OK I’ll admit that “reality” tv isn’t really my bag. From time to time there have been hooks that got me in (The Joe Schmo Show was awesome) and since Annie likes them - I end up watching them and in some case getting hooked in the process.
I understand that they are cheaper to produce than a normal show because you don’t have to pay writers and there are probably no residuals (Though I’m not sure they make any money in syndication - I mean is anyone dieing to see that first season of survivor?) but there was something that never quiet made sense - they don’t last very long.
A standard TV show needs about 24 episodes to make a full season. It doesn’t always work out that way because now they re-run epsiodes from the same season even before the season is over. But that’s a lot of episodes. Sone reality shows make it that far but a lot of the most insane ones don’t.
Now it all comes together. It’s ok that they don’t last for very long. They get to make a 5-10 episode reality show - if it is a hit they make a ton of money in the process and if it is a dud - no big deal another one is going to be coming along shortly. Plus since you can make a bunch of them all at the same time - you can add new content over the summer when it is mostly re-run time - which worked fine in the old days - but people watch TV year round now.
So reality shows end up being a huge windfall for the networks as they continually attract new viewers -especially when you stumble onto a hot concept, the creators make a ton off of schulbs who we love to watch, and we the viewing public love it because we get to see “real” human emotions - who needs acting when you can see people say and do things that you would never believe if you knew an actual writer was involved.
Does that mean that the plot driven serial - or feature film is going to go the way of the dodo - it’s probably more likely that we’ll all stop reading books before that happens - but unfortunatly - unless the economics of tv show making change - reality shows are going to be with us for a long long time.
June 28th, 2005 at 11:36 am
One of the things I find hilarious about reality TV is that since the season is so short it’s impossible for us to watch most of what is really going on. As a result, on successful reality TV shows they make an extra episode or two about “WHAT REALLY HAPPENED ON ____INSERT SHOW NAME____”
Does anyone else find this completely ironic? I can understand those shows that go behind the scenes of Nick at Nite shows, but isn’t the whole purpose of a reality show to capture the reality? And plus, if they can fit everything into 1 or 2 extra episodes, why not just add those to the original season???
Ah, the joys of reality TV.
June 28th, 2005 at 4:26 pm
I would say - that “reality” is a loose term - mean everything that happens happened - but they filter out what they did to set it up and also construct storylines using cause and effect that only exist iin the editing bay. Hail the rise of the editor.
As for the extra episode - I figure there are two reasons why they do that - one part is the stuff that is too “hot” for tv :) the other part is it is a way to get direct revenue off of the fans of the show. Since reality shows have no way to be syndicated - and they don’t sell many dvd sets of the shows this is the only way they can get access to that revenue.