I wrote the following paper for my Television Programming Class at Emerson College.
Reality shows are gaining popular acceptance by viewers, and hence the television programming community. According to the last four weeks of Nelson Ratings, as reported by Broadcast and Cable, reality programming in prime time is a very popular program type for broadcast networks.
According to Broadcast/Cable/Web Programming: Strategies and Practices, the definition of a reality program includes “reality shows (Martha Stewart Living, Real TV), court shows (The People’s Court, Judge Judy, Divorce Court), comedy shows (stand-up comedy routines), music shows (videos, dance, music), and comedy-based shows (America’s Dumbest Criminals)” (Eastman and Ferguson 76). The most popular trend in broadcast, prime-time, reality programming currently focuses on the ‘reality shows’ part of the this definition.
When studying the Nielson Ratings in Broadcasting and Cable, it appears that reality programs are among the most highly rated, often scoring the highest ratings for their channels on their scheduled night. The most popular reality show in the past month was CBS’s Survivor: Pearl Islands. When it premiered on Thursday, September 18th, it was the most viewed show by adults aged 18-49 with 10.8 million viewers. The encore that they showed the following Saturday, however, did not fare half as well (Nielson Media Research).
Another popular show in the last month was Fox’s Paradise Hotel. This show had ratings above Fox’s nightly ratings average for the two weeks, but the ratings started to wane in the second half of the month. For the entire month, however, the ratings were always above Fox’s weekly ratings average, thus being on heir most lucrative shows (Nielson Media Research).
Another highly rated reality program in the last month was the September 8 NBC’s series finale of For Love or Money 2. It held the number 3 spot for top broadcast shows with 7.4 million adults aged 18 to 49 watching. It is common for reality series to have higher ratings near the end of their series because more viewers choose to tune in to find how the ‘reality’ concludes. (Nielsen Media Research)
Some reality programs that didn’t fare as well when compared to their counter programs or surrounding shows were ABC’s America’s Funniest Home Videos, NBC’s Fear Factor, Fox’s Anything for Love and Cops, and The WB’s Jamie Kennedy Experiment (Nielsen Media Research).
On average, two reality programs are scheduled on the various broadcast networks per night. It is not uncommon to see back-to-back episodes of a series or encores of the shows that aired earlier in the week. ABC, CBS, and Fox all had at least two different reality programs airing per week. NBC has Fear Factor but there were no reality additions to their programming schedule after the series finale of For Love or Money 2 and Race to the Altar. PAX only shows Candid Camera and The WB has The Jamie Kennedy Experiment. UPN didn’t have any reality programming in their prime time schedules for the last month (Nielson Media Research).
The previous trends in the creation of prime time broadcasting reality programming were to create an environment in which mixtures of personalities learn to live and work together. The most popular shows in these categories are MTV’s The Real World or CBS’s Survivor series. “They may involve seven strangers living in a plush urban loft courtesy of a television network, sixteen strangers reducing their number until one becomes a millionaire, six singles chained together until two find love, or pairs of strangers racing each other around the world” (Godard 73). All of these series, however, are not instantly popular.
The current popular programs in the reality television category are shows that focus on extreme personal changes or choices, such as ABC’s Extreme Makeover or NBC’s Fear Factor. Another popular focus for reality series is human emotion, such as the powerful emotion of love. Two of the most popular reality series that deal with love include ABC’s the Bachelor and Fox’s Joe Millionaire. The reality shows that are currently airing on prime time broadcast networks tend to be a mixture of both old and new trends, for instance Fox’s Paradise Hotel provides environmental challenges for the contestants as well as raising issues that precipitate through these televised social experiments. These are descriptions of recent series, but most of the more popular series either contain certain aspects of these types or combine the themes to create a unique twist that they hope will increase their ratings. "Survivor, CBS’s contribution to the reality television craze, is a novel import hybrid of among other things, ABC’s Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, MTV’s The Real World, and Fox’s Cops; it is a coadunation of the familiar game show, soap opera, and reality television genres” (Roth 27). These combinations of previously popular shows generally please the viewers, but it was a while before they earned their respect among the television awards circuit.
Reality television as a genre recently gained acceptance by the television community when the Emmy Awards decided to add a reality category to their awards list. Despite this acceptance, and the genre’s extremely cheap production costs, reality television may not be a programmer’s number one scheduling priority. Bertram van Munster, Executive producer and Co-creator of CBS’s The Amazing Race, spoke with Television Week and declared that “Reality is here to stay,” and when asked about whether or not he things the viewing public will tire of the genre, he states “if we recycle and there are too many derivatives… the danger is there, and that’s why I, personally, and my company have held back a little in proposing anything new in the genre.” (Grego and Chunovic 1).
The highlights of this type of programming include first and foremost the cost. These shows are generally very cheap to produce. The ‘characters’ are almost always unknown; at least prior to the shows, and thus they do not require substantial salaries. Even the hosts are generally unknown personalities when the shows first air.
Another highlight is the ratings that these shows tend to generated. As explained before these shows generally provide a boost in ratings on any given night of the broadcast networks, therefore they can be used in many different tent-poling and hammocking strategies to improve the ratings of the network’s other shows. These ratings will also bring in new advertisers, and thus more revenue to produce other quality programming that isn’t as cheap to produce.
Bibliography (be sure to indent 2nd and 3rd lines)
Eastman, Susan Tyler, and Douglas A. Ferguson. Broadcast/Cable/Programming: Strategies and Practices. 6th ed. Belmont: Wadsworth / Thomson Learning, 2002.
Godard, Ellis. “Reel Life: The Social Geometry of Reality Shows.” Survivor Lessons: Essays on Communication and Reality Television. Eds. Mathew J. Smith and Andrew F. Wood. London: McFarland and Company Inc., Publishers. 2003. 73-110.
Grego, Melissa and Louis Chunovic. “Reality Basic Cable Gleam with Emmy.” Television Week July 21, 2003:1.
Nielsen Media Research. “Nielson Ratings.” Broadcasting and Cable 22 Sept. 2003:12.
Nielsen Media Research. “Nielson Ratings.” Broadcasting and Cable 29 Sept. 2003:16.
Nielsen Media Research. “Nielson Ratings.” Broadcasting and Cable 6 Oct. 2003:22.
Nielsen Media Research. “Nielson Ratings.” Broadcasting and Cable 13 Oct. 2003:24.
Roth, April, L. “Contrived Television Reality: Survivor as a Pseudo-event.” Survivor Lessons: Essays on Communication and Reality Television. Eds. Mathew J. Smith and Andrew F. Wood. London: McFarland and Company Inc., Publishers. 2003. 73-110.
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