"no" to reality tv

I would choose to live, well, on a deserted island in the South China Sea, so as not to be swept up by the recent wave of reality television. Indeed, millions of people have caught reality TV mania. Its success has led to a string of knock-offs and has ensured that reality programming is here to stay – at least until the next big thing comes along.

If one would take a closer look, it would reveal that reality television is not a new phenomenon. It had started long time ago. PBS Channel debuted An American Family, an unsettling, yet fascinating documentary series in 1973. The Loud family opened up their home and lives for seven months to producer Craig Gilbert, who shot 300 hours of footage. Only 12 of those hours made it to television. If that is so, how come they call it reality TV show if only 12 of 300 hours made it to television? Reality programming should show, at least, every shot and should be, as much as possible, transparent to the audience. However, an astonishing 10 million viewers watched the marital breakup of Bill and Pat Loud and the coming-out of their son, Lance. The family complained that the hours chosen for broadcast misrepresented their lives. See? If they only broadcasted all the significant footages they got, then probably their lives wouldn’t be like that. Or the family shouldn’t enter that reality-based show in the first place if they don’t want a broken family. Ten years later, Gilbert’s two assistants produced a sequel for HBO.

There is one thing I deplore. Even though they had given entertainment to viewers, they only showed that no matter how happy and united a family is, there would always be something that would break the bondage. It is emotionally distressing to the viewers who take it seriously. Shows like that can always misrepresent people’s lives, and it would cause too much trouble. I firmly believe that one cannot really take good values from reality television.

Ratings, not quality, matter most to network executives. Until CBS’ emergence as the reality TV network, Fox Channel had cornered the market. The network had perennially relied on nobrow verité to lure viewers. Ratings revealed what people wanted. Because of that, the America’s Most Wanted’s host, John Walsh got into a big mess. His son, Adam, was kidnapped and murdered. Come to think of it, even the host’s innocent son had gotten into trouble. I guess behind every reality-based show lies trouble. Thanks to reality television.

Going back, it was CBS that started it all. The network experimented with the format of nobrow verité more than 32 years earlier, with Wanted, which ran from October 1955 through January 1956. Actually, the grandfather of the reality TV genre is Candid Camera, which has been on television on and off since 1948, almost since the dawn of the medium itself. After those oldies, many new reality TV shows succeeded them. Even here in the Philippines, reality TV seems to be a craze. These shows are of different categories, but they have the same purpose – to entertain people. But does the ‘entertaining’ part just end there? Nah! I don’t think so.

Given television’s some history of reality-based programming, why all the fuss? Two factors immediately come to mind: money and fame. The ‘money’ part is obvious motivation. The sole survivor takes home a million bucks. Well, apparently, it’s worth money to have your privacy be opened to the public and get all the shame possible. Then there’s the ‘fame’ part. The shows have made instant celebrities out of regular men and women who would’ve likely endured in anonymity forever if they hadn’t made the break. The question is, will their lives change? Maybe for a little while, but can anyone name them after 20 or 30 years?

Reality-based programming has a great impact on television history, and most especially on the viewers. It can create chaos out of a little thing no matter how one avoids it. It is simply a kind of public humiliation, and it is not advisable for young audiences who almost make up the whole viewing community. With reality TV, some people tend to level themselves that easy to those who are into those shows and think that they can also be a part of it, even though some don’t really have the guts. The outcome? Failure and humiliation. Another thing is that young viewers tend to imitate the people or the contestants in those reality-based shows, say, their manner of speaking, the way they dress up, and the like. If reality TV would claim that one can develop his/her skills and talents, acquire self-confidence and esteem through it, well then, think again. There are so many talent-enhancing and esteem-building ways one could probably take up, but never from the reality TV. Another is that viewers shouldn’t take reality TV seriously, because seriously speaking, reality-based shows are meant to fool people.