TV-Too Big a Dose of Reality?

▪ 2002

      Strictly speaking, reality programming—unscripted and unrehearsed programs in the form of sporting events, talk shows, documentaries, Candid Camera, and the like—had been part of the television landscape from the earliest days of broadcasting. Later, in 1973, it became more deliberate when, on PBS's An American Family, the innermost secrets of the William C. Loud family unfolded before the TV audience in 12 hour-long segments culled from 300 hours of footage shot in the family's home. Then, beginning in 1992, the American cable station MTV scored a hit by having seven young people, strangers to each other, live together for several months in a house under constant camera scrutiny, with the highlights broadcast weekly. Nevertheless, it was not until the American television network CBS in 2000 peopled an island with a band of castaways and had them vote to expel one member each week until the last person claimed a million-dollar prize that the world took notice. Survivor, CBS's version of a Swedish TV success, set summer viewership records, and television executives everywhere rushed to launch their own offerings. CBS itself followed later in the summer by isolating 10 persons in a house and having the audience vote them out until only one was left in Big Brother, its version of a Dutch hit. Not only did this type of show grab audience attention, but it was relatively cheap to produce because it did not depend on professional screenwriters and actors but instead used ordinary people. A second (and later a third) version of Survivor and a second Big Brother appeared in 2001, along with such shows as ABC's The Mole, in which a group facing various challenges had a saboteur in its midst, and Fox's Temptation Island, in which unmarried couples were separated and their fidelity was tested. PBS broadcast the British The 1900 House, in which a family lived for three months with no modern amenities.

      The concept emerged worldwide. Great Britain, which already in 2000 had presented Castaway, recounting the experiences of a group that created a community for a year on a Scottish island, launched Castaway 2001. In addition, France had Loft Story; Canada offered Pioneer Quest; at least 18 countries had a version of Big Brother; and more than 20 countries had shown or were considering their own Survivor series.

      Perhaps inevitably, with all this popularity came controversy. Accusations were made that some scenes were staged, edited, shown out of sequence, or reenacted with body doubles, that voting was rigged or influenced by show officials, that copyrights were infringed, or that the backgrounds of some participants were not checked carefully enough. Even though such shows as NBC's Fear Factor, with contestants subjected to stunts involving whatever scared them, and Spy TV, where the staged situations often were designed to evoke terror, were very popular, their mean-spiritedness also drew many complaints. Nonetheless, reality shows continued to proliferate worldwide, and there was no sign that they would disappear soon.

Barbara Whitney

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