Over the years, I have been an on and off watcher of, among others,
The Real World,
American Idol,
The Bachelor, and
Dancing With the Stars. Aw hell, I'm even guilty of watching crap like
Temptation Island,
Beauty and the Geek, and
Scott Baio is 45 and Single. But things have gotten out of hand…
It was past 12 AM, the very early morning hours of a Sunday morning, and I was up late doing chores around the house.
SNL was a repeat so I flipped through the channels and soon settled for what was on the E channel. It was
The Girls Next Door. Now I don’t watch this show, but I was planning on going to bed in about a half an hour anyway, so I figured I’d just leave it on, finish my chores and hit the sack.
As it turns out, this particular episode of
TGND provided a snapshot that nicely underscored the first of the fundamental problems with reality TV.
So the show starts and Kendra comes to the Playboy mansion and tells Hugh Hefner (who's looking more and more like a feeble baby bird every day) that she wants to start a softball league. Hef finishes off his can of Ensure and then agrees to bankroll this thing -- so Kendra sets about recruiting players (mostly other Playmates), procuring uniforms and otherwise organizing the game. Now admittedly, watching Kendra sit in an office applying every bit of her brain power towards assembling a team (“Let’s see, we need a pitcher… first baseman… second baseman… umm… third baseman...") was beyond hilarious, but as I continued watching, I thought, “This… right here, is what’s wrong with reality television.” Let me explain:
It indulges and rewards the undeserving.
From what I can tell, the whole point of
The Girls Next Door is to document the lives of the young ladies that Hefner (who has gone from a trailblazing hero of the publishing world, to sad fop and punchline to endless Viagra jokes) has chosen to house, clothe, and otherwise support in luxury, simply for being naked in the pages of his magazine, and in some cases, in private as well (or so they would have us believe.)
But what have Kendra, Bridget, Holly, the Kardashians, or any of these people done to deserve this type of indulgence? They, like many reality TV personalities are largely unskilled and unaccustomed to working for what they want in life. Yet they all rather easily go on to gain careers as singers, actors and actresses, TV hosts, or business entrepreneurs. Worse still, all too often they're able to maintain and grow their fame simply because they’re on TV.
Would Elizabeth Hasselbeck, for example, be a fixture on a successful morning show (
The View) had she not been the cute girl on
Survivor 2? And would someone as young and inexperienced as
The Hills star Lauren Conrad EVER have been given the kind of job opportunities she’s been given (and have her own clothing at the age of 23) had she not been a reality show star?
The answer in both cases is a resounding no. But reality show producers believe for some reason that because we rooted for Hasselbeck on Survivor, we'd naturally want to see her every morning and hear her ridiculous "Obama is a socialist", "Liberals control the media" right-wing opinions.
Perhaps these same producers also believe that without the leg up (jobs, apartments, connections) that they provided to Conrad, watching her try to make an honest go of it in the fashion world would be too long, drawn out and boring of a process. So instead of letting their subject sink or swim on their own, "reality" shows too often offer these life-altering short cuts and free passes to people that haven’t done anything other than be lucky enough to be featured on a dopey TV show.
And I’m not talking about people on Top Chef or the contestants on American Idol. Idol, as played out as it is, retains some legitimacy because it's a completely open competition that rewards talented kids when they might otherwise go a lifetime living in anonymity. What that show’s done for Kelly Clarkson, Clay Aiken, Carrie Underwood, and the rest has been tremendous, but those people (to some degree) EARNED what they got. They have a definable and clear-cut talent (singing) that few others could ever hope to have. But has the aforementioned Conrad or her cohorts Heidi and Whitney?... I'm sorry, there’s just no way Heidi would ever have a singing career (or even be allowed anywhere near the microphone on your local bar's karaoke night) based on her own merit. More recently, Whitney was set up in New York with her own series, The City, and a dream job working for Diane Von Furstenberg -- which makes me feel for every fashion student that’s going to school, working an unpaid internship and/or holding down a part-time job to pay their tuition.)
What have any of these people done to deserve the breaks they’ve gotten and the lives they're living?
And still we all continue to invest in this. Reality show producers, and all of us who watch these shows and others like it, are the ones making it possible. So Kendra, who doesn’t seem to have the brains to organize a spirited game of “Duck, Duck, Goose”, gets the green light, funding, assistance (and assistants) she needs to make the softball game happen. It’s symptomatic of many of the reality shows we see today.
Kourtney & Khloe Take Miami and the
Run's House spinoff
Daddy's Girls, for example, both star people with no appreciable talent or ability, and assume that viewers will want to watch as they’re given keys to the kingdom, i.e., all the resources they need to painlessly start their own businesses and otherwise pursue their every whim, whether it be opening a clothing store, hosting a radio show or pursuing an acting career.
Why are we humoring these people? Watching a "reality" show where someone is basically living a charmed life where everything is handed to them on a silver platter is neither fun, interesting or "real". Yet for every Project Runway or So You Think You Can Dance that shines a spotlight on the earnest and their bona fide efforts towards achievement and recognition, there are ten Brooke Know Best's that feature the frivolous and self-serving exploits of the under-qualified, over-privileged, and marginally talented.
Even worse than these are the shows predicated on the fact that viewers will tune in to see individuals with nothing more to offer than their loathsome personalities and outrageous behavior.
Which brings me to the second thing wrong with reality TV…
Related Posts:
Reality Used To Be A Friend Of Mine: The Problem With Reality TV - Part II
