Reality TV: Viewers demanding insane behaviour
30 Sunday Aug 2009
Written by Corve DaCosta in Entertainment, Love & Relationships, Thoughts & Commentary
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Since the development of the internet it would appear that reality television came after. Reality television features unprofessional actors, most times celebrities or created ones to show unscripted reactions in various scenarios. In recent times we have been seeing many newly wed couples deciding to film a reality series to be picked up by the major networks. However, it would appear that the usage of reality television for any couple in Hollywood is a divorce sentence for their marriage. Of course we can list all the victims of reality television these days. The question is, did reality television cost them their marriage or was it for different reasons. Most times children are the biggest cash cows for these series as they are also paid for the gig.
Giuliana & Bill
I am a huge fan of reality television. I would say I like the productions, not a fan of all the drama but I appreciate the wonderful and creative ideas that they are based off. Two reality television series that I have been following and I will be referring to in this piece are The Real Housewives of Atlanta (not really a fan) and Giuliana and Bill (can be seen on the Style Network). The Real Housewives of Atlanta is filled with drama as the show follows five Atlanta housewives on their lives and friendships with each other. The celebs on the show are always in conflicts and they lead unstable lives financially and emotionally. On the other hand, Giuliana and Bill; this reality show features both Bill Rancic – winner of the first Apprentice and Giuliana from the E Network. The show is about this couple as they lead successful careers and attempts to balance their marriage.
There are hundreds of reality shows on television, some are sane and the others are insane. One would think the sane ones would get stellar reviews and constantly being booked for another season. Hell NO! The insane reality shows, filled with wanna be celebrities, people that live unstable lives, people who you would warn your kids to stay far from are playing huge roles in what network executives are constantly booking for another season. They do this because this is the garbage that society wants. I do not know but I would never sit for hours on end and enjoy a show that shows humans behaving despicably, acting in selfish ways to their neighbours. It alarms me to know that we have reached a stage where this is what we demand daily. I would agree that this is entertaining but networks that run these series for endless hours the show becomes insipid.
The show Real Housewives of Atlanta is depressing and we wonder why we still have certain issues in our society today. When a show can glamorise black people to be irrational thinkers, uneducated, gold diggers and unproductive to society we have a huge problem on our hands. We then wonder why people are hateful of black people; they are because they have not seen anything positive of the black race. They have not seen hardworking, educated people rising to the top (apart from Obama and a few others) and the images we should be portraying of our race are absent. So they have associated with being black all the negative ideas we can think of.
The sane reality shows and images we should be desperate for are all being chopped by business executives because they have a business to run. They cannot fund sane reality shows because it is the unpopular decision to do. After all a business is not charity organization. As a people we should start demanding productive programming. I will agree that there will always be a market for insane material but we should have options. I enjoyed watching Giuliana and Bill because it never had any crazy drama scene where they were fighting each other down and the constant bickering was absent. Whatever your tastes are you can find it. If you want to see adventure, a loving couple, hardworking people who are balancing their lives check it out. I am sure you can find other sane reality television shows to watch where it can be worth your entertaining and leisure time.
The world is now an open space. With cable television comes with advantages and sore disadvantages for any society. Cultures will begin to change and people will act differently because of the diverse influences that will now be present. The cultural values that some societies were proud of will soon go away because there are other new sometimes bad values to adapt. The images and values that these insane shows project into our societies must be challenged by positive role models (which we so lack) and shows that depict what living a stable life looks like; that is reality. There is no way we can continue to accept the negative images of our race and remain silent with it. As young people we need to separate positive entertainment from negative entertainment and break the rising trend of insane reality television.
11 comments
August 30, 2009 at 4:34 PM
We enjoy American Idol, but do not really get into the other reality series to much. Glad that you enjoy them, and you must be glad that the new season is getting ready to commence
)
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August 30, 2009 at 8:36 PM
I don’t own a TV so that will give you an idea of how much reality TV I watch.
I noticed you were following my blog, so I stopped over. ~Mary
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August 30, 2009 at 9:16 PM
There is something about these shows that our minds have rationalized as safe. “It’s happening to them not me so I can watch guilt free”, not understanding the overall effect that these shows have on race and gender in our society.
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August 31, 2009 at 4:35 AM
Great commentary…I actually watched the Guiliana and Bill episode about her fear of flying earlier today ironically! I actually started watching because Guiliana is from very near my hometown in the state of Maryland! She and Bill do seem like a nice couple (although I wonder why they would do a show considering how almost every reality show couple divorces soon after filming and the exposure of their life to public comments, etc…)but you’re right at least they portray balance, seem to respect each other, and don’t seem to argue all the time. Even though Guiliana is a bit of a spoiled brat (LOL!) it’s definitely a watchable show that’s light on the unecessary drama and fighting and I too wish there were more African American couples on tv that were positively portrayed especially on sitcoms.
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August 31, 2009 at 9:27 AM
reality tv is just a way tv execs found to make cheap tv. remember Arnold’s running man movie? Well how far are we from having that sort of reality tv.
Never seen Housewives of Atlanta but BET shows some really trashy reality tv with black folks as well and lets now forget whatever station showed the Flavor of Love and the I luv New York show as well. Still I wouldnt put too much stock into the images of black folk in reality tv although i understand your points. To me all reality show is a bunch of crap. Its not real if you”re scripting what you make people go through plus if you ever read anything the reality stars have said it appears as if the tv folk edit out anything that doesnt fit into the image they want to portray of the person. so if they act up once in a while they’ll focus on that but they wont show the 75% of the time when they are sane and rational cause who wants to see sane and rational. the public wants crazy.
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August 31, 2009 at 1:30 PM
Ok. Nice article Corve, however, and I lot of people are going to probably hunt me down for this, but this is my firm stand on the issue and if you think about it, its more that obvious.
If there are cameras, it cannot be reality! There I said it, its out there. Unless you’re filming animals, who have no knowledge of what a camera is and are just going about their natural business, then reality tv is an oxymoron. No human being, who knows what a camera is, and knows that you’re putting them in a specific situation will act natural. Its not possible.
Our Ego (or lack therefore) will cause us to either be overly agressive, fun, docile, chatty, outgoing, withdrawn, brave, scared, etc, depending on the situation and the theme of the “reality show”. Once we know the camera is out there then our actions and motives are driven purely by what is expected of us and not what we would do naturally. In most cases, the persons in the show, are told what is expected of them and how they should act. I might be dumb, but that sounds like a script to me. It might not be a script like a real movie, but a script nonetheless.
A perfect example of this is the debacle of John and Kate plus Eight. Need I say more.
My better-half was a huge fan of one of these reality shows called Bad Girls Club, and she would get worked up over it and follow it endlessly. I asked her what it was about and she said that its a group of girls who have aggression issues and they are all in one house to see who’s the baddest and who can kick who’s butt. Now I decided to watch, purely to prove my point to her that its all scripted. So I watch this thing for a month, and all these girls do is talk and scream and talk and scream, none of these girls ever laid a finger on each other, until in one episode, they go to Mexico, and 4 of the girls ganged up on one, and kicked her and all that, a real fight.
To my surprise, in come the produces, to tell them that they were told not to touch each other, and they would be kicked off the show, and what’s worst, the girl that got her butt kicked in pressing charges, so they might go to jail. My point is then, if the whole “reality show” was for them to get physical, why is it that the producers are telling them not to touch each other?
Granted, not all these reality tv shows are completely scripted (Dance Your Ass Off), but just know that no human being is going to see a camera and behave the natural. Think about how you react when you see a camera (for a still photo).
Sorry Corve for using up so much of your space
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Bring on the pain!!
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September 1, 2009 at 11:36 AM
Hey Corve! Here at work there’s a television going almost full time in one of the offices and every morning good ol’ Jerry Springer is on. Ridiculous, but funny as can be. I don’t know if his was one of the first so called ‘reality shows’ and it seems somewhat staged but for some it is entertaining. You’re probably wondering what kind of work I do…:)
Hoping you and yours have a great week. Thanks for all your comments!
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September 1, 2009 at 9:28 PM
Never was a fan of reality television
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September 2, 2009 at 1:28 PM
I wish we could diversify our reality TV more
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September 2, 2009 at 1:46 PM
I don’t have cable, so I stick mostly to THE BACHELOR, SURVIVOR AND THE AMAZING RACE. I could talk for hours about these shows. I love “reality” TV.
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September 2, 2009 at 9:00 PM
I don’t really watch tv but for some reason I love reality TV. I think (in my opinion) like everything else it’s scripted – but it’s good to see some common, regular folk (not Paris Hilton or Perez) get their 15 mins of fame.
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