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Revision as of 16:39, 21 February 2003
Reality television is a genre of television programming in which the fortunes of "real life" people are followed. Given that producers can control the format of the show, as well as manipulate the outcome of some of them, it is questionable how "real" reality television actually is.
There are two main types of reality television program. In the first, the viewer and the camera are passive observers following people going about their daily personal and professional activities. The "plots" which are compiled for the program often resemble soap operas. The first reality show broadcast was the PBS series An American Family, broadcast in the United States in 1973 in twelve parts. The series dealt with a nuclear family going through a divorce; the parents had several children and one of them, Lance Loud, was an openly gay young man who occasionally wore lipstick and women's clothes and took his mother to a drag show in episode two of the series. Scholars sometimes mention that Lance came out of the closet on TV, but this is technically incorrect--he was simply gay without announcement or drama; his family says that they had known for quite awhile. The show was controversial in its time and was excoriated by the press, particularly The New York Times, which published a piece criticizing the series and especially Lance Loud.
A prime modern example of reality television is MTV's The Real World, one of the first reality programs to gain popularity. A new subset of this type has recently emerged in which the daily lives of celebrities are portrayed. Examples include The Osbournes and The Anna Nicole Show.
In the second type, the so-called "reality game shows", participants are filmed intensively in an enclosed environment while competing to win a prize. In these game shows the viewing public usually (but not always) plays an active role in deciding the outcome, by eliminating participants (disapproval voting) or voting for the most popular choice to win (with some other voting system). Two of the most popular reality-based game shows are Big Brother, Survivor. There is also a Spanish language show taped for Latin American audiences, Protagonistas De La Musica, filmed in Miami by Telemundo USA.
Other reality programs include Driving School, Cops, Highway Patrol, Road Rules, Married by America and the British "World's Worst" series.
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