Reality Television Take Over

Strangers with camera equipment and lights strewed around a house standing by for ever waking hour of every day just waiting to capture a person’s every move on film just to entertain the public. The concept of watching this is making reality television one of today’s biggest trends in the history of television. Reality television is taking over the sitcom era and has entertainment values that are appealing to audiences of all ages, where as sitcoms do not offer as much variety with their programs. For instance there is a show called “Super Nanny” and it is a show about families who seek help in getting their out of control children under control. The show reaches out to families in need of the services of a nanny’s help, while it also offers support and tips to families with similar problems viewing the show each week. Reality television is relatable to people’s own lives. Where as sitcoms have life problems that are simply solved in an unrealistic thirty minutes, although it is entertaining it is not as relatable or as personal as watching real people deal with real situations. Although sitcoms have been a tradition in the history of television, they have become predictable, where as reality television is a new fresh idea, which challenges the traditional sitcoms and creates new kinds of entertainment to its wide fan base. The traditions of sitcoms are limited to producing shows that involve censorship, appropriate behaviors, and has every move and line already planned out for the actors to perform. Reality television brings spontaneity to its audience, with allowing people to be their selves in front of camera and not pretending to be someone else.

Reality television comes in all forms from dating shows, to competitions and to just seeing what things are like for someone in their every day life. A reality show that is featured on MTV called “The Hills” is one of those reality shows that follow a group of four girls around in their daily and night lives. The star of “The Hills” is Lauren Conrad, a twenty one year old who moved out to Los Angeles, California, to start a career in fashion and to get out of a smaller part of California called “Laguna Beach.” It was her time on “Laguna Beach” that made Lauren Conrad a reality television star. “The Hills” is not only well known for being a long running hit television show, it also displays Lauren, and her three friends that are featured on the show: Heidi, Audrina and Whitney, who are always dressed in the latest fashion trends, carrying designer bags using popular technology like the I phone and the Black Berry phones when it comes to their night life it is an thing but ordinary because of the show’s recognition. The girls are let into all of Los Angeles’s top night clubs like Les Duex a night club that features top Hollywood celebrities on a regular basis like Paris Hilton.

“The Hills” is a show that targets a younger audience and has a huge entertainment value for drama. The girls always seem to get involved with problem oriented guys and that usually tends to cause tension between the girls and the camera’s of MTV are right there, so the audience does not miss a moment. The show has recently encountered a lot of controversy with people accusing the show of not being true reality and being scripted instead. The cast and the producers of the show deny these accusations, but do admit to some editing because with out some editing and embellishing, the entertainment value would drop.

People tend to argue the fact that making reality television shows are a way of producing entertainment to it’ viewers, while keeping a low budget; however, keep a low budget can sacrifice the quality of the television program. Hit shows like “Lost and “Desperate Housewives” are two long running series that require a much higher budget due to the fact that it has writers, producers and actors, but sacrifices nothing to it’s audience. With sitcoms having entire teams backing the show, there is a higher success rate that the show will keep delivering, what is expected from it each week. With each show having writer’s writing the scripts it is acceptable to assume that there will be a twist in the plot, a dramatic new discovery or an unbelievable break up scene. As with reality television show like “The Hills” it is not implied that every week something interesting or amazing is going to happen. It may be an entire half an hour of Lauren coming to and from work and school and it also is impossible to be a ten season series like most sitcoms turn out to be because reality television stars as they get older tend move on with their lives and they get tired of being constantly filmed. The entertainment value of the show relies on something dramatic happening in her life, since it does not have writers to create something for the show.

Reality television could potentially put talented wonderful actors and actresses out of work and average people could be taking over their jobs because having a reality television show does not require any professional acting abilities or experience. So why are people more drawn to reality television then sitcoms? A story titled “The Unreal World” by Jennifer L. Pozner says it best with this quote talking about why viewers are drawn to reality television like they are. “Viewers may be drawn to reality TV by a sort of cinematic schadenfreude, but they continue to tune in because the shows frame their narratives in ways that both reflect and reinforce deeply ingrained societal biases about women, men, love beauty, class and race” (Pozner 443). The quote sums up the fact that reality television plays into stereotypes of society and portraying women as being only beautiful, skinny, and living glamorous life styles but furthermore they also film twenty four hours a day and they do capture what people look like with out makeup and air brushing affects. Being made up all the time is impossible in reality television as where as sitcom actors always look their best in every scene.

Reality Television is not afraid to challenge traditional television in the way that it recruits participants who will do anything for television exposure. People will go to the extreme to win a date with someone, become a top model or completely modify their appearance. It is that kind of television exposure that people like to watch. It used to be tradition to come home and watch a whole some family program like “Full House” that only put out positive life messages, but now traditions have changed and people find curiosity in such shows like “America’s Next Top Model.” People tune in each week to see what extremes the girls will go to become a top model and how far they can be pushed before they become eliminated. The show stereotypes woman as being tall and very skinny and viewers may not see that has a positive body image, but will still watch. It also changes television tradition from way back to the era of black and white television, where the cameras were not even allowed to show a toilet on television and people were not dressed revealing or taking part in inappropriate sexual scenarios. With reality television it shows everything including people using the bathroom and it lacks boundaries. There is not a whole lot a reality television camera crew would not film. The new traditions in television have leaned to the reality way instead of the sitcoms for the simple fact that it is more entertaining to view a real person in a real situation then a fictional character.

In the future years to come for television it may be the viewers will prefer reality television over sitcoms or other scripted shows because of new reality television shows are being born each week, where as written shows are only appearing every so often usually during the fall season. There is something more intriguing that lies within the realness of reality television then with the fictional story line of written television series. Reality television shows like “The Hills” challenges traditions of television by offering new kinds of entertainment. The stars of the show are not afraid to put it all out there for people to view, and they hold nothing back by allowing people to know that it does not matter who a person is or what a person looks like because there will always be career mistakes, break ups, feuds with friends and people can relate to these young girls with problems in their own lives. With sitcoms people know that someone may have a fight with a friend on television, but they will go home and resume their regular lives, but as for Lauren, if she fights with a friend not only is it televised, but it’s broadcasted all over the internet and it shows up on every cover of every gossip magazine. That may not happen to everyone that has a fight with a friend, but it shows how her feeling were truly hurt and how everything around her becomes a constant reminder of that friend and that makes it harder to move on. Reality television shows the aspect of real lives in the way people react to situations, in dating, competitions or just in their regular lives and holds nothing back from its viewers and that has shown to be more popular with audiences of all ages and makes reality television here to stay.