Before the start of the Unprecedented Times, I was never much of a reality TV gal. My friends in high school would talk about what happened on the Bachelor, and I’d sit there and smirk. I placed in the top 5 of a game of Survivor in my hometown that one of my fanatic friends put on to use as leverage for a Survivor casting call–I still have yet to watch an episode.
In early 2020, I started watching Love is Blind, and that show really carried me through the initial stages of “oh shit something bad is about to happen but nobody knows what.” Fast forward to April 2020–a month I don’t remember at all, other than the shows I started watching: The Bachelor (Listen to Your Heart spinoff), Too Hot to Handle, The Circle, Love Island (Australia!).
The thing these shows have in common is their ability to lower my brain function to zero so I can be ready to interact with the world’s 100. But I’d argue that the premise of all these shows are vastly different, and that’s why I jumped from one to the next.
In thinking about Mittell’s “genre studies should negotiate between specificity and generality” principle, it’s clear that reality TV is a genre that has 1) recently emerged 2) rapidly changed in the short time it has existed. Back in the day, it seemed like Survivor/Big Brother, Jersey Shore, Cake Boss (and other TLC shows) were the objects of interest, and today? There are so many options that fit under the “reality TV” umbrella. Now, we are seeing a reality TV universe: think about the overlap between previous and present Bachelor (franchise) contestants; this new season of The Circle features the winner from Too Hot to Handle–completely different shows, with the same loud and obnoxious contestants.
It goes to show a paradox in Mittell’s diagnosis that genre surpasses the bounds of any singular text. On one hand, Love Island is undoubtedly a reality TV show, but can it be categorized with Survivor? I guess both incorporate islands…but then what about Love is Blind? Or even Bachelor with singers and artists as opposed to “normies?” Should we start to further specify reality TV categories, or is the unbounded potential for different show premises precisely what makes it “reality?” Will people really do anything for a little clout? These are questions I’ll ponder as I start a show called Dating Around.
2 replies on “The Reality of Reality TV”
I like your take on this. One thing I thought about while watching the show for this class (Unreal), was if the production of these shows are staged or if they are real? I remember watching an episode of Love is Blind and asking myself, how can a person allow this part of them be shown on tv! I sometimes even like to watch the youtube reactions of the actual people in the show, after the show has premiered for the first time. After seeing the reality of Reality TV shows, I tend to stray far away from them. I tend to watch shows that advance me in my personal life and I believe some reality shows (if not all) have no use. I am curious to see a poll of the audience and see the reason why they typically tone into shows like this. Is it to not have to think about anything or is it to get a good laugh in?
I completely empathize with the motivation to watch reality tv because it does not require a ton of brain use, and I too find it nice to watch media that does not demand a lot of me and that is simply there for entertainment value and to give me a chance to unwind. Another aspect of reality television that I find enticing is that reality tv can feel more closely tied to our reality than sitcoms or other dramas, as they follow real people in settings that might not be totally natural, but mirror semi-realistic situations (well, except for Survivor). Something about seeing people that vaguely resemble people you could know in real life navigating ridiculous and entertaining circumstances makes it feel a little closer to our reality (I guess that’s why they call it reality television!), and thus a little bit more enjoyable to watch, as you can kind of imagine yourself in those situations.