If your line says anything about the face of reality TELEVISION, you will find none better than the words associated with Mark Burnett which says; "There's nothing like biting off a lot more than you can chew, and then chewing anyway. " He's a pioneer in reality TV; if the type of success attained by the shows he has made are anything to put into practice!
After watching all your favorite reality shows one following the other, you might just ask what type of reality show has got the upper hand. From The Apprentice to the Masterchef sequence, Extreme Makeover to The Biggest Loser, each comes using its own portrayal of man's behavior. Inspired or determined, passive-aggressive or simply plain bitchy, all the contestants go through whatever torture devices that the show producers can develop. And we get to see it all, from the comfort in our sofas and behind our TV dinners! If you view it with optimism, watching TV has never been better!
The very best in Reality TV
Let's take a look at the biggest grossing reality TV shows in the last decade and review the changing trends that took location.
Competitions
Whatever the challenge may be, whatever obstacles might stand in one's way, the sense of achievement once you win each round is exhilarating. Viewers love to watch people battle one another to gain the coveted final prize. Whether it's a cooking contest like Hell's Kitchen or an endurance competition such as the Amazing Race, a viewer will generally pick his/her favorite and root on their behalf till the end. It's the positive result after an episode full of trials and tribulations that keeps the viewer hooked. Survivor: Borneo acquired a record 18 million viewers on its second 7 days on air. Shows like The Bachelor and Temptation Island present another reality fueled by wealth and looks, while shows such as the Biggest Loser aim for the compassion of the group, as the contestants lose weight and pour their hearts on TV.
Reality Shows on Music and Dance
Shows like American Idol which means you Think You Can Dance amass a large portion associated with TV ratings. They are, in essence, one of the best chances for aspiring artists to get at the top, which is what makes these shows therefore loved. Shows like these usually start off on rating less than they started on, as more and more viewers gather to determine who wins the show towards the end. They also make use of a public voting system to increase viewer interactions and maintain them at watching the show.
Science-based Reality
Face this. No matter how simple some things can be, laboratory coats, safety glasses and special cameras can make all of them look spectacular! Time Warp is such a show that uses top quality equipment to capture things in super slow motion. Mythbusters comes after tales, both old and new, and establish them because true, false or plausible.
Cooking Shows
This is a segment dominated by Television shows like Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations and Nigella's Kitchen. What mostly keeps the viewers latched may be the preparation and presentation of the food. As obviously the actual viewer can't taste it, care is taken to ensure the very best presentation pattern of food. It also revolves around global cuisines that many viewers may not actually get to taste, but generate a pursuit and liking for.
Celebrity Lives
Everyone wants a check out the personal lives of their favorite celebrities. For Paris Hilton, The easy Life generated quite the ratings at first. So do The Flavor of Love, where they tried to look for a suitable match for Flava Flav. You also got to determine the celebrities in shows that capitalize on them, terming their own show as 'the celebrity version', where average Joes tend to be replaced by well-known faces.
Uncommon/Popular Social Lives
This type of show uses a rather unconventional method (when it may find one) and gives the viewer a glimpse of people or families that are unusual. The prime example of this was the once successful (later became disastrous and finally shut down) John and Kate Plus 8, the couple with twins along with a sextuplet. You got to see how they tried to handle regular life while trying to feed 8 kids. Another example will be Jersey Shore, which involves the social lives of 8 individuals in Jersey.
The Shows With the Edge
Taking each one of these shows into consideration, what would you think, is the largest selling point of reality TV shows today? The solution - they play on human emotions; namely, the feeling of success and also the consequences of rage.
Positive Emotions
Compassion and determination would be the best ways to dominate ratings. Shows like Extreme Remodeling: Home Edition keep you glued to the TV by attempting to gain sympathy towards the participants. The human ability to concentrate and surmount against the odds is also a popular feeling so you can get ratings. The key to these positive emotions is which, to portray their significance, there needs to be a copious quantity of negativity, like what the participants have already been through till now or what they will go through ahead.
Negative Emotions
Fighting, revenge, stereotypical jokes and foul mouthing appear to gather audiences as well. They may end up being the kind of shows that you 'love to hate'. Jersey Shore is one of these. Hell's Kitchen incorporates Gordon Ramsay's ever-increasing anger against the actual contestants. The Apprentice shows the dog-eat-dog ways of the organization world.
Love them or hate them, reality shows have been around for the past decade and will still persist. Whether the shows are ethical or not, can be organized for debate, but it won't change the ratings through much. The main reason as to why someone will watch a real possibility show is the attraction to the morality and status of the contestants and a chance to fantasize themselves in the contestant's shoes. Reality shows are a way for the common man to believe that there can actually be a method to become famous one day. The show that can do all this, gains the ultimate upper hand.