Reality TV and Love
Writers: Tom McBride, Jordan Mills,
Billy Mercer, Andrew Lorenzoni,
Allison Mayer, and Jessica Myers.
Editor: Tom McBride
Design: Jordan Mills
It seems
that you can’t turn on a television set anymore without a reality show being
on. All networks have recently started
to pump out reality shows left and right.
And why wouldn’t they? Reality
shows are highly rated, with three of them being in the top ten on the Nielsen
ratings chart. In fact, these shows are
becoming more popular than the sitcoms and dramas aired. New sitcoms and dramas struggle to get
attention of the public when going against a reality show. Programs such as The Beast and Go Fish, which
critics loved and raved about, are victims of the wrath of reality shows. These shows are now cancelled.
What
makes these shows so popular? They
bring out a certain attribute of a person and focus on it. The public loves this and cannot get enough
of it. One attribute is
competitiveness, in which people are competing for a prize. Situations can get intense an emotions
flare, much to the love of the viewer.
However, the attribute that started it all is love. People love it when they see two people fall
in love, and the ratings for these shows prove it. People also love to see drama and conflict, and what better
element than love. An amorous
relationship is a perfect example of the drama and conflict/resolution that
viewers want to see. Using this attribute goes all the way back to 1965 when
ABC aired The Dating Game, a surprise hit at the time. The concept was as simple as it can
get. A woman would ask three men
questions from behind a wall. The men
would answer. The girl picks one to go
on a date with. The show was simple,
yet loved by many.
Reality
shows have since become a bit more complicated. Twist and turns have been added in to long, drawn out processes
of finding a significant other.
Networks keep on trying to add more creativity to all of their shows,
still while incorporating the theme of love into them. Different shows use different techniques
such as using factors like money or material wealth; all which have proved to
be successes for them in the ratings.
Love is used in many different ways to please the people and to get
ratings.
False Image of Love
William Mercer
Reality shows strive to create relationships and keep viewers attention by interesting or shocking them. The relationships are not however, natural relationships. One example of an unnatural relationship development in reality TV would be Fox’s “Married by America”. In this show, people who have just met get engaged in hopes that in just a few weeks, the couple will marry. In most cases, people date for a period of time before being engaged and people usually do not marry as quickly as the couples do in the show. There is also more relationship development. Other examples would be marrying someone for their money, such as CBS’s “Cupid” or NBC’s “For Love or Money”. The shows both deal with someone marrying someone for money rather than for Love. Marrying someone just for money is unnatural; people usually marry someone for love and not just for their money. Reality shows say they are promoting healthy and normal relationships. The shows say they are not trying to sensationalize relationships or twist the story. The shows claim they do not edit the show, and that it’s all real and it’s showing exactly what the couples do. It is not natural to have a contest to date someone or marry someone. It is also not natural to just meet someone and get engaged and to marry someone in just a few weeks. That’s why reality shows do not promote natural relationships.
The Dating Aspect of “The
Bachelor”
Allison Mayer
“The Bachelor” is a reality
television dating show that started in 2002, airing on ABC. Ever since its
first debut, it became a huge smash that America couldn’t get enough of. The
show is currently on its fifth season, with plans to have many more for the
future. “The Bachelor” is ABC’s top-rated show dragging in nearly 13.1 million
views per show.
The show is based around one attractive, wealthy, and single man who is
given the title of “America’s most eligible bachelor” and 25 beautiful women
who are all in search of finding true love. Within the first night the bachelor
must try to get to know these women fast because by the end of the night there
will be a rose ceremony where he must ask 15 of the women to stay and 10 women
to leave. With the remaining women left, the bachelor now has a little more
time to get to know the women through group dates and sometimes a one on one
date. The show goes on in the fashion of dates and rose ceremony’s until there
is one woman. The woman who the bachelor desires is then asked to marry him and
continue on the “journey” with him.
This show is obviously not realistic in terms of actually finding true
love and a real relationship. The dating on this show is not truly about
getting to know one another; it is simply about competing to win one man’s
heart on a game show. However, there has been one success story from all the
shows with Trista and Ryan who got married and seems to now be living a happy
and normal life. “The Bachelor” will always be a hit because people yearn to
see true love and to see something that will distract them from their own
lives.
Little Groom Finds Love
Tom McBride
Finding love on reality shows has proven to be very
successful for TV stations’ ratings.
Networks have been trying harder and harder to find new ways to create
love for television. One show however,
went to a new demographic to try and create love. February 16th, 2004, FOX aired “The Littlest Groom”, a
show which tries to find love for a group would seem difficult to find love
for: Dwarves. The first season of this
show follows Glen Foster, a cell phone technician who is a dwarf. The FOX network finds twelve other dwarves
which Glen has to choose from by the end of the show.
The
show begins with Glen being introduced to the twelve contestants. He is given
time to talk to each of them and get to know them better. After he meets all the girls, he immediately
must eliminate seven of them. Once the
elimination is over, Glen and the remaining five girls go on a series of group
dates in which Glen gets to know the girls even better and have a fun time with
them. The show is just like a typical
dating show on television so far, but FOX adds a twist: they introduce three normal sized women into
the group. Glen must choose four people
to cut by the next show. Glen, in not
too much of a surprise, picks three of the dwarves (whose names are Leeann,
Maxie, and Mika) and one of the normal sized women (Zoe). From here, Glen goes
on yet another date, this time each of them being an individual date. Once the dates are over, Glen is forced to
choose which girl he wants to be with now. FOX gives Glen a very expensive ring
to give to the girl he wants to be with. After much drama added to the show,
Glen picks Mika to be with. The two embrace and FOX surprises them with a
Mediterranean cruise.
The
show was short lived, only lasting two episodes, but it did well in the
ratings, pulling in a 9.8 for both shows (1 person equals 75,000 people).
However, when people look back at this show, they won’t remember what good came
from it. This show tried to find love for two people who have a hard time
finding love. Only 1.5 percent of the
United States population consists of dwarves.
Needless to say, it is hard to find two dwarves to meet each other and
fall in love, or for a dwarf to fall in love with a person of average
height. However, this show gave Glen
Foster a chance to meet many people like him and get to know them better, if
not in love. This show went out to try
and find love for a group of people who don’t normally find love. That is a good aspect of reality shows that
is not usually noticed or taken into consideration by most people.
Temptation Island Tempts Love
Jessica Myers
Who can resist temptation? FOX's
“Temptation Island” puts that question to the test. At the beginning of the
show, each couple is split with their partner and encouraged to interact with
twenty-eight singles; fourteen men, fourteen women. At the end of the show, the
couples must decide whether to stay together or split up. “Temptation Island”
creates drama and sends people questioning their relationships.
In
season two of “Temptation Island”, all five couples decide to split up due to
conflicts on the show. Even the ones couple said to have looked past their
problems split up hours after the last episode. “Temptation Island” season
three begins with four couples: Anthony and Stephanie, Eric and Kristen, Jason
and Karen, Michael and Melissa and already women are being pursued and men are
finding it difficult to fight temptation. Michael mentioned that he had found
someone perfect enough to bring home to his parents meanwhile, his girlfriend
Melissa found Belize fascinating and her relationship builds with Jerome. Yet
there are those few who remain loyal to their significant other. Kristen said
that she never encountered anyone or anything captivating enough to draw her
away from Eric.
As
the show titles, “Temptation Island” introduces captivating and fascinating
people and places and sends everyone on an emotional roller coaster. The show’s
focus is to test couples and their love for each other which brings stronger
obstacles to face and emotions to fight By the end of the season, hearts will
have been broken, relationships split and the drama of reality television will
truly test will power and the urge for temptation.
Average Joe for Average Love
Andrew Lorenzoni
“Average Joe” was just one of the many dating reality shows that appeared during the reality show craze. The one characteristic that separates this show from other dating shows is the men whom participated in the show. In the show, they take a beautiful young woman named Melana and tell her that a group of handsome guys want to court her. When the guys get off the bus, they are not male models, but average look guys, that are tall, short, fat, skinny. Having these “Average Joes” courting the Melana on the show, made her get to know the guys and not choose them simply by their looks. It was not until the last couple of shows that the producers decided to bring in the “good-looking” guys on the show. Doing this Melana was forced to pick between looks or personality. In the end, Melana ended up picking the handsome guy of the average Joe. This show was very different from other shows because it tested what love was. Instead of good looking people picking good looking people, Melana was forced to rely on compatibility with the men to choose and to see if love was blind. Although she did not pick the Average Joe, it gave America a sense of how shallow people are, even though we might not think we are.
Camera Shy
Jordan Mills
Most
people are aware that the image and portrayal of certain aspects of human life
in television is less than accurate.
The way families interact is usually unrealistic, the relationships
between lovers or friends are sometimes inaccurate or too perfect, people
handle daily problems differently, etc.
This is one of the main reasons that reality TV shows are so popular;
they claim to show the world how it is.
They attempt to show viewers how a real human would act in certain
situations or interact with other people, but is reality television really an
appropriate title for this genre?
Scientists
who studied whales would dive down with cameras and observe their movement, diet,
habits, interaction with other whales, etc.
After one scientist proposed that human filming was not accurate, they
began sending sea lions with cameras on their backs down to film for them. The scientists noticed dramatic differences
in the whales’ behavior due to the fact that there were no humans around, and
the whales were used to sea lions swimming around. If humans with cameras had this effect on whales, why would it be
any different for humans?
People
often worry about things such as their appearance, the impression that they
give off, and the image that they portray about themselves. If people worry about things like this
before going out every day, how will they act given the knowledge that they are
being filmed and shown on national TV?
As hard as some of the contestants on reality shows may try to
concentrate and act normal, there is now ignoring the fact that they are being
watched by millions of people. This can
have a definite effect on the way they interact with other people, the choices
they make, and how they speak and carry themselves. A person on a show such as MTV’s “The Real World” may be a
certain way in real life, but on the show, they might deal with conflicts
differently knowing that millions of people can see what they do and say. A contestant on a show such as “Fear Factor”
might normally be deathly afraid of heights, and back down from an offer of
50,000 dollars any day, but if the camera is on them and they are being watched
by the nation, they most likely will at least try the challenge so as not to
embarrass themselves in front of all of the viewers. If the camera has such a powerful effect on so many aspects of
human life, then love is no exception.
The
portrayal of love in reality television is heavily affected by the presence of
the camera. If two people are
attempting to develop a relationship, not only are the restrictions, obstacles,
or guidelines of the show going to heavily affect the development of the
relationship and the way the people act, but the presence of the camera will
also have a huge impact on the actions of the people. Certain things that a person might do or say, or habits that
person might have that are overlooked daily, are now looked at and questioned by
that person because they are being watched by so many people. A person who doesn’t often use good manners
may suddenly become polite so as not to look bad on TV, but as soon as the
camera is off, these people most likely turn back into their normal selves. If this is so, then the relationship
developed on the show is quite fake and unnatural. A relationship that develops under circumstances that may cause
people to not be themselves is detrimental to the outcome of the relationship
both on and off the show. If people are
acting a certain way due to the camera, they could fall in love with the person
they think they know, but as soon as that person starts being themselves again,
the relationship could fail easily. It
is also possible for the relationship to not even work out at all. Two people who could have been successful in
a relationship might find that they can’t stand the way the other person acts
when the camera is on, and they assume that is how the person is all the
time. Therefore, the relationship would
not work due to the influence of the camera and the stress that being on TV
causes.
I
personally feel that even though people may be able to block out some of the
stress of the camera and concentrate, they will always be affected in at least
one major way; therefore, I feel that none of the relationships developed on TV
are natural due to the unnatural circumstances presented by the show’s rules or
theme, and because of the unnatural actions and reactions of the people on the
show due to the presence of the camera.
Reality shows will play the “love” attribute more and more. It’s
something the public loves and can’t get enough of. Television networks will continue to try and re-invent love and
dating reality shows as long as they can in order to get higher ratings. As long as networks keep putting out reality
shows, there will be people there to watch them.
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