The Reality of Reality TV

Okay, we all know in our heart-of-hearts that there is something screwy with Reality TV. Many questions have arisen regarding people in past shows not being who they are described as being. And just why do so many actor-wannabe's get on the shows, etc. Not to mention the fact that all survivor-type shows feature strong Type-A's. There hasn't been a single reasonable person on the show.

More recently, the big reality shows revolve around talent searches: X-factor, Come dancing, and others. The key to this model is that we the public get to spend our hard-earned money to vote for who we want (just imagine how much money that could be! If 100,000 people call in to vote, that's $100,000 made per episode, excluding advertising!). For such a model to work, and not to lose face, the public's vote has to count, their decision has to matter. But, even ignoring the fact that they don't reveal the number of votes for each person and that the last two have to 'sing off', regardless of their vote differential (at least in the UK), does it?

Here in England there have recently been two cases that question the validity of the vote and the public's importance to the network. First was an X-factor show where a singer favoured as one of the top two was voted off seventh. This sparked a petition of 21,000 names to get her reinstated (in vain).

The second case was far more blatant. On Strictly Come Dancing, the public was, for whatever reason, in love with a guy who simply couldn't dance. Week after week they voted him back despite the judges' very harsh criticism (judges, I might add, that have no real role in the show except as targets for the public scorn). Finally, the guy quits the show! It might be what the judges wanted, but it was not what the paying voters wanted! Clearly someone, somewhere in TV land is taking themselves too seriously and the public not seriously enough.

Now, personally I don't care, I don't like dancing and I would definitely never watch a dancing show. However, the principle of this really bothers me. The fact that the networks have a show where people can vote in to get what they want, and then the network decides to tell the people what they should want or what the show should be! You can't have your cake (or cash cow) and eat it too! You have a show run by the people, you have to listen to the people. It shows you just how much they really think we're mindless ants, doing whatever they tell us.