Reality TV as Represented in Fiction

Reality stars acting real.

Though Reality TV dates back to the mid 40s, the version of it we know today began with MTV's The Real World (1992). Then, in the early 2000s, Survivor made reality TV even more popular. These two shows are the ones that set the template for contemporary reality TV. On the one hand, we have the Kardashians show, Duck Dynasty, Jersey Shore, and other shows similar in structure. These are the "follow a group of people around and see what they do" side of reality TV. On the other side, we have the competition reality TV; that is, we have your Master Chefs, American Idols, and Bachelors. Whatever other sub-genres they fit into (extraordinary people, dating, law enforcement, etc), almost every major reality show will follow one of these two formats: see people do things in their everyday lives, or see people compete.  And it seems that with every new iteration of a reality TV program, these shows are becoming more invasive and extreme.  Join me now in a flight of fancy as we think about the future of reality TV and its ultimate unraveling as a tool of control and intimidation, rather than one of mass entertainment.

From Discovery's Naked and Afraid.

From the first Real World to Jersey Shore, and from the original Survivor to Naked and Afraid, it seems like reality TV is becoming more and more invasive and increasingly adding elements to up the shock factor. This then raises the questions: How far will reality TV go? How far is too far?

To answer the first question we need to look no further than what has already been created in fiction by the human imagination. It is a well known trend that fiction precedes reality. The question then becomes, what has fiction told us about reality TV? To answer this, we turn to The Truman Show and The Hunger Games. 

from The Truman Show

At first glance, The Truman Show is a show about a normal man living a normal life in a normal microcosm. However, what made Truman Show so creepy, and still does to this day, is that Truman was an unwilling participant in a reality show. Even worse, the society viewing the show act as accomplices to this imprisoning of an individual and to the televised voyeurism of his life, to the point where Christoff, the creator of the show, wants the first on-air conception to happen. Certainly this may seem ridiculous, but the way that reality TV is trending through a slippery slope constantly pushing the envelope on what's socially acceptable, it is possible that some version of it could happen. 

The odds are never in our favor.

Then we have Hunger Games. This is survival reality TV taken to the extreme. Using the principle of the Truman Show of forcing people to participate in a reality show, the tributes are forced to engage in a survivor-type competition where the winner is the sole survivor after all others are dead. This is an idea that has been toyed with previously in film, with Battle Royale being the prime example from Japan and Slashers (film) exploring similar topics US-side. To most of us, the idea of a horror-survival reality TV show where participants are encouraged to take each other out seems beyond stupid. However, it's not one that has been outright discarded. Before the CW, the TV network responsible for awesome shows such as Arrow and Supernatural, decided to roll out a glorified Hunger Games-esque show Capture, it was pitched as The Hunt, a no holds barred no rules survivor show where the participants would capture others. It was a Hunger Games variant where instead of killing, the goal was to capture. The fact that it evolved into something more structured and controlled, the fact remains that the less civilized version was considered. 

Which brings us to the dystopian unraveling of reality TV, its ultimate form one where participants are coerced and forced to participate in these shows and then turn on each other, for failure to answer a question or garner enough votes from the viewers means death. We have seen this in Doctor Who's episode titled Bad Wolf, and for all the levels of stupid that this level of reality TV may seem to us... hey... it may be just possible in the future.