The Demise of Reality TV
By Hannah Maloco
Monday 19th October 2009
Monday 19th October 2009
Ten series, 144 contestants and an awful lot of Davina McCall later Britain's Big Brother is finally to be evicted from the Channel 4 line-up. With figures falling by around 33% year on year Big Brother's format seems to have gradually lost its appeal.
So what went wrong? In earlier series the show did appear to offer viewers a glimpse of reality.
The winners were, in relation to current contestants, the “ordinary” ones; the genuine guy next door whose honesty and lovable nature drove him through to the end. Yet in an effort to create new, exciting and dramatic TV moments producers became ever more involved in the manipulation of the show. Reality, it seems, just wasn't that entertaining.
Big Brother, however,, is not the only perpetrator of this crime. With contestants John and Edward making it into the final X Factor twelve and John Sergeant's record stint stumbling towards the final of Strictly Come Dancing, reality contests no longer hook audiences with undiscovered raw talent but instead supply carefully constructed controversy and characters that boost viewer ratings week after week. One just has to watch an episode of The Hills, to see how staged and scripted “reality” TV can be.
Yet does this end the reign of reality TV? Probably not. A new name, a new host, a new channel and a few tweaks to the format later and Big Brother will no doubt be back on our screens in some other guise. Whether it's dating or singing, cooking or wife swapping there appears to be an endless supply of “real” people and situations available to be exploited on screen.
Reality TV is our guilty pleasure. It's the Big Mac, the Primark Underwear and the Extra Value Vodka that you just couldn't put down. For the producers it offers quick and cheap solutions to a 24hr television schedule, to its viewers instant and uncomplicated gratification. The reality in such shows maybe an ever more artificial construction but with major new series already in production for 2010 its place on our television appears set to remain. To draw on Einstein's infamous words - “reality is merely an illusion albeit a very persistent one.”
So what went wrong? In earlier series the show did appear to offer viewers a glimpse of reality.
The winners were, in relation to current contestants, the “ordinary” ones; the genuine guy next door whose honesty and lovable nature drove him through to the end. Yet in an effort to create new, exciting and dramatic TV moments producers became ever more involved in the manipulation of the show. Reality, it seems, just wasn't that entertaining.
Big Brother, however,, is not the only perpetrator of this crime. With contestants John and Edward making it into the final X Factor twelve and John Sergeant's record stint stumbling towards the final of Strictly Come Dancing, reality contests no longer hook audiences with undiscovered raw talent but instead supply carefully constructed controversy and characters that boost viewer ratings week after week. One just has to watch an episode of The Hills, to see how staged and scripted “reality” TV can be.
Yet does this end the reign of reality TV? Probably not. A new name, a new host, a new channel and a few tweaks to the format later and Big Brother will no doubt be back on our screens in some other guise. Whether it's dating or singing, cooking or wife swapping there appears to be an endless supply of “real” people and situations available to be exploited on screen.
Reality TV is our guilty pleasure. It's the Big Mac, the Primark Underwear and the Extra Value Vodka that you just couldn't put down. For the producers it offers quick and cheap solutions to a 24hr television schedule, to its viewers instant and uncomplicated gratification. The reality in such shows maybe an ever more artificial construction but with major new series already in production for 2010 its place on our television appears set to remain. To draw on Einstein's infamous words - “reality is merely an illusion albeit a very persistent one.”