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Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s with shows such as The Real World, then achieved prominence in the early 2000s with the success of ...
Nov 8, 2017 · But the program that introduced Americans to reality TV was very different. (Desmond Boylan/AP) Fifty years ago this week, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 ...
- Overview
- Reality TV
“Reality TV” was one of the most significant new program developments of the new century, though the genre is in fact nearly as old as the medium itself. Live variety shows had taken cameras into the streets in the 1950s, and Candid Camera, which surreptitiously filmed people responding to elaborate practical jokes, debuted on ABC in 1948 (with stints on all three networks until 1967, its longest tenure coming on CBS [1960–67], before it was revived in 1989–90 and again in 1998). With the appearance of Real People (NBC, 1979–84), however, the genre began to thrive. Called “infotainment” by some critics and “schlockumentary” by others, Real People presented several short documentaries per episode featuring “real people” who did unusual things: one man ate dirt, for example, and another walked only backward. The program’s imitators included That’s Incredible! (ABC, 1980–84) and Those Amazing Animals (ABC, 1980–81). As home-video technology spread in the 1980s and ’90s, entire shows were designed around content produced by amateurs. ABC introduced America’s Funniest Home Videos (ABC, begun 1990), featuring tapes sent in by home viewers hoping to win prize money. When that show immediately reached the Nielsen top 10, it was followed by America’s Funniest People (ABC, 1990–94), a sort of updated version of Real People that mixed professional and amateur video productions.
Reality shows began taking on other forms as well. America’s Most Wanted (Fox/Lifetime, 1988–2012) and Unsolved Mysteries (NBC/CBS, 1988–99; Lifetime, 2001–02) used actors to dramatize stories about crimes for which the suspects were still at large. Traditional journalists decried the use of these reenactments, but hundreds of criminals were apprehended as a result of viewers’ calling the station in response to photographs of the suspects that were shown at the end of each episode. In Cops (Fox, 1989–2013; Spike, begun 2013), a camera crew rode along with the police as they patrolled various urban settings. Episodes of Cops had been taped in more than 100 cities by the end of the century. The reality genre owed much to An American Family, a 12-part documentary series that aired on PBS from January to March in 1973. In the making of this series, camera crews followed the Louds, a Santa Barbara, Calif., family, for seven months, revealing, among other things, the breakup of the parents’ marriage and the openly gay lifestyle of son Lance, a first for a television series.
At century’s end, however, the reality genre was tending more toward voyeurism and less toward reality. In spite of its title, MTV’s The Real World (begun 1992) was much more contrived than An American Family, and it set the style for future series of its kind. The Louds, after all, were a real family, as were the officers that were portrayed in Cops. For each new season of The Real World, however, seven young adults who had never met before were selected from thousands of applicants to live together for several months in a large MTV-supplied apartment or house in a major city. Cameras recorded them both inside and outside their home, and the footage was then edited into 13 half-hour episodes per year. It was, in effect, a documentary about a totally contrived and artificial situation. Eight years after the debut of The Real World, CBS picked up on the idea, introducing two series, both based on similar European shows, that brought the voyeuristic genre to a much larger audience than ever before. For Survivor (CBS, begun 2000), 16 applicants were selected to spend some 39 days on an uninhabited island in the South China Sea under the scrutiny of a hundred cameras. Taped footage was edited into 13 episodes. Although the “survivors” were forced to cooperate with each other for their daily needs and in competitive events that were set up by the producers, conflict was injected by forcing the group to vote one of their fellow castaways off the island at three-day intervals. The ultimate survivor at the end of the series won a million dollars. A month later, CBS debuted a variant of the genre, Big Brother, which featured 10 people locked in a house for the summer. Contestants on Big Brother were also voted out until one winner remained. It aired on consecutive nights during the week and included one episode per week that was broadcast live; there was also an Internet component, which allowed online viewers to access four cameras in the house 24 hours per day. In subsequent seasons the premium cable channel Showtime offered an “after-hours” version of the show.
By the end of the summer of 2000, Survivor was the most popular show on television, with a finale episode reaching more that 50 million viewers. After that, reality shows proliferated across the schedules of both network and cable channels. Not only was there the promise of high ratings, but these shows were significantly less expensive to produce than scripted series.
Subgenres developed with extraordinary speed. The dating/courtship reality show evolved in a matter of a few seasons with shows such as The Bachelor (ABC, begun 2002), Temptation Island (Fox, 2001 and 2003), Looking for Love: Bachelorettes in Alaska (Fox, 2002), Joe Millionaire (Fox, 2003), and Average Joe (NBC, 2003–05). Survivor-like challenge shows included The Mole (ABC, 2001–04 and 2008), The Amazing Race (CBS, begun 2001), and I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here (ABC, 2003; NBC, 2009). Makeovers, once the subject of daytime talk-show segments, got the full prime-time treatment on series such as Extreme Makeover (ABC, 2003–07), The Swan (Fox, 2004), and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy (Bravo, 2003–07).
Although one of the appeals of reality TV was that it featured “regular people,” celebrities could not resist the thriving genre. Among the many pseudo-documentary series that presented celebrities in intimate situations were The Osbournes (MTV, 2002–05), focusing on heavy metal rocker Ozzy Osbourne and his family; The Anna Nicole Show (E!, 2002–04), whose eponymous star was a former Playboy model; The Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica (MTV, 2003–05), chronicling the ultimately failed marriage of singers Nick Lachey (formerly of the boy band 98 Degrees) and Jessica Simpson; and Surreal Life (WB/VH1, 2003–06), a sort of Real World populated by where-are-they-now? personalities. Most of these shows were created with a heavy sense of irony, inviting the viewer to watch with a sense of affectionate mockery.
“Reality TV” was one of the most significant new program developments of the new century, though the genre is in fact nearly as old as the medium itself. Live variety shows had taken cameras into the streets in the 1950s, and Candid Camera, which surreptitiously filmed people responding to elaborate practical jokes, debuted on ABC in 1948 (with stints on all three networks until 1967, its longest tenure coming on CBS [1960–67], before it was revived in 1989–90 and again in 1998). With the appearance of Real People (NBC, 1979–84), however, the genre began to thrive. Called “infotainment” by some critics and “schlockumentary” by others, Real People presented several short documentaries per episode featuring “real people” who did unusual things: one man ate dirt, for example, and another walked only backward. The program’s imitators included That’s Incredible! (ABC, 1980–84) and Those Amazing Animals (ABC, 1980–81). As home-video technology spread in the 1980s and ’90s, entire shows were designed around content produced by amateurs. ABC introduced America’s Funniest Home Videos (ABC, begun 1990), featuring tapes sent in by home viewers hoping to win prize money. When that show immediately reached the Nielsen top 10, it was followed by America’s Funniest People (ABC, 1990–94), a sort of updated version of Real People that mixed professional and amateur video productions.
Reality shows began taking on other forms as well. America’s Most Wanted (Fox/Lifetime, 1988–2012) and Unsolved Mysteries (NBC/CBS, 1988–99; Lifetime, 2001–02) used actors to dramatize stories about crimes for which the suspects were still at large. Traditional journalists decried the use of these reenactments, but hundreds of criminals were apprehended as a result of viewers’ calling the station in response to photographs of the suspects that were shown at the end of each episode. In Cops (Fox, 1989–2013; Spike, begun 2013), a camera crew rode along with the police as they patrolled various urban settings. Episodes of Cops had been taped in more than 100 cities by the end of the century. The reality genre owed much to An American Family, a 12-part documentary series that aired on PBS from January to March in 1973. In the making of this series, camera crews followed the Louds, a Santa Barbara, Calif., family, for seven months, revealing, among other things, the breakup of the parents’ marriage and the openly gay lifestyle of son Lance, a first for a television series.
At century’s end, however, the reality genre was tending more toward voyeurism and less toward reality. In spite of its title, MTV’s The Real World (begun 1992) was much more contrived than An American Family, and it set the style for future series of its kind. The Louds, after all, were a real family, as were the officers that were portrayed in Cops. For each new season of The Real World, however, seven young adults who had never met before were selected from thousands of applicants to live together for several months in a large MTV-supplied apartment or house in a major city. Cameras recorded them both inside and outside their home, and the footage was then edited into 13 half-hour episodes per year. It was, in effect, a documentary about a totally contrived and artificial situation. Eight years after the debut of The Real World, CBS picked up on the idea, introducing two series, both based on similar European shows, that brought the voyeuristic genre to a much larger audience than ever before. For Survivor (CBS, begun 2000), 16 applicants were selected to spend some 39 days on an uninhabited island in the South China Sea under the scrutiny of a hundred cameras. Taped footage was edited into 13 episodes. Although the “survivors” were forced to cooperate with each other for their daily needs and in competitive events that were set up by the producers, conflict was injected by forcing the group to vote one of their fellow castaways off the island at three-day intervals. The ultimate survivor at the end of the series won a million dollars. A month later, CBS debuted a variant of the genre, Big Brother, which featured 10 people locked in a house for the summer. Contestants on Big Brother were also voted out until one winner remained. It aired on consecutive nights during the week and included one episode per week that was broadcast live; there was also an Internet component, which allowed online viewers to access four cameras in the house 24 hours per day. In subsequent seasons the premium cable channel Showtime offered an “after-hours” version of the show.
By the end of the summer of 2000, Survivor was the most popular show on television, with a finale episode reaching more that 50 million viewers. After that, reality shows proliferated across the schedules of both network and cable channels. Not only was there the promise of high ratings, but these shows were significantly less expensive to produce than scripted series.
Subgenres developed with extraordinary speed. The dating/courtship reality show evolved in a matter of a few seasons with shows such as The Bachelor (ABC, begun 2002), Temptation Island (Fox, 2001 and 2003), Looking for Love: Bachelorettes in Alaska (Fox, 2002), Joe Millionaire (Fox, 2003), and Average Joe (NBC, 2003–05). Survivor-like challenge shows included The Mole (ABC, 2001–04 and 2008), The Amazing Race (CBS, begun 2001), and I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here (ABC, 2003; NBC, 2009). Makeovers, once the subject of daytime talk-show segments, got the full prime-time treatment on series such as Extreme Makeover (ABC, 2003–07), The Swan (Fox, 2004), and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy (Bravo, 2003–07).
Although one of the appeals of reality TV was that it featured “regular people,” celebrities could not resist the thriving genre. Among the many pseudo-documentary series that presented celebrities in intimate situations were The Osbournes (MTV, 2002–05), focusing on heavy metal rocker Ozzy Osbourne and his family; The Anna Nicole Show (E!, 2002–04), whose eponymous star was a former Playboy model; The Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica (MTV, 2003–05), chronicling the ultimately failed marriage of singers Nick Lachey (formerly of the boy band 98 Degrees) and Jessica Simpson; and Surreal Life (WB/VH1, 2003–06), a sort of Real World populated by where-are-they-now? personalities. Most of these shows were created with a heavy sense of irony, inviting the viewer to watch with a sense of affectionate mockery.
May 2, 2011 · The Reality Principle. By Kelefa Sanneh. May 2, 2011. Unlike its 1973 antecedent, today’s reality TV has acquired the rotten reputation that once attached to the medium itself. Illustration by ...
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Apr 17, 2024 · Early reality TV shows. Although reality TV’s popularity exploded in the 21st century, the genre is nearly as old as television itself. The hidden-camera show Candid Camera, often identified as the first reality TV show, premiered on the ABC network in 1948 with the title Candid Microphone, reflecting the show’s roots as a radio program (various versions of the TV show aired from 1948 to ...
- Jordana Rosenfeld
Aug 10, 2020 · Of course, the US was way ahead of the UK with MTV’s The Real World, which started in 1992 and was about what happens when strangers who live together “stop being polite and start being real ...
5 days ago · Candid Camera is the first reality TV show with a creative concept from the start and began on the radio in 1947.According to Guinness World Records, the radio show was called Candid Microphone "and became so popular that it spawned a series of movie shorts using film cameras in place of concealed mikes.
