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The Reality behind Reality TV
“Reality TV” is a term that many of us are familiar with as such programmes have become a mainstay of
today’s TV viewing culture. Reality shows like “Survivor”, “Amazing Race”, “The Bachelor”, “Living with
the Kardashians” just to name a few, have captured the imagination and attention of regular TV-viewing
folks.
These shows usually feature contestants pitting their skills against one another, racing against time to win
the grand prize or giving audiences a glimpse into their private lives. While there are many variations, the
key concept of reality TV revolves around the idea of documenting actual events in unscripted situations
featuring ordinary people like you and me.
Watch closely, and one will realize that, like any scripted programme, these shows emphasize action,
personal drama and conflicts, and seemingly thrive on revealing the ugly side of humanity. We watch
contestants cheat and lie to win, or plot against another team member. We watch them humiliate
themselves or ham it up for the camera. We perk up and snigger when judges of reality TV shows make
barbed and acerbic comments, designed to bring tears to contestants.
But how often do we question the reality behind reality television? Just because contestants and
participants are filmed “in the act” – does it mean reality TV is real?
The Harsh Reality
Shows are produced by broadcasting companies for the purpose of entertaining their audiences and
improving their ratings. These broadcasters want high ratings or viewership which will mean more
advertising revenues and profits.
Reality shows are typically a winning formula because they are relatively cheap to make. There is no need
to engage expensive actors or actresses or pay for script-writers. Reality is their set, and production costs
are lower than making a drama. There is also a somewhat assured audience as fans, friends and relatives
of contestants can be counted on to watch.
And why the huge emphasis on drama and conflict in reality TV? The answer is simple – people want
entertaining, juicy and interesting storylines. No one wants to watch someone else’s boring and seemingly
normal life. As audiences, we thrive on drama or on voyeurism, or just to see someone get thrashed.
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Production Realities
In reality, reality TV counts on the many production and post production techniques to deliver the
“reality” one sees on TV.
In an ABC produced reality show called “The Dating Experiment”, one of the female contestants was not
happy about the partner she was paired up with. But because the show mainly revolved around romance,
the producers thought it would be better to portray their relationship in a favourable light.
The female contestant was interviewed and was asked “who’s your favourite celebrity?” She replied that
she really loved Adam Sandler. That sound bite was then extracted later during editing and Adam
Sandler’s name was cut out and replaced by an audio of her saying her partner’s name.
This technique, known as frakenbiting, is commonly used during post production of reality shows.
Frakenbiting is popularly used by editors to inject more drama into a programme. They do this by
rearranging the sequence of events and dialogue through either running a piece of audio out of context,
or by stringing selected words and sentences together. Dialogues are then accompanied with video cuts
to make the portrayal even more realistic and believable for the viewers.
There are of course other methods of manipulating footage besides frakenbiting to shape a story.
On ‘Blind Date’, editors would arrange the scenes out of context to make it more interesting. To portray a
man bored on his date, they would add a shot of him looking around uninterested, when in fact, he was
filmed while he was waiting for his date who was in the restroom at the time.
In addition to this, producers have also confessed to preparing plot points and feeding contestants lines
that they wanted to use.
Discerning “Reality”
According to TV critic Ray Richmond, “Reality shows shoot many more hours of footage than what can be
shown in a 30-mintute or 60-minute program, so that editors can splice together selected footage in
order to tell a certain story…, altering sequences and the course of events and contextual elements to
weave together a story that’s radically different from what went down.” 1
Knowing all this, how real do you think reality shows are now?
It’s not wrong to enjoy watching reality shows but we must be able to discern between fact and fiction,
understand the motivations behind producing reality shows and ultimately know that these shows go
through rigorous editing before being aired on television.
1
Ventre, Michael.
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Sources:
Poniewozik, J. (2006). How Reality TV Fakes It. Retrieved from:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1154194-1,00.html
McKay, H. (2013). Reality Bites: Is the ‘reality’ TV genre falling apart? Retrieved from:
http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2013/02/05/reality-bites-is-reality-tv-genre-falling-apart/
Ventre, Michael. “Just How Real are Reality TV Shows?” NBC- San Diego (8 Apr 2009). 4 Oct 2009.
http://www.nbcsandiego.com/around-town/archive/Just_how_real_are_reality_TV_shows_.html
Booth, W. (2004). Reality Is Only an Illusion, Writers Say. Retrieved from:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53032-2004Aug9.html
Squires, Catherine. “Race and Reality TV: Tryin’ to Make It Real— but Real Compared to
What?” Critical Studies in Media Communication 25.4 (Oct 2008): pgs 434-440. 4 Oct 2009.
http://pdfserve.informaworld.com/399724_731199540_902170803.pdf.
Booth, William. “Reality Is Only An Illusion, Writers Say: Hollywood Scribes Want a Cut Of
Not-So-Unscripted Series.” Washington Post (10 Aug 2004). 4 Oct 2009.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53032-2004Aug9.html
Harry, Joseph C. “Cheaters: ‘Real’ Reality Television as Melodramatic Parody.” Journal
of Communication Inquiry 32.3 (July 2008): pgs 230-246. 4 Oct 2009.
http://jci.sagepub.com/content/vol32/issue3/
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