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Reality television
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This article is about the genre of TV shows. For the European channel once called
"Reality TV", see Zone Reality.

Contents
[hide]

• 1 History
o 1.1 1940s–1950s
o 1.2 1960s–1970s
o 1.3 1980s–1990s
o 1.4 2000s
• 2 Types
o 2.1 Documentary-style
o 2.2 Elimination/game shows
o 2.3 Self-improvement/makeover
o 2.4 Renovation
o 2.5 Social experiment
o 2.6 Dating shows
o 2.7 Talk shows
o 2.8 Hidden cameras
o 2.9 Supernatural
o 2.10 Hoaxes
• 3 Analysis
o 3.1 Political impact
o 3.2 As a substitute for scripted drama
• 4 Criticism
o 4.1 Influenced by corporate profit motive
 4.1.1 Product placement
o 4.2 "Reality" as misnomer
 4.2.1 Unreal environments
 4.2.2 Misleading editing
 4.2.3 Restaging
 4.2.4 Premeditated scripting and acting
 4.2.5 Misleading premise
 o 4.3 Instant celebrity
o 4.4 As a spectacle of humiliation
o 4.5 Participation of children
• 5 Prior elements in popular culture
• 6 Pop culture references
• 7 Other influences on popular culture
• 8 See also
• 9 Further reading
• 10 References

• 11 External links

Reality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly

unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually
features ordinary people instead of professional actors.[1] Although the genre has existed
in some form or another since the early years of television (primarily with game shows),
the term reality television is most commonly used to describe programs of this genre
produced since 2000.[1][dubious – discuss] Documentaries and nonfictional programming such as
news and sports shows are usually not classified as reality shows.

The genre covers a wide range of programming formats, from game or quiz shows which
resemble the frantic, often demeaning shows produced in Japan in the 1980s and 1990s
(such as Gaki no tsukai), to surveillance- or voyeurism-focused productions such as Big
Brother.[1]

Reality television frequently portrays a modified and highly influenced form of reality,
utilizing sensationalism to attract viewers to generate advertising profits.[2][3][4]
Participants are often placed in exotic locations or abnormal situations,[1] and are
sometimes coached, to act in certain scripted ways by off-screen "story editors" or
"segment producers," with the portrayal of events and speech manipulated and contrived
to create an illusion of reality through editing and other post-production techniques.[2][3][4]

[edit] History
[edit] 1940s–1950s

Precedents for television that portrayed people in unscripted situations began in the
1940s. Debuting in 1948, Allen Funt's Candid Camera, (based on his previous 1947 radio
show, Candid Microphone), broadcast unsuspecting ordinary people reacting to pranks. It
has been called the "granddaddy of the reality TV genre."[5] Debuting in the 1950s, game
shows Beat the Clock and Truth or Consequences involved contestants in wacky
competitions, stunts, and practical jokes.
In 1948, talent search shows Ted Mack's Original Amateur Hour and Arthur Godfrey's
Talent Scouts featured amateur competitors and audience voting. The Miss America
Pageant, first broadcast in 1954, was a competition where the winner achieved status as a
national celebrity.[6]

The radio series Nightwatch (1954–1955), which tape-recorded the daily activities of
Culver City, California police officers, also helped pave the way for reality television.
The series You Asked For It (1950–1959), in which viewer requests dictated content, was
an antecedent of today's audience-participation reality TV elements, in which viewers
cast votes to help determine the course of events.

[edit] 1960s–1970s

First broadcast in the United Kingdom in 1964, the Granada Television series Seven Up!,
broadcast interviews with a dozen ordinary seven-year olds from a broad cross section of
society and inquired about their reactions to everyday life. Every seven years, a film
documented the life of the same individuals in the intervening years, titled 7 Plus Seven,
21 Up, etc. The series was structured simply as a series of interviews with no element of
plot. However, it did have the then-new effect of turning ordinary people into celebrities.

Andy Warhol's 1966 film Chelsea Girls showed various of Warhol's acquaintances being
filmed by a camera with no direction given; the Radio Times Guide to Film 2007 stated
that the film was "to blame for reality television."[7]

The first reality show in the modern sense may have been the 12-part 1973 PBS series An
American Family, which showed a nuclear family going through a divorce; unlike many
later reality shows, it was more or less documentary in purpose and style. In 1974 a
counterpart program, The Family, was made in the UK, following the working class
Wilkins family of Reading. Another forebear of modern reality television were the late
1970s productions of Chuck Barris: The Dating Game, The Newlywed Game, and The
Gong Show, all of which featured participants who were eager to sacrifice some of their
privacy and dignity in a televised competition.[8] One Man and His Dog was a British
Television series which began in 1976 featuring the participants of sheepdog trials.

[edit] 1980s–1990s

Reality television as it is currently understood can be directly linked to several television

shows that began in the late 1980s and early 1990s. COPS, which first aired in the spring
of 1989 and came about partly due to the need for new programming during the 1988
Writers Guild of America strike,[9] showed police officers on duty apprehending
criminals; it introduced the camcorder look and cinéma vérité feel of much of later reality
television.

The series Nummer 28, which aired on Dutch television in 1991, originated the concept
of putting strangers together in the same environment for an extended period of time and
recording the drama that ensued. Nummer 28 also pioneered many of the stylistic
conventions that have since become standard in reality television shows, including a
heavy use of soundtrack music and the interspersing of events on screen with after-the-
fact "confessionals" recorded by cast members, that serve as narration. One year later, the
same concept was used by MTV in their new series The Real World and Nummer 28
creator Erik Latour has long claimed that The Real World was directly inspired by his
show.[10] However, the producers of The Real World have stated that their direct
inspiration was An American Family.[11]

According to television commentator Charlie Brooker, this type of reality television was
enabled by the advent of computer-based non-linear editing systems for video (such as
those produced by Avid Technology) in 1989. These systems made it easy to quickly edit
hours of video footage into a usable form, something that had been very difficult to do
before. (Film, which was easy to edit, was too expensive to shoot enough hours of
footage with on a regular basis.)[12]

The Swedish TV show Expedition Robinson, created by TV producer Charlie Parsons,

which first aired in 1997 (and was later produced in a large number of other countries as
Survivor), added to the Nummer 28/Real World template the idea of competition and
elimination, in which cast members/contestants battled against each other and were
removed from the show until only one winner remained. (These shows are now
sometimes called elimination shows.)

Changing Rooms, a British TV show that began in 1996, showed couples redecorating
each others' houses, and was the first reality show[citation needed] with a self-improvement or
makeover theme.

[edit] 2000s

Reality television saw an explosion of global popularity starting in the early 2000s. Two
reality series – Survivor and American Idol – have been the top-rated series on American
television for an entire season. Survivor led the ratings in 2001–02, and Idol has topped
the ratings five consecutive years (2004–05 through 2008–09). The shows Survivor, the
Idol series, The Amazing Race, the America's Next Top Model series, the Dancing With
The Stars series, The Apprentice, Fear Factor and Big Brother have all had a global
effect, having each been successfully syndicated in dozens of countries.

Currently there are at least two television channels devoted exclusively to reality
television: Fox Reality in the United States, launched in 2005, and Zone Reality in the
UK, launched in 2002. In addition, several other cable channels, such as Viacom's MTV
and NBC's Bravo, feature original reality programming as a mainstay.[13] Mike Darnell,
head of reality TV for the US Fox network, says that the broadcast networks (NBC, CBS,
ABC and Fox) "might as well plan three or four [reality shows] each season because
we're going to have them, anyway."[13]

During the early part of the 2000s, network executives expressed concern that reality-
television programming was limited in its appeal for DVD reissue and syndication, but in
fact DVDs for reality shows have sold briskly; Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County,
The Amazing Race, Project Runway, and America's Next Top Model have all ranked in
the top DVDs sold on Amazon.com. DVDs of The Simple Life have outranked scripted
shows like The O.C. and Desperate Housewives; additionally, many reality shows have
been successfully syndicated, including Fear Factor, The Amazing Race, Kenny vs.
Spenny, Survivor, Wife Swap and America's Next Top Model. COPS has had huge success
in syndication, direct response sales and DVD. A FOX staple since 1989, COPS is, as of
2008, in its 21st season, having outlasted all competing scripted police shows. Another
series that has seen wide success is "Cheaters", which has been running for 10 seasons in
the US and is syndicated in over 100 countries worldwide.

In 2007, according to the Learning and Skills Council, one in seven UK teenagers hopes
to gain fame by appearing on reality television.[14]

In April 2008, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences announced it will give its
very first Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality-
Competition Program on September 21. "Reality television has become such an integral
part of television and our culture, so it only made sense for us to create this new highly
competitive category," TV academy Chairmen and CEO John Shaffner said in the
announcement.[citation needed]

Inspired by the success of American Idol, Indian TV channel Sony Entertainment

Television (India) launched the Indian version called Indian Idol. In 2009 Season 4
concluded.[15]

[edit] Types
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Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be
challenged and removed. (March 2008)

There are a number of sub-categories of reality television:

[edit] Documentary-style

In many reality television shows, the viewer and the camera are passive observers
following people going about their daily personal and professional activities; this style of
filming is often referred to as "fly on the wall" or "Factual television". Often "plots" are
constructed via editing or planned situations, with the results resembling soap operas—
hence the term docusoap or docudrama. In other shows, a cinéma vérité style is adopted,
where the filmmaker is more than a passive observer—their presence and influence is
greatly manifest.

Within documentary-style reality television are several subcategories or variants:

Special living environment

 Some documentary-style programs place cast members, who in most cases
previously did not know each other, in artificial living environments; The Real
World is the originator of this style. In almost every other such show, cast
members are given a specific challenge or obstacle to overcome. Road Rules,
which started in 1995 as a spin-off of The Real World, started this pattern: the cast
traveled across the country guided by clues and performing tasks.
Big Brother is probably the best known program of this type in the world with
different versions produced in many countries around the globe. Another example
of a show in this category The 1900 House, involves historical re-enactment with
cast members forced to live and work as people of a specific time and place.
2001's Temptation Island achieved some notoriety by placing several couples on
an island surrounded by single people in order to test the couples' commitment to
each other. U8TV: The Lofters combined the "special living environment" format
with the "professional activity" format noted below; in addition to living together
in a loft, each member of the show's cast was hired to host a television program
for a Canadian cable channel.
Celebrities
Another subset of fly-on-the-wall-style shows involves celebrities. Often these
show a celebrity going about their everyday life: examples include The Anna
Nicole Show, The Osbournes, Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica, Hey Paula!,
Hammertime, Hogan Knows Best and now Brooke Knows Best. In other shows,
celebrities are put on location and given a specific task or tasks; these include
Celebrity Big Brother, The Simple Life, Tommy Lee Goes to College, The Surreal
Life, and I'm a Celebrity... Get Me out of Here!. VH1 has created an entire block
of shows dedicated to celebrity reality, known as "Celebreality".
Professional activities
Some documentary-style shows portray professionals either going about day-to-
day business or performing an entire project over the course of a series. No
outside experts are brought in (at least, none appear on screen) to either provide
help or to judge results. The earliest example (and the longest running reality
show of any genre) is COPS which has been airing since 1989, preceding by
many years the current reality show phenomenon.
Other examples of this type of reality show include the American shows Miami
Ink, The First 48, American Chopper and Deadliest Catch; the British shows
Airport, Police Stop! and Traffic Cops; the Australian shows Border Security and
Bondi Rescue, and the New Zealand show Motorway Patrol. The US cable
networks TLC and A&E in particular show a number of this type of reality show.
VH1's 2001 show Bands on the Run was a notable early hybrid, in that the show
featured four unsigned bands touring and making music as a professional activity,
but also pitted the bands against one another in game show fashion to see which
band could make the most money.

[edit] Elimination/game shows

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Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be
challenged and removed. (May 2009)
Another type of reality TV is "reality-competition", or so-called "reality game shows",
which follow the format of an elimination contest (non-tournament). Typically,
participants are filmed competing to win a prize, often while living together in a confined
environment. In many cases, participants are removed until only one person or team
remains, who/which is then declared the winner. Usually this is done by eliminating
participants one at a time, in balloon debate style, through either disapproval voting or by
voting for the most popular choice to win. Voting is done by the viewing audience, the
show's own participants, a panel of judges, or some combination of the three.

A well-known example of a reality-competition show is the globally-syndicated Big

Brother, in which cast members live together in the same house, with participants
removed at regular intervals by either the viewing audience or, in the case of the
American version, by the participants themselves.

There remains some disagreement over whether talent-search shows such as the Idol
series, America's Got Talent, Dancing with the Stars, and Celebrity Duets are truly reality
television, or just newer incarnations of shows such as Star Search. Although the shows
involve a traditional talent search, the shows follow the reality-competition conventions
of removing one or more contestants per episode and allowing the public to vote on who
is removed; the Idol series also require the contestants to live together during the run of
the show (though their daily life is never shown onscreen). Additionally, there is a good
deal of interaction shown between contestants and judges. As a result, such shows are
often considered reality television, and the American Primetime Emmy Awards have
nominated both American Idol and Dancing with the Stars for the Outstanding Reality-
Competition Program Emmy.

Modern game shows like Weakest Link, Greed, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?,
American Gladiators, Dog Eat Dog and Deal or No Deal also lie in a gray area: like
traditional game shows (e.g., The Price Is Right, Jeopardy!), the action takes place in an
enclosed TV studio over a short period of time; however, they have higher production
values, more dramatic background music, and higher stakes than traditional shows (done
either through putting contestants into physical danger or offering large cash prizes). In
addition, there is more interaction between contestants and hosts, and in some cases they
feature reality-style contestant competition and/or elimination as well. These factors, as
well as these shows' rise in global popularity at the same time as the arrival of the reality
craze, lead many people to group them under the reality TV umbrella as well as the
traditional game show one.[16]

There are various hybrid reality-competition shows, like the worldwide-syndicated Star
Academy, which combines the Big Brother and Idol formats, The Biggest Loser and The
Pick-up Artist which combine competition with the self-improvement format, and
American Inventor, which uses the Idol format for products instead of people. Some
shows, such as Making the Band and Project Greenlight, devote the first part of the
season to selecting a winner, and the second part to showing that person or group of
people working on a project.
Popular variants of the competition-based format include the following:

Dating-based competition
Dating-based competition shows follow a contestant choosing one out of a group
of suitors. Over the course of either a single episode or an entire season, suitors
are eliminated until only the contestant and the final suitor remains. For a time, in
2001–2003, this type of reality show dominated the other genres on the major US
networks. Shows that aired included The Bachelor, its spin-off The Bachelorette,
as well as For Love or Money, Paradise Hotel, Temptation Island, Average Joe
and Farmer Wants a Wife, among others. More recent such shows include Flavor
of Love and its spin-offs I Love New York, Rock of Love, and The Cougar.
Job search
In this category, the competition revolves around a skill that contestants were pre-
screened for. Competitors perform a variety of tasks based around that skill, are
judged, and are then kept or removed by a single expert or a panel of experts. The
show is usually presented as a job search of some kind, in which the prize for the
winner includes a contract to perform that kind of work. Popstars, which debuted
in 1999, may have been the first such show. The first job-search show which
showed dramatic, unscripted situations may have been America's Next Top Model,
which premiered in May 2003. Other examples include The Apprentice (which
judges business skills), Hell's Kitchen (for chefs), Shear Genius (for hair styling),
Project Runway (for clothing design), Top Chef (for cooking), Top Design (for
interior design), Stylista (for fashion editors), Last Comic Standing (for
comedians), The Starlet and Scream Queens (for actresses), I Know My Kid's a
Star (for child performers), On the Lot (for filmmakers), The Shot (for
photographers), So You Think You Can Dance (for dancers), and MuchMusic VJ
Search (for television hosts). Some shows use the same format with celebrities: in
this case, there is no expectation that the winner will continue this line of work,
and prize winnings often go to charity. Examples include Deadline and The
Celebrity Apprentice.
Sports
Most of these programs create a sporting competition among athletes attempting
to establish their name in that sport. The Club, in 2002, was one of the first shows
to immerse sport with reality TV, based around a fabricated club competing
against real clubs in the sport of Australian rules football; the audience helped
select which players played each week by voting for their favorites. The Big
Break was a reality show in which aspiring golfers competed against one another
and were eliminated. The Contender, a boxing show, unfortunately became the
first American reality show in which a contestant committed suicide after being
eliminated from the show. In The Ultimate Fighter participants have voluntarily
withdrawn or expressed the desire to withdraw from the show due to competitive
pressure.
In sports shows, sometimes just appearing on the show, not necessarily winning,
can get a contestant the job. The owner of UFC declared that the final match of
the first season of Ultimate Fighter was so good, both contestants were offered a
contract, and in addition, many non-winning "TUF Alumni" have prospered in the
 UFC. Many of the losers from World Wrestling Entertainment's Tough Enough
and Diva Search shows have been picked up by the company.
Not all sports programs, however, involve athletes trying to make a name in the
sport. The 2006 US reality series Knight School focused on students at Texas
Tech University vying for a walk-on (non-scholarship) roster position on the
school's men's basketball team under legendary coach Bob Knight. In the
Republic of Ireland, RTÉ One's Celebrity Bainisteoir involves eight non-sporting
Irish celebrities becoming bainisteoiri (managers) of mid-level Gaelic football
teams, leading their teams in an officially sanctioned tournament.

[edit] Self-improvement/makeover

Some reality television shows cover a person or group of people improving their lives.
Sometimes the same group of people are covered over an entire season (as in The Swan
and Celebrity Fit Club), but usually there is a new target for improvement in each
episode. Despite differences in the content, the format is usually the same: first the show
introduces the subjects in their current, less-than-ideal environment. Then the subjects
meet with a group of experts, who give the subjects instructions on how to improve
things; they offer aid and encouragement along the way. Finally, the subjects are placed
back in their environment and they, along with their friends and family and the experts,
appraise the changes that have occurred. Other self-improvement or makeover shows
include "How Do I Look?" (fashion makeover). The Biggest Loser and Fat March,
(which covers weight loss), Extreme Makeover (entire physical appearance), Queer Eye
For The Straight Guy (style and grooming), Supernanny, Nanny 911 and World's
Strictest Parents (child-rearing), Made (attaining difficult goals), What Not to Wear
(fashion and grooming), Trinny & Susannah Undress (fashion makeover and marriage),
Tool Academy (relationship building), Flavor of Love Girls: Charm School & Rock of
Love Girls: Charm School 2 (manners), From G's to Gents (self improvement) The Girls
of Hedsor Hall (etiquette) and The Bad Girls Club & Bad Girls Road Trip (self
improvement)

[edit] Renovation

Some shows make over part or all of a person's living space, work space, or vehicle. The
American show This Old House was the first such show,[citation needed] debuting in 1979. The
British show Changing Rooms, beginning in 1996 (later remade in the U.S. as Trading
Spaces) was the first such renovation show that added a game show feel with different
weekly contestants.[citation needed] Other shows in this category include Extreme Makeover:
Home Edition, Debbie Travis' Facelift, Designed to Sell, While You Were Out, and
Holmes on Homes. Pimp My Ride and Overhaulin' show vehicles being rebuilt. Some
shows, such as Restaurant Makeover and Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, show both the
decor and the menu of a failing restaurant being remade. The issue of "making over" was
taken to its social extreme with the British show Life Laundry, in which people who had
become hoarders, even living in squalor, were given professional assistance.
As with game shows, a gray area exists between such reality TV shows and more
conventional formats. Some argue the key difference is the emphasis of the human story
and conflicts of reality shows, versus the emphasis on process and information in more
traditional format shows.[citation needed] The show This Old House, which began in 1979, the
start to finish renovation of different houses through a season; media critic Jeff Jarvis has
speculated that it is "the original reality TV show."[17]

[edit] Social experiment

Another type of reality program is the social experiment that produces drama, conflict,
and sometimes transformation. Wife Swap which began in 2003 on Channel 4 and has
aired for four seasons on ABC is a notable example. People with different values agreed
to live by each other's social rules for a brief period of time and sometimes learn from the
experience. Other shows in this category include ITV's Holiday Showdown, Oxygen's
The Bad Girls Club (lifestyles and actions), and Channel 4's Secret Millionaire. Faking It
was a series where people had to learn a new skill and pass themselves off as experts in
that skill. Shattered was a controversial 2004 UK series where contestants competed for
how long they could go without sleep.

[edit] Dating shows

Unlike the aforementioned dating competition shows, some shows feature all new
contestants each episode. This format was first used in the 1960s show The Dating Game.
Modern examples include Blind Date, Matchmaker, Room Raiders, Elimidate,Next, and
Parental Control.

[edit] Talk shows

Though the traditional format of a talk show is that of a host interviewing a featured guest
or discussing a chosen topic with a guest or panel of guests, the advent of trash TV shows
has often made people group the entire category in with reality television. Programs like
Ricki Lake, The Jerry Springer Show, Dr. Phil and others generally recruit guests by
advertising a potential topic for a future program. Topics are frequently outrageous and
are chosen in the interest of creating on-screen drama, tension or outrageous behaviour.
Though not explicitly reality television by traditional standards, this (allegedly) real
depiction of someone's life, even if only in a brief interview format, is frequently
considered akin to broader-scale reality TV programming.

[edit] Hidden cameras

Another type of reality programming features hidden cameras rolling when random
passers-by encounter a staged situation. Candid Camera, which first aired on television in
1948, pioneered the format. Modern variants of this type of production include Punk'd,
"Trigger Happy TV, The Jamie Kennedy Experiment, Just For Laughs Gags", Howie Do
It and Rio Ferdinands World Cup Windups. The series Scare Tactics and Room 401 are
hidden-camera programs in which the goal is to frighten contestants rather than just
befuddle or amuse them.

Not all hidden camera shows use strictly staged situations. For example, the syndicated
show Cheaters, purports to use hidden cameras to record suspected cheating partners,
although the authenticity of the show has been questioned.[18] Once the evidence has been
gathered, the accuser confronts the cheating partner with the assistance of the host.

[edit] Supernatural

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Started by MTV's Fear in 2000, supernatural reality shows place participants into
frightening situations which involve the paranormal. The stated aim is investigation, but
in actuality, the sub-category thrives on generating fear in the audience and participants.
In general, shows follow the stylized pattern established by MTV's Fear: opening setting
up the location; grainy archival footage cut quickly together; night vision cameras;
surveillance cameras; hand held cameras; odd angles; subtitles establishing place and
time through out the episode; large abandoned locations; desaturated imagery; rapid fire,
MTV editing; non-melodic soundtracks; only filming at night; minimal camera crew; or
no crew if the participants film themselves. Some series use the game show format
wherein contestants are challenged to survive the investigation, thus win money; while
others use a recurring crew of paranormal researchers.

The sub-category also encompasses Celebrity Paranormal Project, Paranormal State and
Ghost Hunters, among others. A variant dispenses with supernatural overtones and aims
solely at inciting fear or aversion in the cast. Fear Factor and Scare Tactics follow this
variant.

[edit] Hoaxes

In hoax reality shows, the entire show is a prank played on one or more of the cast
members, who think they are appearing in a legitimate reality show; the rest of the cast
are actors who are in on the joke. These shows often served to parody the conventions of
the reality TV genre. The first such show was 2003's The Joe Schmo Show. Other
examples are My Big Fat Obnoxious Boss (modeled after The Apprentice), My Big Fat
Obnoxious Fiance, Hell Date (modeled after Blind Date), Superstar USA (modeled after
American Idol), Space Cadets (which convinced the hoax targets that they were being
flown into space), The $25 Million Hoax (where a woman convinced her friends and
family that she had won the lottery) and Invasion Iowa (in which a town was convinced
that William Shatner was filming a movie there), and Reality Hell[19] (different target and
premise every episode).

Other shows, though not hoax shows per se, have offered misleading information to some
cast members in order to add a wrinkle to the competition. Examples include Boy Meets
Boy and Joe Millionaire.

[edit] Analysis
[edit] Political impact

Reality television's global success has been, in the eyes of some analysts, an important
political phenomenon. In some authoritarian countries, reality television voting represents
the first time many citizens have voted in any free and fair wide-scale elections. In
addition, the frankness of the settings on some reality shows present situations that are
often taboo in certain orthodox cultures, like Star Academy Arab World, which shows
male and female contestants living together.[20] In 2004, journalist Matt Labash, noting
both of these issues, wrote that "the best hope of little Americas developing in the Middle
East could be Arab-produced reality TV."[21] In China, after the finale of the 2005 season
of Super Girl (the local version of Pop Idol) drew an audience of around 400 million
people, and 8 million text message votes, the state-run English-language newspaper
Beijing Today ran the front-page headline "Is Super Girl a Force for Democracy?"[22] The
Chinese government criticized the show, citing both its democratic nature and its
excessive vulgarity, or "worldliness",[23] and in 2006 banned it outright.[24] Other attempts
at introducing reality television have proved to be similarly controversial. A Pan-Arab
version of Big Brother was cancelled in 2004 after less than two weeks on the air after a
public outcry and street protests.[25]

[edit] As a substitute for scripted drama

VH1 executive vice president Michael Hirschorn wrote that the plots and subject matters
on reality television are also more authentic and more engaging than in scripted dramas,
writing that scripted network television "remains dominated by variants on the police
procedural... in which a stock group of characters (ethnically, sexually, and
generationally diverse) grapples with endless versions of the same dilemma. The episodes
have all the ritual predictability of Japanese Noh theater," while reality TV is "the
liveliest genre on the set right now. It has engaged hot-button cultural issues—class, sex,
race—that respectable television... rarely touches."[26]

Television critic James Poniewozik wrote that reality shows like Deadliest Catch and Ice
Road Truckers showcase working-class people of the kind that "used to be routine" on
scripted network television, but that became a rarity in the 2000s: "The better to woo
upscale viewers, TV has evicted its mechanics and dockworkers to collect higher rents
from yuppies in coffeehouses."[27]

[edit] Criticism

Lighting crews are typically present in the background of reality television shows.

Sound crews are typically present in the background of reality television shows.

[edit] Influenced by corporate profit motive

Writers for reality television do not receive union pay-scale compensation and union
representation, which significantly decreases expenditures for producers and
broadcasters.[2] Reality television programming is often financed by corporations[1][28][29]
driven by a profit motive.[2][28][30] Many of the actors in reality television are compensated
for their appearances.[18][29][31][32]

[edit] Product placement

Product placement, whereby companies and corporations pay to have their products
included in television programming for marketing purposes is highly prevalent in reality
television.[33][34][35][36]

The following is a list of television shows with the most instances of product placement
(11/07–11/08; Nielsen Media Research).[citation needed] Eight out of the ten are reality
television shows.

• "The Biggest Loser" 6,248

• "American Idol," 4,636
• "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," 3,371
• "America's Toughest Jobs," 2,807
• "One Tree Hill," 2,575
• "Deal or No Deal," 2,292
• "America's Next Top Model," 2,241
• "Last Comic Standing," 1,993
• "Kitchen Nightmares" 1,853
• "Hell's Kitchen," 1,807

[edit] "Reality" as misnomer

Some commentators[who?] have said that the name "reality television" is an inaccurate
description for several styles of program included in the genre.[2] Irene McGee, a
castmember on the 1998 The Real World Seattle, has done public speaking tours about
the negative and misleading aspects of reality TV.

[edit] Unreal environments

In competition-based programs such as Big Brother and Survivor, and other special living
environment shows like The Real World, the producers design the format of the show and
control the day-to-day activities and the environment, creating a completely fabricated
world in which the competition plays out. Producers specifically select the participants
and use carefully designed scenarios, challenges, events, and settings to encourage
particular behaviors and conflicts. Mark Burnett, creator of Survivor and other reality
shows, has agreed with this assessment, and avoids the word "reality" to describe his
shows; he has said, "I tell good stories. It really is not reality TV. It really is unscripted
drama."[37]

[edit] Misleading editing

In 2004, VH1 aired a program called Reality TV Secrets Revealed, which detailed various
misleading tricks of reality TV producers.[38] According to the show, various reality
shows (notably Joe Millionaire) combined audio and video from different times, or from
different sets of footage, to create an artificial illusion of time chronology that did not
occur, and a misportrayal of participant behaviors and actions.
In docusoap programming, which follows people in their daily life, producers may be
highly deliberate in their editing strategies, able to portray certain participants as heroes
or villains, and may guide the drama through altered chronology and selective
presentation of events. A Season 3 episode of Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe included a
segment on the ways in which selective editing can be used to this end.[12]

[edit] Restaging

According to VH1's Reality TV Secrets Revealed, the shows The Restaurant and Survivor
had at times recreated incidents that had actually occurred, but were not properly
recorded by cameras to the required technical standard, or had not been recorded at all. In
order to get the footage, the event was restaged for the cameras.

[edit] Premeditated scripting and acting

Reality television shows have faced speculation that the participants themselves are
involved in fakery, acting out storylines that have been planned in advance by producers.
[2]
The Hills is one notable example; the show has long faced allegations that its plots are
scripted ahead of time. During the second season of Hell's Kitchen, it was speculated that
the customers eating meals prepared by the contestants were in fact paid actors.[39] Some
participants of reality shows have also stated afterwards that they altered their behavior to
appear more crazy or emotional in order to get more camera time.

Daniel Petrie Jr., former president of the Writers Guild of America, west, an organization
that represents 9,000 Hollywood film and television writers, stated: "We look at reality
TV, which is billed as unscripted, and we know it is scripted. We understand that shows
don't want to call the writers writers because they want to maintain the illusion that it is
reality, that stuff just happens."[2]

[edit] Misleading premise

Even the premise of shows has been called into question. The winner of the first "cycle",
in 2003, of America's Next Top Model, Adrianne Curry, claimed that part of the grand
prize she received, a modeling contract with Revlon, was for a much smaller amount of
work than what was promised throughout the show.[40] During the airing of the first
season of A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila, in which a group of both men and women
vied for the heart of Tila Tequila, there were rumors that its star was not only
heterosexual, but also had a boyfriend already.[41] The show's winner, Bobby Banhart,
claimed that he never saw Ms. Tequila again after the show finished taping, and that he
was never even given her telephone number.[42]

[edit] Instant celebrity

Reality television has the potential to turn its participants into national celebrities, at least
for a short period. This is most notable in talent-search programs such as the Idol series,
which has spawned music stars in many of the countries in which it has aired. Many other
shows, however, such as Survivor and Big Brother, have made at least temporary
celebrities out of their participants; some participants have then been able to parlay this
fame into media careers. For example, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, a contestant on Survivor:
The Australian Outback, later became a host on morning talk show The View; and Kristin
Cavallari, who appeared on Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County, has gone on to
become a television host and actress. Tiffany Pollard, originally a contestant on Flavor of
Love, was eventually given four additional reality series of her own on VH1: I Love New
York, I Love New York 2, New York Goes to Hollywood and New York Goes to Work. In
Britain, Jade Goody became famous after appearing on Big Brother 3 in 2002; she later
appeared on other reality programs, wrote a bestselling autobiography and launched a
top-selling perfume line. She later received extensive media coverage during her
ultimately fatal battle with cervical cancer in 2009. Mike "The Miz" Mizanin, who has
appeared on The Real World, and various spin-offs, later became a professional wrestler
for World Wrestling Entertainment.

Reality TV contestants are sometimes derided as "Z-list celebrities" or "nonebrities" who

have done nothing to warrant their newfound fame.[43] Nonebrities are defined as: "A
pointless media figure who would love to rise up high enough to scrape on to the bottom
end of the D-list."[43]

[edit] As a spectacle of humiliation

Some have claimed that the success of reality television is due to its ability to provide
schadenfreude, by satisfying the desire of viewers to see others humiliated. American
magazine Entertainment Weekly wrote, "Do we watch reality television for precious
insight into the human condition? Please. We watch for those awkward scenes that make
us feel a smidge better about our own little unfilmed lives."[44] Media analyst Tom
Alderman wrote, "There is a sub-set of Reality TV that can only be described as Shame
TV because it uses humiliation as its core appeal."[45]

Television critic James Poniewozik has disagreed with this assessment, writing, "for all
the talk about 'humiliation TV,' what's striking about most reality shows is how good
humored and resilient most of the participants are: the American Idol rejectees stubbornly
convinced of their own talent, the Fear Factor players walking away from vats of insects
like Olympic champions. What finally bothers their detractors is, perhaps, not that these
people are humiliated but that they are not."[46]

[edit] Participation of children

The reality show Jon & Kate Plus 8, which showed a family of two parents (Jon and Kate
Gosselin) raising their eight children, caused controversy when, in June 2009, Jon and
Kate began divorce proceedings, and it emerged that Jon had been involved with other
women prior to the divorce. The episode announcing their separation became the most-
watched of the series, with 10.6 million viewers.[47][48]
TLC has announced that Jon & Kate Plus 8 will continue under the new title Kate Plus
Eight.[49] Criticism has been raised regarding Kate's intentions of continuing with the
show, as well as whether or not the children are being exploited or may be under
emotional distress.[50] According to lawyer Gloria Allred:

Every state does regulate to protect the health, the safety and welfare of little
“ child performers [...] And these little ones are only eight years old and five
years old, they can’t protect themselves, so the state has to be sure that they
are safe in their workplace.[50] ”
In the case of the show, the children's workplace is their home. Currently there are no
clear laws in Pennsylvania (where the Gosselins reside) regarding a child's appearance on
a reality show.[51] However, Pennsylvania law permits kids who are at least seven years
old to work in the entertainment industry, as long as certain guidelines are followed and a
permit is obtained. For example, children may not work after 11:30 p.m. under most
circumstances, or perform in any location that serves alcohol.[51]

Kate defends her position that the children are happy and healthy, and not in any danger.
In addition, Jon has stated that they are "in talks" regarding ensuring the children's
happiness,[50] and that there is no truth to any reports that the children have been hurt by
the series.[52] TLC released a statement saying that the network "fully complies with all
applicable laws and regulations" to produce the show. The statement also said that "for an
extended period of time, we have been engaged in cooperative discussions and supplied
all requested information to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry".[51]

In another much-publicized case, issues have been raised about the underlying motives
that led to the balloon boy hoax, in which six-year-old Falcon Heene was reportedly
coerced by his father to stage for a frantic, live-on-TV chase for an out-of-control helium
balloon in which he was suspected to be. The police said that the father engineered the
hoax with the hope of generating enough publicity in order to get the family back into the
reality-show business, after two appearances on ABC's Wife Swap. In an interview with
the Denver Post, [53] child psychologist Alan Zimmerman said:

Using your family or children to please the masses, or producers of mass

“ entertainment who want ratings and a good bottom line, is inherently risky
”
[...] They are by definition a commodity in a profit-oriented business.

The same article quoted psychologist Jamie Huysman as saying, "It is exploitation [...]
Nobody wants to watch normal behavior. Kids have to be co-conspirators to get the
camera to stay on."

[edit] Prior elements in popular culture

A number of fictional works since the 1940s have contained elements similar to elements
of reality television. They tended to be set in a dystopian future, with subjects being
recorded against their will, and often involved violence.

• Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), a book by George Orwell, depicted a world in

which two-way television screens are fitted in every room, so that people's actions
are monitored at all times. (The all-seeing authority figure in the book, "Big
Brother", inspired the name of the pioneering reality series Big Brother.)
• Fahrenheit 451 (1953), a novel by Ray Bradbury, portrays a bookless future
society, with omnipresent electronic media and wall-sized two-way home
televisions. The protagonist's wife is immersed in a live audience participation
program.
• "The Seventh Victim" (1953) was a short story by science fiction author Robert
Sheckley that depicted a futuristic game in which one player gets to hunt down
another player and kill him. The first player who can score ten kills wins the
grand prize. This story was the basis for the film The 10th Victim (1965), also
known by its Italian title, La decima vittima.
• You're Another, a 1955 short story by Damon Knight, is about a man who
discovers that he is an actor in a "livie", a live-action show that is viewed by
billions of people in the future.
• "The Prize of Peril"[54] (1958), another Robert Sheckley story, was about a
television show in which a contestant volunteers to be hunted for a week by
trained killers, with a large cash prize if he survives. It was adapted in 1970 as the
German TV movie Das Millionenspiel, and again in 1983 as the French movie Le
Prix du Danger.
• "It Could Be You" (1964), a short story by Australian Frank Roberts, features a
day-in-day-out televised blood sport.
• Survivor (1965), a science fiction story by Walter F. Moudy, depicted the 2050
"Olympic War Games" between Russia and the United States. The games are
fought to show the world the futility of war and thus deter further conflict. Each
side has one hundred soldiers who fight with rifles, mortars, and machine guns in
a large natural arena. The goal is for one side to wipe out the other; the few who
survive the battle become heroes. The games are televised, complete with color
commentary discussing tactics, soldiers' personal backgrounds, and slow-motion
replays of their deaths.
• Bread and Circuses (1968) was an episode of the TV show Star Trek in which the
crew visits a planet resembling the Roman Empire, but with 20th century
technology. The planet's "Empire TV" features regular gladiatorial games, with
the announcer urging viewers at home to vote for their favorites, stating, "This is
your program. You pick the winner." The show included several jabs at real-
world television, such as a praetorian threatening, "You bring this network's
ratings down, Flavius, and we'll do a special on you!"
• The Year of the Sex Olympics (1968) was a BBC television play in which a
dissident in a dictatorship is forced onto a secluded island and taped for a reality
show in order to keep the masses entertained.
 • The Unsleeping Eye (1973), a novel by D.G. Compton (also published as The
Continuous Katherine Mortenhoe), was about a woman dying of cancer whose
last days are recorded without her knowledge for a television show. It was later
adapted as the 1980 French movie Death Watch.
• Network (1976) was a film predictive of a number of trends in broadcast
television, including reality programming. One subplot featured network
executives negotiating with an urban terrorist group for the production of a
weekly series, each episode of which was to feature an act of terrorism.
• "Ladies And Gentlemen, This Is Your Crisis" (1976) was a short story by science
fiction author Kate Wilhelm about a television show in which contestants
(including a B-list actress who is hoping to revitalize her career) attempt to make
their way to a checkpoint after being dropped off in the Alaskan wilderness, while
being filmed and broadcast around the clock through an entire weekend. The story
focuses primarily on the show's effect on a couple whose domestic tensions and
eventual reconciliation parallel the dangers faced by the contestants.
• The Running Man (1982) was a book by Stephen King depicting a game show in
which a contestant flees around the world from "hunters" trying to chase him
down and kill him; it has been speculated that the book was inspired by Robert
Sheckley's The Prize of Peril. The book was loosely adapted as a 1987 movie of
the same name. The movie removed most of the reality-TV element of the book:
its competition now took place entirely within a large TV studio, and more closely
resembled an athletic competition (though a deadly one).
• Vengeance on Varos (1985) was an episode of the TV show Doctor Who in which
the population of a planet watches live TV broadcasts of the torture and
executions of those who oppose the government. The planet's political system is
based on the leaders themselves facing disintegration if the population votes 'no'
to their propositions. This episode is often credited as the origins of "voting
someone off".
• The film 20 Minutes into the Future (1985), and the spin-off TV show Max
Headroom, revolved around television mainly based on live, often candid,
broadcasts. In one episode of Max Headroom, "Academy", the character Blank
Reg fights for his life on a courtroom game show, with the audience deciding his
fate.

[edit] Pop culture references

Some scripted works have used reality television as a plot device:

• Real Life (1979) is a comedic film about the creation of a show similar to An
American Family gone horribly wrong.
• "Special Service" (1989) was an episode of the remade TV series The Twilight
Zone, in which a man discovers that his life has secretly been videotaped and is a
huge hit on a network television show.
• Louis the 19th, King of the Airwaves (1994) is a Québécois film about a man who
signs up to star in a 24-hour-a-day reality TV show.
 • The Truman Show (1998) is a film about a man (Jim Carrey) who discovers that
his entire life is being staged and filmed for a 24-hour-a-day reality TV show.
• EDtv (1999) was a remake of Louis the 19th, King of the Airwaves.
• In the film She's All That (1999), the girlfriend of one of the main characters is
stolen by a former castmember of The Real World (played by Matthew Lillard)
• Series 7: The Contenders (2001) is a film about a reality show in which
contestants have to kill each other to win.
• Dead Famous (2001) is a comedy/whodunit novel by Ben Elton in which a
contestant is murdered while on a Big Brother-like show.
• "Helter Shelter" (2002) is an episode of The Simpsons in which the family
become contestants in "The 1895 Challenge," living for several weeks in a
Victorian style house with antique furniture and no electricity. To boost the
ratings, they soon find themselves being abused and humiliated by the show's
director, who states that he created the show "by watching Dutch television and
tweaking the title." The Simpsons has also repeatedly spoofed reality TV and
made reference to fictitious reality shows, with such titles as "Tied To A Bear,"
"Sucker Punch," "Mystery Injection," "Animal Survivor,", "No-Pants Island" and
"Fart Date."
• Oryx and Crake (2003), a speculative fiction novel by Margaret Atwood,
occasionally makes mentions of the protagonist and his friend entertaining
themselves by watching reality TV shows of live executions, Noodie News (see
Naked News), frog squashing, graphic surgery, and child pornography.
• Tomb of the Werewolf (2004) is a film about a man searching for treasure while
being followed by a reality show film crew, who encounters a werewolf and a
vampire instead.
• "Bad Wolf" (2005) is an episode of the TV show Doctor Who in which the
characters find themselves trapped in various real-life reality television shows.
• The Comeback (2005) satirizes the indignity of reality TV by presenting itself as
"raw footage" of a new reality show documenting the attempted comeback of has-
been star Valerie Cherish.
• American Dreamz (2006) is a film set partially on an American Idol-like show.
• Chart Throb (2006) is a comic novel, also by Ben Elton, that parodies The X
Factor and The Osbournes, among other reality shows.
• Total Drama Island (2007) is a Canadian animated series about teenagers on a
Survivor-like show.
• "Realistically Speaking 1&2" (2007) is a two-part web-episode of Hero Envy in
which one of the main characters allows a reality-TV film crew to document his
and his friends' lives in an elimination-style game in exchange for money.
• "Reality Show" (2008) is a song by T-Pain, from the album Thr33 Ringz, in which
he sings to his lover, "Let's make a reality show", to "show 'em how much we in
love".
• Rock Rivals (2008) is a British television show about two judges on a televised
singing contest whose marriage is falling apart.

[edit] Other influences on popular culture

A number of scripted television shows have taken the form of documentary-type reality
TV shows, in "mockumentary" style. The first such show was the BBC series Operation
Good Guys, which premiered in 1997. Other examples include People Like Us, Trailer
Park Boys, The Office, Drawn Together, Summer Heights High and Reno 911!.

Some feature films have been produced that use some of the conventions of reality
television; such films are sometimes referred to as reality films, and sometimes simply as
documentaries.[55] Allen Funt's 1970 hidden camera movie What Do You Say to a Naked
Lady? was based on his reality-television show Candid Camera. The TV show Jackass
spawned three films: Jackass: The Movie in 2001, Jackass: Number Two in 2006, and
Jackass 2.5 in late 2007. A similar Finnish show, Extreme Duudsonit, was adapted for the
film The Dudesons Movie in 2006. The producers of The Real World created The Real
Cancun in 2003. Games People Play: New York was released in 2004.

The mumblecore film genre, which began in the mid-2000s, and uses video cameras and
relies heavily on improvisation and non-professional actors, has been described as
influenced in part by what one critic called "the spring-break psychodrama of MTV's The
Real World". Mumblecore director Joe Swanberg has said, "As annoying as reality TV is,
it's been really good for filmmakers because it got mainstream audiences used to
watching shaky camerawork and different kinds of situations."[56]

[edit] See also

Television portal

• Broadcast media
• Bunim/Murray Productions
• Endemol
• Factual television
• John Langley
• List of reality television programs
• List of television show franchises
• Mass media
• Matt Kunitz
• Media manipulation
• Television program

[edit] Further reading

• Reality TV: the Big Brother phenomenon by Colin Sparks, in International
Socialism journal
• Hill, Annette (2005). Reality TV: Audiences and Popular Factual Television.
Routledge. ISBN 0-415-26152-X.
• Murray, Susan, and Laurie Ouellette, eds. (2004). Reality TV: Remaking
Television Culture. New York University Press. ISBN 0-8147-5688-3
 • Nichols, Bill (1994). Blurred Boundaries: Questions of Meaning in
Contemporary Culture. Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-34064-0.
• Godard, Ellis (2004). "Reel Life: The Social Geometry of Reality Shows". pages
73–96 in Survivor Lessons, edited by Matthew J. Smith and Andrew F. Wood.
Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, Inc.
• Lord of the fly-on-the-walls - Observer article: Paul Watson's UK & Australian
docusoaps
• Big Brother - Why Bother? - Graham Barnfield's Spiked commentary
• Zeven werklozen samen op zoek naar een baan by Raymond van den Boogaard,
NRC Handelsblad, September 28, 1996 (Dutch) - about Nummer 28 being the
inspiration for The Real World
• [1] Reality tv continues its downward spiral of morality

Reality Shows on Indian Television

Studying the international television scenario, the Indian counterpart has promptly
caught-up with the latest trends. Reality Television has arrived in India and is here to stay
!

Reality shows in India date back to the Channel V’s talent hunt for making of a musical
band. The band of girls called Viva that emerged from this show enjoyed short-lived
popularity but marked the beginning of reality shows in India. Superstar Amitabh
Bachchan’s Kaun Banega Crorepati, which was the Indian version of Who wants to be a
Millionaire, was a major hit with the audience in India. What followed next was a flood
of reality shows, many of them being adaptations of the pre-existing western versions.

Reality shows in India are a welcome break for many of the audience who were tired of
cribbing about the Ekta Kapoor's saas-bahu series that were (and some of them still are)
pre-dominant on Indian television. Indian Reality TV is however in its nascent stage and
mostly includes desi-versions of the reality shows abroad. However these shows are
enjoying tremendous popularity and will definitely give way to more innovative concepts
on air.

Most Popular Reality Shows on Indian Television

MTV Bakra
No one can ever forget Cyrus Broacha’s grinning face and the confusion and
bewilderment created amongst his victims. A wicked show with witty pranks followed by
loads of laughter.

Kaun Banega Crorepati

Amitabh Bachchan’s stint on television that was perhaps the first reality show on Indian
television to garner humongous audience response. The second season of the series was
hosted by Shahrukh Khan but did not seem to fare just as well.

Indian Idol
This show has been one of the most popular reality shows on Indian television and
perhaps due to the voting factor. With boys next-door turning into ultimate singing
sensations, this show already has completed three seasons.

Sa Re Ga Ma
What started as a humble talent show hosted by Sonu Nigam soon metamorphosed into
an ultra-glam, uber-dramatic reality show with the various celebrity judges like Himesh
Reshamiya, Alka Yagnik, Abhijeet and Ismail Darbar constantly at loggerheads with
each other.

Big Boss
The Indian version of UK’s Big Brother was the most sensational and controversial
reality show in India. Although long forgotten Actor Rahul Roy emerged as the winner, it
was people like Anupama Verma, Aryan Vaid (due to their on-air love-affair) and Rakhi
Sawant (due to her in-your-face attitude) who got instant recognition from this show.

The Great Indian Laughter Challenge

This hunt for India’s biggest comedian created a laughter riot on air with almost all its
contestants enjoying tremendous popularity. Star Judges Shekhar Suman and Navjyot
Singh Siddhu enjoyed great following too.

Nach Baliye
An original concept that involved celebrity couples trained by their choreographers
battling against each other in an entertaining dance competition. The show has celebrity
judges like Saroj Khan, Malaika Arora Khan, Farhan Akhtar, Kunal Kohli, David
Dhawan, Isha Koppikar and Vaibhavi Merchant. The first season was extremely popular
ans so was the second one, however the third season seems to be losing its charm.

Jhalak Dikhlaja
This was the Indian version of the hit show Dancing With the Stars, which was also very
popular. The first season had celebs like Mona Singh, Mahesh Manjrekar and Shweta
Salve as participants and Farah Khan, Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Shilpa Shetty on the
judges panel. The show is currently in its second season with Shiamak Davar, Urmila
Matondkar and Jeetendra on the judging panel whereas the participants include celebs
like actress Sonali Kulkarni, anchor Mini Mathur and singer Mika.

Reality shows seem to be a huge trend on television, but anything that is popular has to
bear the brunt of constant criticism and analysis. Controversies about these reality shows
being 'planned and scripted' or the voting lines being a hoax continue to rise every now
and then. Sometimes reality is stranger than fiction, they say! Well as for television, don’t
be surprised or shocked as of yet…something far more real and far more strange might be
on its way…till then...Enjoy Reality TV!

Types of Reality Shows

Celeb-Reality: Reality shows with celebrities are a rage with the audience.
Examples: Dancing with the Stars, The Simple Life, and Big Brother

Prank-Reality: Reality shows that involve pranks played on ordinary people and
capturing their candid reaction.
Examples:Candid Camera, Punk’d (Ashten Kuthcher)

Game Shows: Reality shows that are based on games.

Examples: Who wants to be a Millionaire?" Hollywood Blocks, Weakest Link

Talent Hunts: Reality shows that are looking for talented people be it singers, dancers or
even actors.
Example: American Idol, America’s Got Talent, Star Search

Job-hunts: Shows that are synonymous with live on air interviews are listed under this
category.
Example: The Apprentice, On the Lot (Directors), Project Runway (For fashion
Designers), The Runway (Tommy Hilfiger), Hell’s Kitchen (Chefs)

Makeovers: Reality shows with make over stories. Be it a personal makeover or a home
make over, these shows are very popular with the audience.
Example: Monster House, What-not-to-wear, While You Were Out

Dating-Shows: Reality shows that gave a platform for dating men and women on air.
Example: For Love or For Money, Perfect Match New York

Social Experiments: A relatively new genre of reality television that involves interaction
of distinct social groups.
Example: The Beauty and the Geek, Wife Swap, My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiancé.

Adventure/Fear based shows: A genre of TV shows that challenges the participants

with difficult and weird tasks.
Example: Fear Factor, Who Dares Wins

Some reality shows provide artists a good platform to get noticed, some shows help
people win money and fame but almost all of them keep the audience hooked on to the
action and craving for more!