Reality Bites Part II: The Blame Game
Looks like the Japanese version of Man vs Wild
Last week I started a post involving the saturation of reality TV shows, and chronicled the pioneers in this field - hidden camera shows. Today I will touch on another area of reality programming; this sort of show is arguably the most successful and widespread throughout the years, reality game shows.
One of the original shows presented in this style was Truth or Consequences, which began airing in 1950 on CBS and then later on NBC. The first modern reality game show in the U.S. would gain popularity almost fifty years later, when Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? made its debut. This quiz-based show capitalized on a topic that interests most everyone ($$money$$), and actually required a contestant to be knowledgeable in certain areas if they hoped to win the ultimate prize. After this show made its mark on American culture, the central ideas from the show were copied; but new twists were added in hopes of increasing the entertainment value for the viewer at home. This change in philosophy led to shows that resemble a bad Lord of the Flies knockoff, and the reality playoff series was spawned.
Enter shows with names like: The Amazing Race, The Mole, Big Brother, Shipwrecked, Boot Camp, Celebrity Boot Camp, Lost (not the good one), Endurance, Dog Eat Dog, I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!, Beg, Borrow & Deal, Murder in Small Town X, Mad Mad House, Survivor, and numerous others. Most of these titles don’t exactly solicit a warm, fuzzy feeling when you see or hear the titles – but that is about the only thing these shows have in common with reality. Take Survivor for example, I admit the name intrigued me when I first heard about it. Although I did have visions of Schwarzenegger in Running Man, the show is more like Gilligan’s Island with “challenges” ripped from lumberjack competitions. You can find more drama by watching BBC news for an hour, and the content is about as real as it gets. I have a plot twist for the next season of Survivor, and it would definitely make for some water cooler conversation; blindfold the contestants, then drop them off at a village in a 3rd world country dressed like this:
Over the last few years, the traditional game show has made a bit of a comeback. This is largely due to a rise in the popularity of shows like Deal or No Deal–which is one of the first games shows that requires no skill or talent whatsoever. But programs like Moment of Truth will continue to troll the depths of human depravity, and provide us with a front row seat:
