Sam Milby

Sam and Say of Pinoy Big Brother singing Magmahal Muli

Reality television is a genre of television programming which generally is unscripted, documenting actual events over fiction, and featuring “ordinary” people over professional actors. Although the genre has been featured since the early years of television, the current explosion of popularity dates from circa 2000 (particularly from Expedition Robinson). Critics of the genre have claimed that the term is a misnomer, as many reality TV shows put the participants in exotic locations and/or abnormal situations, thus not promoting a sense of “reality.” According to the Nielsen Media Research, reality shows account for about 56% of all of American TV shows (both in cable and broadcast), and also accounts to about 69% of all of the world TV shows (in cable and in broadcast).

Due to the typically low production values associated with reality television (such as having only a handful of people on the set, relatively inexpensive sets, and not much post-production), this type of programming is very popular with television network executives wishing to maximize profits. This drive to minimize production costs has led to class action lawsuits by the Writers Guild of America representing story producers alleging exploitative practices such as being forced to work unpaid. While not writers in the traditional sense, the union believes that story tellers perform the same basic function as writers by creating scenarios, engineering moments of drama and editing the raw footage into a story line.

Scholars have suggested that reality television’s success is due to its ability to place ordinary people in extraordinary situations. For example, on the ABC show, The Bachelor, an eligible male dates a dozen women simultaneously, traveling on extraordinary dates to Napa Valley, California and Vail, Colorado. The converse is a recently emerged subset, in which extraordinary people (celebrities) are surrounded by ordinary circumstances. Examples include The Anna Nicole Show, The Osbournes, and Newlyweds (featuring Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey).

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