Q1. How real is reality tv?
Realty TV currently contains numerous subgenres. Gone are the days of hand held footage of behind the scenes action, documentary style, of law and order professionals or capturing the goings on in a busy hospital emergency department. These styles of filming are edited and made into stories with whatever footage became available at the time… The Real story.
Now, Reality TV is produced, scripted, planned and sold to sponsors before the people who are going to appear on screen stand in front of a camera. I have personally worked on a few Reality TV shows, X-Factor NZ, Dancing With The Stars, Finding Aroha, The Block x2, Hunt With Me and Married at First Sight. I’ve been on set, I’ve seen the way in which the stylists choose to portray a persona for the cast of characters. I’ve ushered in the marketing and sponsorship team to the best seats in the room. Basically I know how things work behind the scenes. Reality TV is not Real. Reality TV is contrived and planned like any other genre broadcast on the screens in our homes.
Reality Television has to make sure it can find an audience, advertisers and a broadcaster just like a documentary, journalism or drama series does. In New Zealand Mediaworks has aired a slew of Reality content one after the other both locally and internationally on TV3 and what was Four and is now Bravo. Why? Because reality Television is cheap to make, cheap to buy, and people watch it. People feel they can relate to the drama unfolding… because it could be them in the spotlight.
What the general audience doesn’t realise is that the creators and producers are looking to fill an character or architype for each role on their Reality show. They are looking for opinionated people who will clash, create tension and cause conflict with others. Moreover they are looking for people who will perform, how they expect, when the television series throws challenges at them. They do this to sell solutions to the participants in the form on sponsors or paid partnerships. People would stop watching if everyone got along and things happened easily. It would be boring… like Real life.
References
Biressi, A. & Nunn, N. (2005). Real Lives, documentary approaches. In Reality TV: realism and revelation. (pp. 35-58) London: Wallflower.
Hill, A. (2005) The reality genre. In A. Hill, Reality TV: Audiences and Popular Factual Television.(pp. 14 – 40). Oxon: Routledge.
Pop Genres 2020 