[img_inline caption="I care so friggin' much!" align=right]http://img2.timeinc.net/ew/covergallery/img/2004/may212004_766_lg.jpg[/img_inline]Ok. I'm pretty sure that some of you will actually like - maybe even love - reality TV. As with my last rant, it's probably best of you skip to the last paragraph.
The dominating forces on TV right now are reality-based. "Big Brother", "The X Factor", "The Family"... Each one of these is reality TV shows, and each of them is advertised into oblivion. They are cheap to make, and rake in the money for the broadcasters. However, the broadcasters are the only people that benefit from this. The average person watching TV now has a limited viewing pool every evening.
Paradoxically, the shows that try to show normal people in everyday situations end up creating celebrities. We all know them - the people that are famous for being famous. From no personal merit or achievement, they are catapulted into stardom and make a huge living from the interviews and advertising contracts that they did nothing to deserve except for shouting on TV in Estuary English.
With "The X Factor" or "American Idol" or any other national version of the same dry show, you can place money on the winner having the Christmas No. 1 and collect your winnings. Many of the winners have one song as then fade into obscurity as soon as people realise that they only bought the song to justify all the money they spent on voting to keep them on their screens. Case in point: Will Young. He won "Pop Idol" and had a couple of hits, and now it is quite a surprise when people even remember who he is.
My defining memory of how hyped up people get over such pointless issues such as reality shows is when I walked through my local town and saw a newspaper stand in my village shop. The headlines on the broadsheet were all about the economic crisis, the trouble in the Middle East, or Labour's leadership woes. On the front page of the Sun, I was presented with the wondrous headline telling me that the final 12 of the X Factor had been revealed. "World Exclusive," the headline read. Well, the reason for that is probably because nobody else cares about such menial stories - except, of course, the other redtops.
So, I'm going to leave you with this. Do you think Reality TV is a waste of time and space, or is it an interesting and original genre? Please explain the reasons behind your opinion.
I can safely assume that one or two of you will remember those days a long time ago where reality TV was actually good. You were able to empathise with and care about the subjects of the programmes, and the shows all had their own new and inventive formulae. But now, the pool has become as stagnant as the metaphorical cesspit that a disheartening proportion of the rest of television.
The dominating forces on TV right now are reality-based. "Big Brother", "The X Factor", "The Family"... Each one of these is reality TV shows, and each of them is advertised into oblivion. They are cheap to make, and rake in the money for the broadcasters. However, the broadcasters are the only people that benefit from this. The average person watching TV now has a limited viewing pool every evening.
Paradoxically, the shows that try to show normal people in everyday situations end up creating celebrities. We all know them - the people that are famous for being famous. From no personal merit or achievement, they are catapulted into stardom and make a huge living from the interviews and advertising contracts that they did nothing to deserve except for shouting on TV in Estuary English.
With "The X Factor" or "American Idol" or any other national version of the same dry show, you can place money on the winner having the Christmas No. 1 and collect your winnings. Many of the winners have one song as then fade into obscurity as soon as people realise that they only bought the song to justify all the money they spent on voting to keep them on their screens. Case in point: Will Young. He won "Pop Idol" and had a couple of hits, and now it is quite a surprise when people even remember who he is.
My defining memory of how hyped up people get over such pointless issues such as reality shows is when I walked through my local town and saw a newspaper stand in my village shop. The headlines on the broadsheet were all about the economic crisis, the trouble in the Middle East, or Labour's leadership woes. On the front page of the Sun, I was presented with the wondrous headline telling me that the final 12 of the X Factor had been revealed. "World Exclusive," the headline read. Well, the reason for that is probably because nobody else cares about such menial stories - except, of course, the other redtops.
So, I'm going to leave you with this. Do you think Reality TV is a waste of time and space, or is it an interesting and original genre? Please explain the reasons behind your opinion.
