Love them or hate them, we all know what they are.
It isn't a completely new idea. I remember loving a programme called 'Candid Camera' when I was a child. Normal members of the public (who had no idea that they were being filmed) were tricked into doing ridiculous things and it was sometimes very funny. And now we have those 'Funniest Home Videos' programmes instead.
Double-click on any word and see its definition from Cambridge Dictionaries Online.
Read the article and then do a comprehension exercise. Finally, do some writing yourself.
Then things changed. European television had the idea of taking ordinary people and turning them into 'stars' by putting them in unusual situations. 'Big Brother' (created in Holland) was one of the first. A group of people were locked in a small house with cameras running 24 hours a day. It was called a 'watch and dial' show because viewers vote by telephone to decide who should leave or stay. Or 'Survivor' where a group of people are put in a hostile environment, like a jungle or a desert island. They are filmed while they try to find food and shelter and every week some of them are voted out.
'Big Brother' was probably the first of the new reality shows but the genre has developed. Many have found appeal by having a theme to them, but most are based on the principle of ‘survival of the fittest’ by eliminating participants as the series progresses.
So we have the dating shows where winners either pair off or stay true to their partners outside the TV studio. Then there are those that test people’s aptitudes for specific jobs like running a kitchen, becoming an interior designer or a top model. There are any number of sports-based shows which have sometimes led to contestants getting deals to become professionals in the real world. In similar vein, there are those based on music, where the winners get to make a record which may lead to real success in the world of show business. And at the more voyeuristic end, we have shows designed to bring out more extreme physical and emotional reactions. In one series, participants have to face the thing that they are most afraid of -being covered with scorpions for example, or climbing out of a window twenty floors up in the air.
Critics say these programmes are degrading, exploitative and basically, bad television, but people watch them. So why are there so many of them? For the viewer it's an opportunity to 'people watch'. It's natural to like watching other people. They're interesting. We can imagine what we would do in that situation. We get to know the characters and see them grow and develop week after week. And of course, television is the perfect place to watch people. Like the theatre or cinema we can look at other people and they can't look back. But with television, we can watch in the privacy of our own homes. We watch, but we don't have to admit it to anyone.
The TV companies like reality shows because they are cheap to produce and attract younger viewers, which advertisers like. The last 'Big Brother' in Britain attracted enormous advertising revenue. They aren't dependent on 'star' actors with enormous salaries. And your actors won't go on strike.
And why do people participate in them? Well, for fame and money of course. In the past, appearing on television wasn't for ordinary people. You had to be good at something, like sport, or reading the news, or acting. But not any more. The video camera is an important part of many peoples' lives. We film births, weddings, our child's first steps. Nowadays it isn't history if it isn't filmed…and then put on the internet.
It seems that most shows do well at the beginning but then the viewing figures begin to fall. And it varies from country to country too. For example, in Spain, 'Fame Academy', or 'Operación Triunfo', was very popular, but the British version did so badly that people called it 'Lame Academy'. There may be limits what the public will watch, even in private - one show had an adopted child try to guess the identity of her real father, and another had a family arguing over an inheritance. Both were cancelled after one episode. Perhaps the novelty has worn off. Certainly, reality TV seems to appeal much more to the younger audience. And now there are so many shows around even the young have become more discriminating. The genre will probably survive-it’s just no longer so easy to make a successful one.
What do you think of this article? Send us your opinions.
Article-related links
Wikipedia: reality television
UnrealityTV
Wikipedia: list of reality television programs
Other links
Wikipedia: television
Howstuffworks: how television works
Google directory: television
The British Council is not responsible for the contents of external websites.
| 
