www.actuality.tv

I get dismissive towards friends when they roll their eyes at me about my love for reality TV. When hanging out with me, I might force you to watch white-washed black sass on VH1 for hours, whether I've seen the episode or not a few dozen times doesn't even matter to me. What has made reality TV resonate with so many people? How did all the shows on TV get so quickly replaced with this new form of entertainment? Reality TV today has made so many people into household names overnight, and even given them lasting success whereas 5 to 10 years ago, those same individuals would have been totally dismissed by Hollywood and other celebrity vehicles. Reality TV was invented in my life time, in fact I got to watch it begin on MTV with The Real World: New York, although at the time I didn't think much of it (especially from the point of view of how it would evolve) and the current television landscape doesn't look anything like the primordial days of reality TV did. Today I wondered, "why do I like reality TV so much?" Who better to speak on reality TV than someone who has been conscious of it in its entirety from conception to current status?

Arguably, almost anything on TV could be placed under the reality TV category. Game shows, QVC, and Public Access are all reality TV. Documentaries, whether it be on animal planet, channel 9, or the Discovery Health Channel, are still reality TV. The news is another form reality TV, although it seems to run on scripts. Oprah has been a huge reality TV star for decades. Most networks, such as E!, TLC, and VH1 are almost exclusively reality TV based. Through being on reality TV, normal people have been given a chance to communicate __________ through the mainstream media, no wonder celebrities were so quick to jump on the bandwagon to allow the camera follow them around documenting intimate aspects of their own every day lives- they no longer had to "work" and the control that producing one's own show gives the celebrity makes self branding faster and easier than ever before (and has allowed people other than actors and actresses to brand themselves whereas such opportunities were never available in the past).

Clearly, reality TV has somehow "overnight" established itself as the new television standard. It's cheap, easy to produce, quick to edit, and can hit the television waves in as little as 2 months. No longer do producers have to court and kiss the asses of egocentric celebrities, why deal with people who are hard to work with when you could work with someone off the street who is more entertaining in the first place, quick to please and willing to work harder for fame, incredibly cheap to work with, and above all else, GRATEFUL for the huge opportunity afforded to them from having their own 15 minutes of fame? What I also appreciate is unlike scripted dramas (although one can obviously argue that reality shows are still scripted) is that multiple seasons can be produced in a year, whereas scripted dramas take forever with just a few episodes per year; in addition we've seen so many of them that everything has already been done. So, to make a long story short, scripted dramas are no longer relevant.

What is most inspiring about reality TV is that it has just been invented- there's still so much that can be done with it! What is especially interesting is the "blurring of the lines" between fact and fiction- fake reality TV shows such as Reno 911 have already proven themselves to be a huge success, I often wonder if Reno 911 will in the end air longer than Cops, because it's such a relevant parody. We've even seen fake reality TV shows, such as 2ge+her and Drawn Together. Reality TV reflects the whole range of human emotions and creativity. Now, if you can't figure out how to make yourself look good and appeal to the opposite or same sex, you can turn on the TV and watch many of the shows deigned to make ugly people over into hotties. If you can't figure out how to make your house look visually appealing, then you can turn on the TV and watch a decorating show. If you can't figure out how to make yourself popular, you can copy any current reality TV star and apply their star making formula in your own life- just act like a bitchy desperate whore and the attention will keep on coming?

Who even gives a shit about being on TV now that the Internet is more interesting anyways? Everyone on youtube is a reality TV star, although some stars shine much brighter than others.

For many years, I have wondered to myself how far will reality TV go? Will we soon see executions on network TV, played off as entertainment, because I know I would love to see people die for real on a daily basis. How will reality TV influence sexuality? Will we soon watch all of our neighbors having sex on different channels? Will we soon be so bored, and seen everything so many times that we will start watching each other's lives on a daily basis, becoming the ultimate voyeurs of all time? I can already turn on TV and watch a girl under 12 declare that she uses drugs and is a prostitute on Maury, or I can turn on another crime show, and learn about gruesome torture and murders from around the globe. Like the Internet, reality TV is leaving modern humans with the burden of accountability, instead of watching a fictionalized drama, we are forced to deal with huge issues engendered into our culture. What makes a poverty stricken individual become a crack whore, then proudly flaunt his or her lifestyle on network TV?

Inevitably, a guy next door type like me loves reality TV because it's something that I could do with no training and still be good at it. In fact, all one needs now to become famous is pizazz, it's the one thing that can't be taught no matter how any acting classes one has under one's belt. All of a sudden that spark inside somebody, I guess some people call it a soul, is all producers need to appeal to audiences. "Talent" has had to be totally redefined. People really can and have become famous for no reason, and it doesn't seem to matter to the general population. In fact, someone like me could parler a substandard opportunity to become a huge success! Didn't Andy Warhol himself say that in the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes?