Once described by The New York Times as “gross-out shockumentaries and socially unreedeming freak shows,” reality TV programs have defied cynics with their staying power and cross-cultural audience appeal.
Beginning with television itself, in the form of Candid Camera (debuting in 1948, “the first and longest running reality-based comedy program”), and ‘transformative’ game shows like Queen for a Day, the Big Brother wave is nothing new. The latest undulation of reality programs and their clones was triggered in the mid 1980s, when US and European broadcasters, facing rising production costs and labor issues, began in earnest the hunt for affordable, marketable alternatives to conventional program formulas.
They found it in non-fiction formats which came to be known as ‘reality’ or ‘reality based’ television. The overheads were low, the potential for profit considerable (especially once new technologies were added to the equation) and the drawcard, almost surefire.
For whatever mask it wears, reality television manifests a “relentless obsession with the intimate and a tendency to focus on ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances.” Asserts the Museum of Broadcast Communications’ Encyclopedia of Television: “It is these very traits that have helped make reality TV one of the most talked about, reviled, and popular genres on television.” Add to that mix the populist appeal of athletic challenge, the schadenfreude of public vilification and grousing, and the ‘modern’ phenomenon of reality television emerges as an age-old, gladiatorial, meta-narrative that both engages (through the democracy of interactivity) and deifies (thanks to fly-on-the-wall technology) the audience member.
The University of Ottawa’s Professor Luc Dupont, a researcher of reality television’s ‘tornado‘ like impact on the viewing habits of the globe, is quick to point out a relationship between the genre and ancient antecedents. “In Greek mythology, the gods came from the heavens, whereas today our gods are all too human and arrive courtesy of the TV set,’ he says, adding that the contestants chosen for these shows are ‘usually representative of every sign in the Zodiac’. “Viewers will immediately recognize the young romantic, the shy and bashful person, the loudmouthed braggart, the boyfriend-stealing flirt, and so on.” As well as its shrewd harnessing of mythological archetypes Dupont cites the ‘demos’ effect as integral to the success of reality programming: “Basically,” he says, “anyone can play,” unlike non-fiction forerunners such as quiz shows.
Doctoral candidate at the University of Pittsburgh, Amanda Klein, believes the astute presentation of reality ‘characters’ is precisely what allows the genre to thrive. “They aren’t people, they’re characters,” she says, of reality show participants. “Furthermore, our understanding of these characters is constantly shaped by both narrative framing and visual and aural cues.” Just as Greek myths shaped and reshaped their narratives around sociological truths, so too does reality TV, selectively presenting the best and worst of us with an implicit permission to love and hate, accept and judge.
While some point to the reality renaissance of the last decade as inextricably bound to the tightening grip of a digitally enhanced, ‘surveilled’ society, it equally stems from the most primal of human stories, rendered in one way or another since story-telling began.
In his book Media Spectacle (London and New York: Routledge, 2003), cultural and media scholar Douglas Kellner paints a picture of this current rendering, a ‘central organising force in the economy, politics, culture and everyday life’. Says Kellner, “media spectacles are those phenomena of media culture that embody contemporary society’s basic values, serve to initiate individuals into its way of life, and dramatize its controversies and struggles, as well as its modes of conflict resolution.” What is reality television if not an incarnation of this ‘spectacle’, and a reincarnation of ancient melodramas filled with heroes, villains, victors and the vanquished.
There are also echoes of reality television in American vaudeville and British music hall traditions. The ultimate in populist entertainment for much of the latter 19th century and early 20th, music halls were a haven for escapist, often raunchy entertainment, and an undeniable forum for cultural democracy.
Recounts John Kenrick in his History of The Musical: The British Music Hall, “The audience often joined in singing popular songs, and cheered-on favourite performers. Mediocre acts were booed off the stage, but these rejections were more spirited than vicious.” The availability of otherwise prohibited indulgences (such as alcohol) and a strong social desire to rebuke the historically separatist stance of ‘legitimate’ theatrics, further cemented their popularity. American Idol, The X-Factor, even World’s Funniest Home Videos continues the pantomime, offering non-exclusive variety entertainment and the chance to have their say (phone calls and SMS supplanting hisses and cheers).
While there are certainly other factors that bear on the success of reality television, its capacity to transpose our living rooms into Mount Olympus is not least among them.