Reality Television Article
Is Reality TV Really Real?
Some critics of reality tv have said that the name "reality television" is a somewhat inaccurate description for several types of programs included in the genre.
In competition-based programs such as Big Brother and Survivor, and other special-living-environment type shows like The Real World, the producers create the format of the show and dictate the day-to-day activities and the environment, effectively creating a totally fabricated world in which the competition plays out. Producers specifically select the participants, and use carefully designed scenarios, challenges, events, and settings to encourage particular behaviors and conflicts.
Mark Burnett, creator of Survivor and other reality shows, has agreed with this opinion, and avoids the word "reality" to describe his shows. He has said, "I tell good stories. It really is not reality TV. It really is unscripted drama."
Even in docusoap series that follow people in their daily lives, producers may be especially selective in their editing strategies, able to show certain participants as villains or heroes, and may guide the drama through altered chronology and selective presentation of events. Some participants have stated afterwards that they changed their behavior to appear more crazy or emotional in order to get more camera time during the taping of the show.
Several former reality show participants have spoken publicly about their experiences and the strategies used on reality shows. Irene McGee from The Real World Seattle has done public speaking tours about the negative and misleading aspects of reality TV.
In 2004, VH1 aired a program called "Reality TV Secrets Revealed" that detailed various misleading tricks of reality TV producers. It was revealed that programs The Restaurant and Survivor had at times recreated incidents that had actually occurred but were not properly recorded by cameras to the required technical standard, or had not been recorded at all. In order to get the footage, the event was restaged for the cameras. Other shows (most notably Joe Millionaire) combined audio and video from different times, or different sets of footage, to make it look like participants were doing something they were not.
Some shows have faced speculation that the participants themselves are involved in fakery, acting out storylines that were planned in advance by producers. The show The Hills is one notable example; one TV critic wrote that the show's "situations and dialogue come straight from a page."
On the show Hell's Kitchen, it has been speculated that the customers eating meals prepared by the contestants are in fact paid actors. Nevertheless, there has been no direct evidence presented yet that any such program has been scripted or "rigged," as with the 1950s television quiz show scandals.
Another criticism is commonly leveled against competition reality shows where the winner is not picked by the audience. That criticism is that the producers are accused of eliminating the better contestant to leave one that creates inter-contestant drama or is somehow more interesting from a viewers perspective (although is inferior in terms of the competetive aspect).
