the decline of reality TV

[Orius]

Plus, from a network'd POV -- those reality shows can't be a very good long-term investment. You can't really re-run them like you can scripted TV -- and who's gonna want to see them in syndication? But then maybe they're so cheap to produce that it all comes out in the wash.

They aren't good investments. The broadcast network are just making them because they're cheap, they don't have to pay actors' or writers' unions to produce them after all, and because they can get some quick money from advertising. But then the brodcast networks are doing very poorly too, and cable's succeeding at picking up the slack. But I think we're reaching a point where the well is starting to run dry.

 

[Orius]

Not only aren't reality shows "real," they're not even kinda real.

Ain't THAT the truth. Even "The Real World" was never real.

 

[PhoenixDarkDirk]

Personally, I reserve the term "reality show" for shows that just find a situation and air it, like Cops. Shows like The Real World that create situations just to see what happens are social experiments, and shows like Survivor with contests that take several episode to resolve are extended game shows.

 

[Arnwyn]

There's a certain irony in this thread's title...

 

[jester47]

Yeah, Fear factor is more of a gameshow. As is Survivor. I prefer shows with good writing like Law and Order, Firefly, The Sopranos (though I have only seen 2 eps), Farscape, the Gilmore Girls (sureal situations, almost to the point of the fantastic), The season wrap ups and kick offs of Smallville (the middle stuff suffers a little).

Yeah we can put "Reality TV" right up there with "Honest Politician."

Aaron.

 

[WizarDru]

So, you may want to ask yourself: Would you watch Survivor if the people were truly surviving? Against wild beasts, natives, the elements and themselves. There would be death and gore but the producers could edit it to a tolerable point. I think a great amount of people would say yes.

Do I truly think this is where this is all heading? I don't know - but I do know that it is a possible direction. And that is a bit scary.

Ummmm.....John? We're already watching Lost.


Seriously, though, I don't see this as a trend. Reality and Reality Game shows of varying quality and authenticity have been around as long as media has been around to provide it. Remember "Queen for a Day"? The more history I study, the more amazed I am at how good we currently have it. A lot of good shows have come and gone, even during this Reality craze...but we always love a good spectacle...and that's all most of these shows are.

Quick: how many people went to see "The Real Cancun"? Show of hands? Bueller? Bueller? It cost $8 million to make, and only made $3.5, roughly. As a friend of mine put it: "Sure, people will watch reality shows...if they're free." How many reality shows are out on DVD? Let's see Survivor...The Apprentice..The Osbournes..the Simple Life." No Amazing Race? No Bachelor? No Last Comic Standing? No AMERICAN IDOL?? The Real World only gets some compilation shows, like "New Orleans, what you never saw"...which sounds suspiciously like a Girls Gone Wild, Too Hot for TV kind of thing. I'd wager that the sales of the few reality shows on DVD are purely quick-cash-in affairs. Will people be buying copies of The Simple Life, Season One in three years time? Hell, who's buying copies of the Osbournes, now? Anyone demanding American Gladiator season releases?

Reality shows will begin to abate, and things will come back to normal. Or at least as normal as they can get, with the changing face of media. LOST is the first show on a major network that I've followed in a long time. I did follow E/R...but on TNT, not NBC. And with the plethora of entertainment choices at my fingertips (DVDs, video games, LAN games, board games, the web, ENWORLD and so forth), TV has to offer something compelling for me to even sit up and take notice.

TV has, since it's inception, been about fads. In the 50s, there were news shows and lots of Westerns. In the 60s, we got lots of sitcoms and a heavy emphasis on escapism. And on and on. When something works, TV nets have traditionally run it into the ground. So I'm not worried about us heading towards the Running Man: in point of fact, the Running Man wouldn't make for nearly as compelling TV, since the characters get eliminated too quickly to empathize with them, anyhow. I mean, if we can't keep up the interest value of Queer Eye or the Apprentice for two years in a row, the nets will move on until they catch enough eyeballs. How they're going to pay for it, as my Tivos let me ignore them, is another matter entirely.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Anyone demanding American Gladiator season releases?

Ooh - are they planned?

We only ever saw two seasons of American Gladiators (seasons 2 and 3, from memory) here... gosh, a few years ago now.

I thought it was fantastic!

And then we got the Australian and British versions fobbed off on us instead, which sucked.

I dunno, depending on the price, I might actually pay money for DVD sets of the early American Gladiators seasons...

-Hyp.

 

[s/LaSH]

All it will take to sink the ship is one good lawsuit. Someone gets CjD (Mad cow disease) from being forced to deal with animal parts, or someone gets killed trying the wrong move on Fear Factor or something like that and presto!, instant multi-million dollar damages and bad press for the network.

You'd be surprised - here in New Zealand, while filming Celebrity Treasure Island (RealityTV at its finest - tropical island, staged challenges, a bunch of actors with nothing better to do - almost more honest that most RTV if you ask me), Lana Coc-Kroft contracted a mysterious bacterial illness and nearly died in hospital (the newspapers carried the occasional story on the topic). Months later, when the show was screening, it was right there on the ads: "And what's wrong with Lana?" On the reunion show she was there talking about it and everything.

Read what you will into this situation.

And I've always thought that "Running Man" should be an obligatory viewing experience for every citizen in the modern age. Not just because my name's Ben Richards, either.