The History of Reality Television

We think of reality TV as a fairly new phenomenon, and although it has indeed being growing exponentially and slightly out of control over the past decade, the show that is widely regarded as starting it all, "An American Family", debuted on PBS back in 1973. The documentary show was intended to simply chronicle the daily lives of an everyday American family, but ended up covering the divorce of parents Bill and Pat, and the effect that the separation had on their children. Here is a video of a compilation of clips from the original show - the quality isn't great, unfortunately the series is not availably commercially - but we can still see the original premise of one of the most endearing and addictive things about reality shows that has contributed to it's ongoing popularity, which is the ability it gives us as viewers to be present in other people's lives as voyeurs.

"Cops", another documentary-style program which follows police officers on the job, is one of the longest-running American television shows ever, having debuted in 1989, and is currently in it's 21st season. The genre of the tabloid talk-show was introduced soon after, and saw the rise of TV personalities like Oprah Winfrey, and Jerry Springer and Maury Povich, whose unapologetically trashy day-time shows are still running, to tell the stories of level-headed Americans such as:

The ever-popular competition style shows first began in the early 2000s with "Survivor", "The Amazing Race", "America's Next Top Model", and "American Idol" - all of which are still on the air, "Survivor" is still garnering over ten million viewers each week. Currently one of the most popular styles of reality television is the documentary show, as seen in MTV's "Laguna Beach", "The Osbournes", and, of course the Kardashians, who currently have four shows to date focusing on their family, with more spin-offs currently in development.

Speaking of the Kardashians, (and these days, who isn't?), one of the recent outcomes of the popularity of these shows is the on-set of the "reality star", a cast member of a reality show whose only claim to fame would be their fifteen minutes in that spotlight. MTV is one of the biggest culprits behind this development, with their shows including "The Real World" - one of the most influential reality shows ever, "Teen Mom", and "Jersey Shore". "MTV’s reality actors," says Hugh Curnutt, "are in pursuit of a television-based fame that is uniquely dependent on, as well as limited by, the way they play “themselves” as if always off camera." Curnutt goes on to argue that reality shows, like almost every other genre of television, has reached a point where most of the storylines and characters have become predictable, and the once ground-breaking MTV has now descended into an endless recycling station of the same reality cast members and formulas. (Curnutt, 252-253)


(Incidentally, the New York Daily News recently did a poll to determined the most hated reality TV stars. Courtney from this season of "The Bachelor" currently tops the list, which also includes Janelle Evans from "Teen Mom", Kourtney Kardashian's boyfriend Scott Disick, and pretty much everyone featured on Bravo's "Real Housewives" shows. (http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/television/hated-reality-tv-stars-gallery-1.79084))


Today's reality television shows, the latest sub-set of a genre originally designed to showcase real-life, are widely accused of not only being predictable, but outright staged. People who buy into these shows should probably be more outraged and, but, according to a recent study, most of them don't really care that much, because "... Unlike games shows or sporting events, which can be destroyed by these revelations, reality is doing fine. Reaction is split between those who don't care and those who won't believe." (Weinman) The drama in shows like "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" is as procedural as any scripted program, and whether this is because of clever editing, just plain luck, or actually set-ups, still remains to be seen. Nevertheless, one of the most infamous moments in reality TV history was the recent finale of  "The Hills", which followed "Laguna Beach" alum Lauren Conrad and her friends living in L.A, and was heavily criticized for being scripted and trying to fool their audience. In the final moments of the series finale, MTV shockingly left the truth behind one of it's most popular reality shows up for interpretation as to whether or not it was ever real at all:

So, here we are in 2012, almost forty years since "An American Family" started the trend of reality TV shows, with people shoving scorpions down their throats for money on "Fear Factor", everybody from chefs, fashion designers, and aspiring singers competing for life-changing prizes (see "Top Chef", "Project Runway", and "The X Factor", respectively) and shows like "Hoarders" and "My Strange Addiction" turning the camera on the weird habits of some very questionable people. While the first shows of the genre were not yet self-aware enough to do anything other than document their subjects, these days the phenomenon of reality television has reached an astronomical level of popularity, and the biggest question is: Is there still any reality left in these shows at all?