May '11 PR Rankings Issue - Odwyerpr.com

EDITORIAL
What’s wrong with reality TV?
It’s long been my position that if you think our current standards have reached an all-time
low, just wait a few years.
Case in point: In 2001, reality TV accounted for about 20% of prime-time television.
Today it accounts for 40%. In the world of cable TV it’s actually much higher, with some
channels now dedicating as much as 90% of their content to reality programming. The New
York Times last year reported that 15 of the top 20 highest-rated programs are now reality
shows, fetching more viewers in the 18-to-49 bracket than any other form of programming.
The latest “Jersey Shore” season finale was the highest-rated yet, shattering records for
MTV with 7.6 million viewers as well as a 7.3 rating in the coveted 12-to-34 demographic.
There’s little question as to why reality TV has gotten so popular. For one, it’s cheap to
produce, the broadcast equivalent of outsourced labor. Subjects are the actors, entire scenes,
entire plots, entire characters are written in the editing room. It’s also nimble; because the
medium suggests authenticity, many viewers instantly find them engaging. Shows can be
scripted — scenes acted, even — then presented in vérité form as documentary, fact. Finally,
there’s product placement. In case you were unaware, reality shows are televised billboards;
their subjects tout more brands than Daytona 500 drivers. They cover cost before the first
commercial break.
And then there’s us — the dumb saps who watch. This activity paints a dire picture of the
human condition, that we’re so fevered with self-hatred we’re willing to vilify people with
faults just like our own, the only exception being they dared to flaunt their shortcomings in
a court fit only for our celebrity overlords. The very practice is a tactic admission of our preference
of institution over the individual, a public chastisement of those who fail to achieve
the lofty ideals set by those institutions. The question shouldn’t be whether reality TV showcases
anything close to what we call “reality” (it doesn’t). The question should instead be
how low we will stoop to reiterate our bankrupt mores for the purpose of making ourselves
feel better for never achieving those ideals to begin with.
It doesn’t matter what kind of reality show it is — whether it’s a program featuring everyday
people striving to achieve a position of favored status in the community through talent
competitions (“American Idol”), or job competitions (“The Apprentice”), or by struggling
to overcome addiction or societal rejection (“Hoarders, “Intervention,” “Extreme
Makeover,”), or if it’s a program that captures odd professions (“Dog the Bounty Hunter”),
strangers placed in artificial living environments (“Big Brother”), or minor celebrities who
make fools of themselves in the course of their day-to-day lives, thereby revealing themselves
as the throwaways we’ve always presumed them to be (What a relief, they’re idiots
like us!) — the goal of all reality TV is the same. Like any good narrative, reality TV survives
on fantasy. Ideals are its currency.
Reality TV is the overlapping area where the everyday man/woman briefly transcends
into the world of celebrity. In order for this to gain any traction, ideal circumstances must be
presented. Failure is almost certain. It’s no surprise that the most successful of the genre’s
offerings are rife with the two things most Americans simply don’t get enough of: money
and sex. It doesn’t matter how the characters/contestants arc on the “Jersey Shore,”
“America’s Next Top Model,” or “The Real Housewives of Orange County/New York
City/New Jersey/Atlanta.” As long as there’s a chance of riches or a romp, we’re engaged.
Semi-successful cable shows like “Deadliest Catch,” “Ice Road Truckers,” and “Billy the
Exterminator” survive on niche appeal. Once you add money and sex to the profession (“LA
Ink,” “Pregnant in Heels”), a ratings surge follows. It’s far from the American reality.
In order for the illusion of these ideal circumstances to be successful, it requires an axis
of sameness — a lifetime of viewer failure — to revolve around. Reality TV survives on the
absurd fantasy that we are all future celebrities, millionaires in the making, that we’re simply
waiting for the day that we too are subjected to the graces of a benevolent CEO and his
brand tentacles. In the meantime we’ll mock those who fall short of societal expectations,
those denied the CEO hire, the next top model, the star chef, those who were unable to transcend
from individual to brand. We laugh at them for being us.
We’d never make a reality show about real people in real circumstances we created,
because it’d firmly place the onus on us to change. We’d never make a show about the jobless
and homeless families left by the banks we later bailed out, we’d never create a reality
show documenting the families destroyed by the bombs we dropped on Iraq. How about a
show highlighting the last factory worker in the U.S.? Doesn’t sound so appealing, does it?
Our reality remains a convenience.
— Jon Gingerich
6
MAY 2011 WWW.ODWYERPR.COM
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Jack O’Dwyer
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