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Television for the New Millennium

A It is a trend that has spread across the globe: from Argentina to Sweden, South Africa to Brazil, Poland to the United States. The list goes on. No, it's not tattooing, extreme sports, or low-rider jeans. It's reality TV. Every week, viewers tune in to programs such as "Big Brother, " "Survivor, " and "Temptation Island" to watch real people eat, sleep, argue, make up, and so on—all on camera. In Spain alone, 30 million people have seen "Gran Hermano," the Spanish "Big Brother"—no small feat for a country of just 40 million. What makes reality TV so popular? Some argue that it's just good entertainment. Contestants on some shows can win up to a million dollars, and to many people that is interesting in itself. But others argue that reality TV appeals to the voyeur in all of us. Humans are naturally curious—they like peeking at other peoples' lives. Like popular talk shows, reality TV gives us the opportunity to indulge that tendency to the extreme.

B It is exactly this voyeuristic aspect that makes reality TV controversial. Reality television has raised a lot of questions about the ethics of 24-hour surveillance of human activity. Some say that it violates human rights. In France, for instance, "Loft Story" (the French version of "Big Brother") has been a runaway hit. In the program, a group of 20-somethings live together in a loft under 24-hour surveillance. The goal of the show is to find a partner and win the house. One by one contestants are voted out of the house by their fellow contestants and viewers until only two remain. The winning couple continues living together for six more months (watched by 26 cameras) before they can claim their prize. It sounds benign enough, yet protesters demonstrated against the show, trying to pull it off the air. They held up signs reading "Criminal TV" and "With trash TV the people turn into idiots." Others objected to the program's explicit sexual content. Eventually, the Conseil Superieur de l'Audiovisuel (CSA), the French broadcasting supervisory body, ruled that contestants must be allowed two hours of privacy per day out of respect for their "human dignity." Similar complaints were made by Portugal's media watchdog about the reality series "O bar Da TV" for broadcasting sexual scenes without prior warning. Yet all of the controversy surrounding reality TV has not diminished its success. On the contrary, it has spurred more curiosity, attracting even more viewers. Television executives are most likely happy about all of the media attention their shows are receiving.

C Where does the reality TV phenomenon come from? According to Endemol, the company that produces the series "Big Brother," "'Big Brother' has…helped create a genre: 'reality television.'" But reality TV is not exactly a new phenomenon. Its roots can be traced back to the 70s and 80s. First came the public television documentary "An American Family," in which the Loud family opened up its home for seven months to a TV producer. The final episodes aired many intimate moments, including the breakup of the Louds’ marriage. Then came the MTV series "The Real World," in which total strangers lived together in a cool apartment while their everyday lives were filmed and broadcast. Sound familiar? Although it was not a game show, like "Survivor" or "Big Brother," and participants didn't win a prize, over 35,000 tried out for their shot at television fame. "The Real World" and its spin-off, "Road Rules," are still popular programs today.

D Reality TV is so popular that the networks are not the only ones profiting from its power. Even the US Army has gotten in on the action with their Web series "Basic Training." The series follows the lives of six army recruits as they go from "civilian to soldier." The Army hopes that the reality TV buzz will help them attract new recruits. But viewers need to ask themselves an important question. How real is reality TV? After all, the situations are contrived, and most programs only show a few hours of what really goes on. How real is something that has been cut, edited, and manipulated? What makes reality programs different from scripted sitcoms? Unless you are watching the Webcams 24 hours a day, you can't be sure that they aren’t.

Getting the Main Ideas

Write T on the lines before the statements that are true, according to the reading. Write F on the lines before the statements that are false.


1		Reality TV has been popular since the 1970s.


2		Reality TV is probably popular because people are naturally curious about each other's lives.


3		Reality TV is controversial.


4		The controversy surrounding reality TV has made it lose popularity.


5		"Big Brother" is the first reality series to be broadcast on TV.


6		The author thinks that reality TV realistically portrays everyday life.

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