Reali-TV

Our discussion yesterday reminded me about several things I have been reading about recently. A couple years ago (maybe 2006, 2007?), when reality TV shows were truly at their heyday, I don't think the public was as aware of the false reality created by these "reality" situations. During those years, there was everything from Laguna Beach (& its spin-off The Hills), Flavor of Love, Survivor, and so on, and people from these shows ended up becoming pseudo-celebrities in their own right during the airing of the shows (particularly Laguna Beach). I really don't think there was such a public realization of how fake these reality shows are until recent years. While I think most people had some idea that editing is involved in heightening drama and emphasizing subjects' personality traits, in more recent years there has been an increased awareness of how scripted and manipulated these shows are. Two years ago after the end of The Hills, star Kristen Cavallari gave an interview in which she explains the show is fake. Around that time (from what I remember) the attack on reality shows began, with the most recent accusations of parts of Kim Kardashian's shows to be fake. I think this new awareness and suspicion of reality shows has lead to the new breed of reality TV we're currently seeing: dozens of Food Network cooking shows, Swamp People, Whale Wars, Storage Wars, and so on, that are close to the formula of reality TV we're all so used to but different enough that viewers are more accepting of them.