The Reality of Reality
I just read a book about reality television while watching reality television. Not at the same time; the activities were one after the other. But you get the point.
I’m not a big reality television person. We started watching Traitors this winter, and we finished 3 UK seasons and 1.5 US seasons. We definitely prefer the UK and everyone entering as strangers.
I saw 2 seasons of the Real World about 30 years ago. I’ve seen a few reality cooking competitions. I don’t know where that puts me on the watching reality television continuum. Probably somewhere near the middle? Maybe closer to the not watching reality television side? I have no clue how many people watch, but based on the number of shows, I would guess I am leaning toward the minority in reality television consumption.
I make this point because there was a line in the book (The Compound by Aisling Rawle) that captured something we talk about all the time as we watch Traitors: (1) What makes a person go on a show where they know they will be manipulated or voted out? (2) What makes a person watch someone else get manipulated or voted out?
One character says about the possible reason they went on the show:
I think probably all of us must have been very unhappy, otherwise why would we have done that to ourselves? I know we told ourselves that we wanted to live peacefully, but I think we were looking for new ways to make ourselves miserable.
Do happy people go on reality television shows? You have better odds of winning the prize than you do winning the lottery, but it’s still more likely than not that you will walk away with just the experience. Maybe with a travel show, the experience would be the greater prize than a monetary prize, but for so many of these shows — like Traitors — the end prize IS the point. And the friends you make along the way?
And then the other side — why do we watch reality television competitions? Sometimes when we’re watching Traitors, I feel terrible. I feel gutted for people who are certain someone has their back, only to discover they were lying the whole time. My stomach hurts when I hear them confidently state that another contestant is telling the truth when I know that they’re lying. What does that say about me?
2 comments
I think many people go on these shows to jump start a career on tv or in entertainment in general. They generally seem to be people who crave attention and fame, in my limited experience watching a few reality shows. A lot of it also makes me uncomfortable- watching people made to look like fools on national/international tv gives me the ick. Yet I do still tune in occasionally.
Reality shows are a mixed bag for me. The Great British Bake-off is awesome. I don’t mind Masterchef, and I did watch most of The Traitors versions that are available to me. But when you have to win by actively pulling others down…I can’t be bothered. It’s kind of hard to delineate, because I do enjoy game shows and some of these are extended ones. And I do love looking inside people’s houses, so House Hunters and the like are entertaining. But the “slice of life” shows, like the Real Housewives, do not catch my interest.