize, often while living together in a confined environment. In many cases, participants are removed until only one person or team remains, who is then declared the winner. Usually this is done by eliminating participants one at a time (or sometimes two at a time, as an episodic twist due to the number of contestants involved and the length of a given season), through either
disapproval voting or by voting for the most popular to win. Voting is done by the viewing audience, the show's own participants, a panel of judges, or some combination of the three.
A well-known example of a reality-competition show is the globally syndicated
Big Brother, in which cast members live together in the same house, with participants removed at regular intervals by either the viewing audience or, in the American version, by the participants themselves. There remains disagreement over whether talent-search shows such as the
Idol series, the
Got Talent series and the
Dancing with the Stars series are truly reality television, or just newer incarnations of shows such as
Star Search. Although the shows involve a traditional talent search, the shows follow the reality-competition conventions of removing one or more contestants in every episode, allowing the public to vote on who is removed, and interspersing performances with video clips showing the contestants' "back stories", their thoughts about the competition, their rehearsals and unguarded behind-the-scenes moments. Additionally, there is a good deal of unscripted interaction shown between contestants and judges. The American
Primetime Emmy Awards have nominated both
American Idol and
Dancing with the Stars for the
Outstanding Reality-Competition Program Emmy.
Game shows like
Weakest Link,
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?,
American Gladiators and
Deal or No Deal, which were popular in the 2000s, also lie in a gray area: like traditional game shows (e.g.,
The Price Is Right,
Jeopardy!), the action takes place in an enclosed television studio over a short period of time; however, they have higher production values, more dramatic background music, and higher stakes than traditional shows (done either through putting contestants into physical danger or offering large cash prizes). In addition, there is more interaction between contestants and hosts, and in some cases they feature reality-style contestant competition and/or elimination as well. These factors, as well as these shows' rise in global popularity at the same time as the arrival of the reality craze, have led to such shows often being grouped under both the reality television and game show umbrellas.
[42] There have been various hybrid reality-competition shows, like the worldwide-syndicated
Star Academy, which combines the
Big Brotherand
Idol formats,
The Biggest Loser, which combines competition with the self-improvement format, and
American Inventor, which uses the
Idol format for products instead of people. Some reality shows that aired mostly during the early 2000s, such as
Popstars,
Making the Band and
Project Greenlight, devoted the first part of the season to selecting a winner, and the second part to showing that person or group of people working on a project.
Popular variants of the competition-based format include the following:
Dating-based competition[edit]
Dating-based competition shows follow a contestant choosing one out of a group of suitors. Over the course of either a single episode or an entire season, suitors are eliminated until only the contestant and the final suitor remains. In the early 2000s, this type of reality show dominated the other genres on the major U.S. networks. Shows that aired included
The Bachelor, its spin-off
The Bachelorette, as well as
Temptation Island and
Average Joe. In
Married by America, contestants were chosen by viewer voting. More recent such shows include
Flavor of Love (a dating show featuring rapper
Flavor Flav that led directly and indirectly to over 10 spinoffs),
The Cougar and
Love in the Wild. This is one of the older variants of the format; shows such as
The Dating Game that date to the 1960s had similar premises (though each episode was self-contained, and not the serial format of more modern shows).
Job search[edit]
In this category, the competition revolves around a skill that contestants were pre-screened for. Competitors perform a variety of tasks based on that skill, are judged, and are then kept or removed by a single expert or a panel of experts. The show is usually presented as a job search of some kind, in which the prize for the winner includes a contract to perform that kind of work and an undisclosed salary, although the award can simply be a sum of money and ancillary prizes, like a cover article in a magazine. The show also features judges who act as counselors, mediators and sometimes mentors to help contestants develop their skills further or perhaps decide their future position in the competition.
Popstars, which debuted in 1999, may have been the first such show, while the
Idol series has been the longest-running and, for most of its run, the most popular such franchise. The first job-search show which showed dramatic, unscripted situations may have been
America's Next Top Model, which premiered in May 2003. Other examples include
The Apprentice (which judges business skills);
Hell's Kitchen,
MasterChef and
Top Chef (for chefs);
Shear Genius (for hair styling),
Project Runway (for clothing design),
Top Design (for interior design),
Stylista (for fashion editors),
Last Comic Standing (for comedians),
I Know My Kid's a Star (for child performers),
On the Lot (for filmmakers),
RuPaul's Drag Race (for drag queens),
The Shot (for fashion photographers),
So You Think You Can Dance (for dancers),
MuchMusic VJ Search and
Food Network Star (for television hosts),
Dream Job (for sportscasters),
American Candidate (for aspiring politicians),
Work of Art (for artists),
Face Off (for makeup artists),
Ink Master and
Best Ink (for tattoo artists),
Platinum Hit (for songwriters) and
The Tester (for game testers).
Some shows use the same format with celebrities: in this case, there is no expectation that the winner will continue this line of work, and prize winnings often go to charity. The most popular such shows have been the
Dancing with the Stars and
Dancing on Ice franchises. Other examples of celebrity competition programs include
Deadline,
Celebracadabra and
Celebrity Apprentice.
Most of these programs create a sporting competition among athletes attempting to establish their name in that sport.
The Club, in 2002, was one of the first shows to immerse sport with reality television, based on a fabricated club competing against real clubs in the sport of
Australian rules football; the audience helped select which players played each week by voting for their favorites. Golf Channel's
The Big Break is a reality show in which aspiring golfers compete against one another and are eliminated.
The Contender, a
boxing show, became the first American reality show in which a contestant committed
suicide after being eliminated from the show; the show's winner was promised a shot at a boxing world championship.
Sergio Mora, who won, indeed got his title shot and became a world champion boxer. In
The Ultimate Fighter, participants have voluntarily withdrawn or expressed the desire to withdraw from the show due to competitive pressure.
In sports shows, sometimes just appearing on the show, not necessarily winning, can get a contestant the job. The owner of UFC declared that the final match of the first season of
Ultimate Fighter was so good, both contestants were offered a contract, and in addition, many non-winning "TUF Alumni" have prospered in the UFC. Many of the losers from
World Wrestling Entertainment's
Tough Enough and
Diva Search shows have been picked up by the company.
Immunity[edit]
One concept pioneered by, and unique to, reality competition shows is the idea of immunity, in which a contestant can win the right to be exempt the next time contestants are eliminated from the show. Possibly the first instance of immunity in reality TV was on
Survivor, which premiered in 1997 in Sweden as
Expedition Robinson, before gaining international prominence in 2000 as the US edition premiered
Survivor in 2000. On that show, there are complex rules around immunity: a player can achieve it by winning challenges (either as a team in the tribal phase or individually in the merged phase), or, in more recent seasons, through finding
a hidden totem. They can keep their immunity a secret from other players, and they can also pass on their immunity to someone else.
[43] On most shows, immunity is quite a bit simpler: it is usually achieved by winning a task, often a relatively minor task during the first half of the episode; the announcement of immunity is made publicly and immunity is usually non-transferable. Competition shows that feature immunity include the
Apprentice,
Big Brother,
Biggest Loser,
Top Model and
Top Chef franchises. In one
Apprentice episode, a participant chose to waive his earned immunity and was immediately "fired" by
Donald Trump for giving up this powerful asset.
[44]
Criticism and analysis[edit]
"Reality" as misnomer[edit]
The authenticity of reality television is often called into question by its detractors. The genre's title of "reality" is often criticized as being inaccurate because of claims that the genre frequently includes elements such as premeditated scripting, acting, urgings from behind-the-scenes crew to create specified situations of adversity and drama, and misleading editing. It has often been described as "scripting without paper".
In many cases, the entire premise of the show is a contrived one, based around a competition or another unusual situation. However, various shows have additionally been accused of using fakery in order to create more compelling television, such as having premeditated storylines and in some cases feeding participants lines of dialogue, focusing only on participants' most outlandish behavior, and altering events through editing and re-shoots.
[45][46]
Television shows that have been notably accused of, or admitted to, deception include
The Real World,
[47][48][49] the U.S. version of
Survivor,
[50] Joe Millionaire,
[51] The Hills,
Hell's Kitchen,
[52] A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila,
[53] Hogan Knows Best,
[54] Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,
[55] The Bachelor and
The Bachelorette,
[56][57][58][59][60][61] Pawn Stars,
[62]Storage Wars,
[63] and
Keeping Up with the Kardashians.
[64][65]
Political and cultural impact[edit]
Reality television's global successes has been, in the eyes of some analysts, an important political phenomenon. In some
authoritarian countries, reality television voting has been the first time many citizens have voted in any free and fair wide-scale elections. In addition, the frankness of the settings on some reality shows present situations that are often taboo in certain orthodox cultures, like
Star Academy Arab World, which began airing in 2003, and which shows male and female contestants living together.
[66] A Pan-Arab version of
Big Brother was cancelled in 2004 after less than two weeks on the air after a public outcry and street protests.
[67] In 2004, journalist
Matt Labash, noting both of these issues, wrote that "the best hope of little Americas developing in the Middle East could be Arab-produced reality TV."
[68]
In 2007,
Abu Dhabi TV began airing
Million's Poet, a show featuring
Pop Idol-style voting and elimination, but for the writing and oration of
Arabic poetry. The show became popular in Arab countries, with around 18 million viewers,
[69] partly because it was able to combine the excitement of reality television with a traditional, culturally relevant topic.
[70]In April 2010, however, the show also become a subject of political controversy, when
Hissa Hilal, a 43-year-old female
Saudi competitor, read out a poem criticizing her country's Muslim clerics.
[71] Hilal's poetry was well received by both critics and the public; she received the highest scores from the judges throughout the competition, and came in third place overall.
[69]
In
India, in the summer of 2007, coverage of the third season of
Indian Idol focused on the breaking down of cultural and socioeconomic barriers as the public rallied around the show's top two contestants.
[21]
The
Chinese singing competition
Super Girl (a local imitation of
Pop Idol) has similarly been cited for its political and cultural impact. After the finale of the show's 2005 season drew an audience of around 400 million people, and eight million
text message votes, the state-run English-language newspaper
Beijing Today ran the front-page headline "Is Super Girl a Force for Democracy?"
[73] The Chinese government criticized the show, citing both its democratic nature and its excessive vulgarity, or "worldliness",
[74] and in 2006 banned it outright.
[75] It was later reintroduced in 2009, before being banned again in 2011.
Super Girl has also been criticized by non-government commentators for creating seemingly impossible ideals that may be harmful to Chinese youth.
In
Indonesia, reality television shows have surpassed soap operas as the most-watched programs on the air.
[76] One popular program is
Jika Aku Menjadi ("If I Were"), which follows young, middle-class people as they are temporarily placed into lower-class life, where they learn to appreciate their circumstances back home by experiencing daily life for the less fortunate.
[76] Critics have claimed that this and similar programs in Indonesia reinforce traditionally Western ideals of materialism and consumerism.
[76] However, Eko Nugroho, reality show producer and president of Dreamlight World Media, insists that these reality shows are not promoting American lifestyles but rather reaching people through their universal desires.
[76]
As a substitute for scripted drama[edit]
Reality television generally costs less to produce than scripted series.
[citation needed]
VH1 executive vice president Michael Hirschorn wrote in 2007 that the plots and subject matters on reality television are more authentic and more engaging than in scripted dramas, writing that scripted network television "remains dominated by variants on the
police procedural... in which a stock group of characters (ethnically, sexually, and generationally diverse) grapples with endless versions of the same dilemma. The episodes have all the ritual predictability of Japanese
Noh theater," while reality television is "the liveliest genre on the set right now. It has engaged hot-button cultural issues – class, sex, race – that respectable television... rarely touches."
[77]
Television critic James Poniewozik wrote that reality shows like
Deadliest Catch and
Ice Road Truckers showcase working-class people of the kind that "used to be routine" on scripted network television, but that became a rarity in the 2000s: "The better to woo upscale viewers, TV has evicted its mechanics and dockworkers to collect higher rents from yuppies in coffeehouses."
[78]
Lighting crews are typically present in the background of reality television shows.
Sound crews work in the background of reality television shows.
Instant celebrity[edit]
Reality television has the potential to turn its participants into national
celebrities, at least for a short period. This is most notable in talent-search programs such as
Idol and
The X Factor, which have spawned music stars in many of the countries in which they have aired. Many other shows, however, have made at least temporary celebrities out of their participants; some participants have then been able to parlay this fame into media and merchandising careers. For example,
Elisabeth Hasselbeck, a contestant on
Survivor: The Australian Outback, later became a host on daytime talk show
The View and a correspondent on
Fox and Friends.
Jamie Chung (from
The Real World: San Diego),
Kristin Cavallari (from
Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County), and
NeNe Leakes (from
The Real Housewives of Atlanta) all have had acting careers since appearing on reality television. Several cast members of MTV's
Jersey Shore have had lucrative endorsement deals, and in some cases their own product lines.
Tiffany Pollard, originally a contestant on
Flavor of Love, was eventually given four additional reality series of her own on VH1. In Britain,
Jade Goody became famous after appearing on
Big Brother 3 in 2002; she later appeared on other reality programs, wrote a bestselling autobiography and launched a top-selling perfume line. She later received extensive media coverage during her battle with
cervical cancer, from which she died in 2009.
Bethenny Frankel, who gained fame after appearing on several reality television shows, launched the successful brand Skinnygirl Cocktails, and got her own short-lived syndicated talk show,
Bethenny. Two cast members of non-athletic reality shows,
Mike "The Miz" Mizanin (from
The Real World and its spin-off,
The Challenge) and
David Otunga (from
I Love New York), became professional wrestlers for the WWE. Some reality-television alumni have parlayed their fame into paid public appearances.
[79][80]
Reality television personalities are sometimes derided as "
Z-list celebrities", "Bravolebrities", and/or "nonebrities" who are effectively "famous for being famous" and have done nothing to warrant their sudden fame.
[82] Some have been lampooned for exploiting an undeserved "
15 minutes of fame".
[83] The Kardashian family is one such group of reality television personalities who were subject to this criticism in the 2010s,
[83][84] Kim Kardashian in particular.
[85]
Youth audience[edit]
In 2006, four of the ten most popular programs among viewers under 17 were reality shows.
[86] Studies have shown that young people emulate the behavior displayed on these programs, gathering much of their knowledge of the social world, particularly about consumer practices, from television.
[87][88][89] Many of the programs watched by teens contain questionable role models,
[90] in particular the representation of sexually objectified women in shows like
The Girls Next Door.
[91][92]
A number of studies have tried to pinpoint the appeal of reality television.
[94] Factors that have been cited in its appeal include personal identification with the onscreen participants; pure entertainment; diversion from scripted TV; vicarious participation;
[95] a feeling of self-importance compared to onscreen participants;
[96] enjoyment of competition;
[96] and an appeal to
voyeurism, especially given "scenes which take place in private settings, contain
nudity, and/or include gossip".
[97][98][99] Batya Ungar-Sargon, PhD believes reality TV's appeal comes from people taking pleasure in watching the suffering or humiliation of the show's protagonists.
[100]
A 2012 survey by
Today.com found that Americans who watch reality television regularly are more extroverted, more neurotic, and have lower self-esteem than those who do not.
[101]
Similar works in popular culture[edit]
A number of fictional works since the 1940s have contained elements similar to elements of reality television. They tended to be set in a
dystopian future, with subjects being recorded against their will, and often involved violence.
- "The Seventh Victim" (1953) was a short story by science fiction author Robert Sheckley that depicted a futuristic game in which one player gets to hunt down another player and kill him. The first player who can score ten kills wins the grand prize. This story was the basis for the Italian film The 10th Victim (1965).
- You're Another, a 1955 short story by Damon Knight, is about a man who discovers that he is an actor in a "livie", a live-action show that is viewed by billions of people in the future.
- A King in New York, a 1957 film written and directed by Charlie Chaplin has the main character, a fictional European monarch portrayed by Chaplin, secretly filmed while talking to people at a New York cocktail party. The footage is later turned into a television show within the film.
- "The Prize of Peril"[102] (1958), another Robert Sheckley story, was about a television show in which a contestant volunteers to be hunted for a week by trained killers, with a large cash prize if he survives. It was adapted in 1970 as the TV movie Das Millionenspiel, and again in 1983 as the movie Le Prix du Danger.
- Richard G. Stern's novel Golk (1960) was about a hidden-camera show similar to Candid Camera.
- "It Could Be You" (1964), a short story by Australian Frank Roberts, features a day-in-day-out televised blood sport.
- Survivor (1965), a science fiction story by Walter F. Moudy, depicted the 2050 "Olympic War Games" between Russia and the United States. The games are fought to show the world the futility of war and thus deter further conflict. Each side has one hundred soldiers who fight in a large natural arena. The goal is for one side to wipe out the other; the few who survive the battle become heroes. The games are televised, complete with color commentary discussing tactics, soldiers' personal backgrounds, and slow-motion replays of their deaths.
- "Bread and Circuses" (1968) was an episode of the science fiction television series Star Trek in which the crew visits a planet resembling the Roman Empire, but with 20th-century technology. The planet's "Empire TV" features regular gladiatorial games, with the announcer urging viewers at home to vote for their favorites, stating, "This is your program. You pick the winner."
- The Year of the Sex Olympics (1968) was a BBC television play in which a dissident in a dictatorship is forced onto a secluded island and taped for a reality show in order to keep the masses entertained.
- The Unsleeping Eye (1973), a novel by D.G. Compton (also published as The Continuous Katherine Mortenhoe), was about a woman dying of cancer whose last days are recorded without her knowledge for a television show. It was later adapted as the 1980 movie Death Watch.
- "Ladies And Gentlemen, This Is Your Crisis" (1976) was a short story by science fiction author Kate Wilhelm about a television show in which contestants (including a B-list actress who is hoping to revitalize her career) attempt to make their way to a checkpoint after being dropped off in the Alaskan wilderness, while being filmed and broadcast around the clock through an entire weekend. The story focuses primarily on the show's effect on a couple whose domestic tensions and eventual reconciliation parallel the dangers faced by the contestants.
- Network (1976) includes a subplot in which network executives negotiate with an urban terrorist group for the production of a weekly series, each episode of which was to feature an act of terrorism. The climax of the film has the terrorist group being turned against the network's own unstable star, news commentator Howard Beale.
- The Running Man (1982) was a book by Stephen King depicting a game show in which a contestant flees around the world from "hunters" trying to chase him down and kill him; it has been speculated that the book was inspired by Robert Sheckley's The Prize of Peril. The book was loosely adapted as a 1987 movie of the same name. The movie removed most of the reality-TV element of the book: its competition now took place entirely within a large television studio, and more closely resembled an athletic competition (though a deadly one).
- The film 20 Minutes into the Future (1985), and the spin-off television series Max Headroom, revolved around television mainly based on live, often candid, broadcasts. In one episode of Max Headroom, "Academy", the character Blank Reg fights for his life on a courtroom game show, with the audience deciding his fate.
- Vengeance on Varos (1985) was an episode of the television show Doctor Who in which the population of a planet watches live television broadcasts of the torture and executions of those who oppose the government. The planet's political system is based on the leaders themselves facing disintegration if the population votes 'no' to their propositions.
Pop culture references[edit]
Some scripted and written works have used reality television as a plot device:
Television[edit]
- The Comeback (2005) satirizes the indignity of reality television by presenting itself as "raw footage" of a new reality show documenting the attempted comeback of has-been star Valerie Cherish.
- Dead Set (2008) is a British television programme featuring a zombie apocalypse affecting the Big Brother house. Part of the film was shot during an actual eviction with host Davina McCall making a cameo appearance.
- Rock Rivals (2008) is a British television show about two judges on a televised singing contest whose marriage is falling apart.
- "Fifteen Million Merits" (2011) is an episode in the first season of British television anthology series Black Mirror, set in a dystopian future in which appearing on reality television is the only way in which people can escape their miserable, jail-like conditions.
- Unreal (2015) is an American television show that depicts the behind-the-scenes drama on a show similar to The Bachelor.
- Chart Throb (2006) is a comic novel by Ben Elton that parodies The X Factor and The Osbournes, among other reality shows.
- Dead Famous (2001) is a comedy/whodunit novel, also by Ben Elton, in which a contestant is murdered while on a Big Brother-like show.
- Oryx and Crake (2003), a speculative fiction novel by Margaret Atwood, occasionally makes mentions of the protagonist and his friend entertaining themselves by watching reality television shows of live executions, Noodie News, frog squashing, graphic surgery, and child pornography.[103][104][105]
- L.A. Candy (2009) is a young adult novel series by Lauren Conrad, which is based on her experiences on Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County and The Hills.
Other influences on popular culture[edit]
A number of scripted television comedy and satire shows have adopted the format of the documentary-type reality television show, in "
mockumentary" style. The first such show was the BBC series
Operation Good Guys, which premiered in 1997. Subsequent examples include
People Like Us (BBC UK, 1998),
The Games (ABC Australia, 1999),
Trailer Park Boys (2001),
Reno 911! (2003),
Drawn Together (2004),
Summer Heights High (2007),
Total Drama (2007),
Parks and Recreation (2009),
Modern Family (2009),
Come Fly With Me (2010), and
The Muppets (2015). Arguably the best-known and most influential "mockumentary" sitcom is the BBC's
The Office (2001), which spawned numerous international remakes, including a
successful American version.
Not all reality-television-style mockumentary series are comedic: the 2013 American series
Siberia has a science fiction/horror bent, while the 2014 Dutch series
Brugklas is a drama.
The 2013-2015 American
sketch comedy series
Kroll Show set most of its sketches as excerpts from various fictional reality television shows, which one critic wrote "aren't far off from the lineups at E!, Bravo, and VH1", and parodied those shows' participants' "lack of self-awareness".
[106] The show also satirized the often incestuous nature of reality television, in which some series lead to a cascade of spinoffs.
Kroll Show writer John Levenstein said in an interview that reality TV "has so many tools for telling stories in terms of text and flashbacks and ways to show things to the audience that it's incredibly convenient for comedy and storytelling if you use the full reality show toolkit."
[107]
Some feature films have been produced that use some of the conventions of documentary film and/or reality television; such films are sometimes referred to as
reality films, and sometimes simply as documentaries.
[108] Allen Funt's 1970 hidden camera movie
What Do You Say to a Naked Lady? was based on his reality-television show
Candid Camera.
In 2007, broadcaster
Krishnan Guru-Murthy stated that reality television is "a firm and embedded part of television's vocabulary, used in every genre from game-shows and drama to news and current affairs."
[109]
The
mumblecore film genre, which began in the mid-2000s, and uses video cameras and relies heavily on improvisation and non-professional actors, has been described as influenced in part by what one critic called "the spring-break psychodrama of MTV's
The Real World". Mumblecore director
Joe Swanberg has said, "As annoying as reality TV is, it's been really good for filmmakers because it got mainstream audiences used to watching shaky camerawork and different kinds of situations."
[110]
