About the Phenomenon of Reality TV

The genre of reality TV is almost impossible to define, either in terms of content or appeal. It is so popular that merely being associated with it incites intense interest, usually lurid. As a result, the umbrella monicker of "reality" covers an absurdly diverse range of programming. Game shows, extreme sports competitions, makeover shows, episodic documentaries, video diaries are all included in the mix, ostensibly because they're all based on reality. But TV already includes reality-based shows; up till now it's been called News.

Reality TV seems very much like the news, for its supposed immediacy, and its supposedly authentic presentation of supposedly real people. Authenticity however, isn't enough to account for its mass appeal. No, that drug-like pull can be traced to its nearly hypnotic capacity to create and exploit dramatic situations. And this is not by any means limited to a single culture; it is a worldwide phenomenon. The vast and powerful need human beings have for ringside seats to conflict and scandal and plain old bad behavior seems insatiable. Which is great news for the TV industry, always eager to give the public exactly what it wants – that's what ratings are all about. More eyeballs are more eyeballs.

Not that it's had much of an impact on its unstoppable success, but many people hate reality TV. They're quick to point out that the programming is dishonest; that producers couldn't care less about representing real life – instead they go for the jugular and provide nothing but shock-heavy entertainment, a naked pursuit of the lowest common denominator. Ironically, the people who love reality TV describe it the same way. The appeal of reality TV programs is primarily a matter of taste. Same goes for most popular culture, from classical painting to hardcore porn.

While the more sensational examples of reality TV certainly tap the fascination of the average viewer, such by itself is nothing new. For centuries people have been enthusiastically lining up at the gallows to thrill to public executions or some imitation thereof. What is amazing is a that a newly intimate relationship has sprung up between the spectator and the platform. The TV now offers an opportunity for the viewer to see themselves – not a glorified, idealized version of themselves, but an unadorned, unadulterated avatar – experiencing the best and worst of whatever TV writers can dream up. Wealth, sex, hunger, hardship, torture, fame may be bestowed brutally and instantly upon the most common, unremarkable person, or so the shows' producers would have them believe. Reality TV is held up to its audience as a mirror, for better or worse – in fact, it's one of its prime attractions, like a funhouse; the "that could be me" factor as well as the "thank God that's not me" factor.

Viewers responding to the mirror idea if reality TV are by definition narcissistic, but for sheer self-celebration they don't hold a candle to the fans who actually sign up for the shows. Despite all manner of risk of failure, mental anguish, bodily harm and humiliation, there is nothing short of a juggernaut of applicants going through hell to be considered worthy of television's brief but mighty interest. Their so-called "15 minutes of fame." Not just positive, flattering regard – any attention will do, including awe, disgust, envy, lust and pity. For these people craving notice, the potential approbation of the public is simply too valuable to be forgone. It's a factor directly related to the modern obsession with celebrity, a.k.a. baseless fame. Whereas once it required achievement to become famous – curing polio, landing on the moon, discovering radium – thanks to supermassmedia it's now possible to gain renown merely by being noticed, instantly, by millions of people.

For decades TV was overweened until it became a 24/7 leviathan with a bottomless appetite for programming and viewers alike. But its power was only as strong as its appeal; the public was as often as not pandered to like a dumb lover, until reality TV entered the arena at the cusp of the millennium. With luck and skill, its peculiar and potent magic quickly turned fickle audiences into faithful acolytes. Though its methods were frequently as obvious as its standards were odious, people were drawn to watch and participate, feeding the monster as avidly as a flock of lambs running to the slaughter.

Reality television is variously described by the people who create it as "unscripted entertainment," "alternative programming" and "docu-tainment." While these sobriquets certainly describe the shows' content more accurately than the ill-fitting mantle of "reality," it's still just entertainment, re-cast yet again by the TV industry, guiltlessly, as merely "what the public wants." No different than any other successful television (or radio) format from the last 70 years: cop show, hospital story, science fiction, mystery, melodrama. Producers will keep making whatever the audience tunes in for, even if it's scraping the bottom of the barrel. They clamor for lions versus gladiators, they get Ancient Rome.

Indicting the public as the both the perp and the victim of its own desires may seem unfair, until it emerges that the public really doesn't much care what it gets, as long as it's entertained. This is how the news eventually evolved into circus, complete with dramatic music and cute animals, to say nothing of what happened to government. A paler imitation of truth is what the public appears to demand, provided it arrives quicker and looking prettier than yesterday's version. Possibly this would be tragic, if anyone expected actual reality from their "reality."