Extremely Real Tv

Today, the most popular genre of television is what critics have coined "reality television." Reality television, supposedly unscripted television starring "ordinary people" in favor of actors, ranges from the dramatic to the humorous, and is most simply defined as documentation of real events. Appearing at the creation of television broadcasting in the late 1940s, reality TV has developed and changed with the nation. Starting with the surprised Americans caught in their most embarrassing moments by Allen Funt's Candid Camera in 1948, continuing to the down-to-earth loud family of An American Family in 1973, and now showcasing the rat-eating competitors of Survivor in 2002, reality TV has become increasingly creative and popular. In the past decade especially, the intrusion, sadism, and greed characterizing modern reality TV have propelled us into the golden age of reality TV.

No discussion of the ever-developing reality TV trend can be complete without consideration of its voyeuristic appeal. Pioneering the path for reality TV that focuses on observation of everyday life was MTV's The Real World, which simply followed the lives of seven roommates over the course of a few months. Voyeurism in the reality TV world owes its increased role to more creative shows such as CBS's Big Brother and Fox's Temptation Island, which, according to Mark Andrejevic, author of Reality TV: The Art of Being Watched, "thematized" the role of surveillance by incorporating it into the story line. These shows added voyeuristic appeal to the simple Real World formula by deliberately putting its subjects in tempting, difficult, embarrassing, and most importantly, traditionally private situations for public viewing pleasure. Like The Real World, Temptation Island did not offer a cash prize, but offered its participants a free trip to an exotic island for accepting scripted struggles and making them public, granting access to their intimate romantic relationships. Four couples were split up and invited to date other people to see whether they would be willing to cheat on their significant others, revealing very private situations. Temptation Island was one of the first in a series of reality TV shows that turned reality TV into an easy source of what Robert Thompson, head of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University, would call "guilty pleasure." Thompson explains, "The feeling that you shouldn't be watching is what makes the guilty pleasure" and this is the reason why television viewers keep watching. Sociology professor Mark Fishman of Brooklyn College agrees, adding that "[I]t's always been in good taste not to look at these things ... but we seem to be in a new age of making public what [we used to think] shouldn't be seen." The feeling of "we shouldn't be watching" attracts the millions of viewers in today's society to watch shows like Survivor, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, and Temptation Island. By sharing taboo situations and appealing to the voyeur in audience members, reality TV is a reliable and generous provider of "guilty pleasure," leaving audiences hooked.

Modern reality TV shows continue to build upon the Real World and Temptation Island formulas by adding in sadism. Audiences are finding entertainment in areas that thirty years ago were considered obscene. Increasingly, producers have been "pushing a moral envelope," insists Frank Farley, past president of the American Psychological Association. Because the appeal of reality TV is its supposed authenticity, it is no longer just plot that draws television audiences, but sadism. Mark Fishman of Brooklyn College recognizes the appeal of sadism, explaining that "Germans [even] have a word for it, the appeal of some of these shows... It's called 'schadenfreude.' It means taking delight in the misfortunes of others." Whether it is watching people eat rats and snails on a deserted island or watching someone choose the incorrect answer on with huge amounts of money at stake, Americans have become infatuated by "taking delight in the misfortunes of others." The feeling of "we are not the ones in trouble"