Reality Bites: America's Fascination with Reality TV Could Spin Into Movies

What is America's obsession with reality TV? Why do millions of people spend thousands of hours each week, watching ordinary people try to get a job ("The Apprentice), try to get a date ("The Bachelor") or try to sing ("American Idol") instead of actually living their own lives? Because Americans want to be reassured that other people are just as dysfunctional as themselves.

 

 Reality Check
Defining the term "reality television" can be quite complicated. The first reality programs involved ordinary people instead of professional actors, doing ordinary things via unscripted storylines (such as "COPS" and "The Real World"). Along the way, it has expanded to include the sub-genres of reality game shows, dating shows, sports shows and Celeb-Reality shows, detailing the lives of B-list celebrities.

 

 Altered Reality 
With the premier of "Survivor" in 2000, a new genre was created. Displacing ordinary people to a new location - such as an isolated Caribbean island - making them compete in both physical and mental challenges for food and shelter, it was just as much about the harsh living environment as it was the politics behind voting people off of the show. The $1 million dollar prize for the winner was enough encouragement to promote plenty of backstabbing and bickering among the contestants. The reality game show instantly became a hit, placing "Survivor" among television's highest rated shows. With relatively low production costs and a quick turnaround time, network executives began copying the format, loading up reality programming throughout the networks. Soon there were contestants living in small confines with many cameras ("Big Brother"), spanning a world-wide competition ("The Amazing Race"), fighting for a title ("The Contender,"), cheating on their partners ("Temptation Island"), running a restaurant ("The Restaurant," "Hell's Kitchen"), running a casino ("American Casino," "The Casino") and improving their lives ("Queer Eye for the Straight Guy," "Extreme Makeover," "Trading Spaces," "What Not to Wear," "Super Nanny").