The punch heard round the world...

The Jersey Shore is probably one of the the most if not the most infamous Reality TV programs on air right now. With its equal part haters and supporters it has put MTV on the top of the map of Reality TV show makers. What initiated the shows popularity during its inaugural season was what I like to call "the punch heard round the world". Snookie, one of the shows main characters, was inebriated at a bar, as she often is, and began to curse and throw something at another patron across from her. The patron, who was later to be revealed as a school teacher, took action to Snookies drunken shots with a shot of his own, and preceded to punch her in the face. When looking at the video this whole thing is shocking, disgusting and just flat out wrong, but this is what MTV is looking for.

MTV, and other Reality TV show creators want this, they want to capture the borderline crazy and very much of the time illegal to happen. It makes for good ratings because viewers want to see the risque shocking and appalling to happen. But where do we draw the line? As much as I have expressed my disdain for Snookie even she doesn't deserve to get hit like that. I mean in my opinion MTV all but sets this up to happen, they constantly send these now very public and very publicly hated figures out into the most volatile of situations. It's easy enough for a normal person like you or me to go out to a club and get into a fight, now imagine going out with a crew of cameras and a group of people with a negative reputation in a place that feels the very show being filmed paints it under a negative light.  You are just asking for things like this to happen and continue to happen.

My point is that today its an always drunk Snookie getting punched in the face for her antics, but tomorrow who knows? When is this going to stop? Will we have to wait until someone gets really hurt or maybe even killed before we stop following around cocky drunken characters into the night? The same way Snookie was punched in the bar that night  future violence can escalate, someone could end up getting shot or stabbed the next time they are in  one of these heated altercations, which happen on almost every episode. Or is this what MTV and Reality TV creators want to happen next...to capture the first live Reality TV show stabbings, or shootings or worse on their prime time television show?

A pictures worth a thousand words...

While doing some further research on topics for my blog I came across a picture that grabbed my attention. Its more of a graph than a photo but nonetheless I wanted to discuss it. The graph shows statistics based on a study from a UK Publication on the ages of viewers who watch Reality television in the US. Now clearly Reality television has been proven to be a hot commodity and is extremely successful in attracting viewership around the world. The graph pretty much solidified my assumptions that the majority of viewership is between the age range of 18-25, both for male and females alike. However what the study left out and I wish it haddent was the percentage of viewers in the teenage bracket lets say from ages 13-17. In my opinion if the study had accounted for those ages the outcome would have been very different and the leading age ranges would have shifted. Clearly the older age groups don't have nearly as large an affinity for Reality TV as the younger generations, it could be because most of the Reality TV genre is aimed at the younger target audience with all the sex and drama.

That is exactly what my issue is with reality TV, that it emphasizes a bit too much on the sex and drama, and with the viewership being as young as I suspect it to be its not sending the proper message to its younger viewers. Its one thing for a movie or sitcom to be based around sex or drama because its fiction, its a story, its suggested and a certain line can be drawn from it. Reality TV however is proposed as "real" or factual not fiction and that message can be manipulated by a younger viewer. Take in point the second image in my blog to the left. It shows the comparison of teen pregnancies in this country related to others. We are second only to Bulgaria and my belief is that a main cog is that our teens are bombarded with sex in every facet of television with Reality TV in the forefront. Teen Mom is the perfect example, with the glorification of teen pregnancy and motherhood's. To me there has to be a direct coloration to the numbers of teen pregnancies to what is being showed on TV. Lets face it, Televisions is a mass media engine, couple that with the internet and the on demand readiness to which a teen can be exposed to these shows and there's no stopping the impact it can have on a ripe mind.

My sentiments exactly...

I have been doing some web surfing on other Reality TV blogs and such and I recently came across an article that caught my eye. I have to completely agree with a lot of what the author talks about. The author dives into how most of these newly crowned "reality TV" stars claw at the opportunity to try and extend their "15 minutes of fame" when most of them if not all, don't even have a viable talent to warrant the added acclaim. Like for example theses semi famous female reality stars, just because you're semi attractive and have the moral compass which allows you to pose half naked (if not fully nude)  in front of the camera doesn't mean you should be famous... it just means your more of an exhibitionist than a celebrity. Or take some of these people who have won on a show like Fear Factor for eating bull testicle... if eating bull testicles was the standard for fame all of Spain would be famous seeing as bull testicle is a national delicacy. Fame should be for those who deserve it, artists, musicians, novelists, people with real talents. I'm a firm believer that if your so called talent just takes you on a search for the limelight then you don't deserve it to begin with.

“in the future everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes”~ Andy Warhol

Read more: http://technorati.com/entertainment/tv/article/reality-tv-meltdown/#ixzz1aUd6163h

Rules are made to be broken...

Is Reality TV real or just scripted non sense?

Hello all... I have another back stage story for you. This one has to do with the ever so popular competition reality show. You know like Top Chef or Americas Next Top Model... two shows I haven't worked on. I did work on this one design show where on one episode the designers were given an allotted amount of time to construct and design a bedroom from scratch. They were given a strict budget and the use of only specific tools and were only allowed to go to certain show approved stores (stores that where sponsors of the show). These were all the "rules" or "guidelines" of the challenge, whats a challenge if its not monitored in some way right? Well in reality, rules are made to be broken. All the challengers had to do was put up a little bit of a fight before they started getting their way. They got a significant amount added to what was supposed to be a minimal stringent  budget, they actually only went shopping at one of the approved stores and did a large amount of their shopping at non approved ones instead... in essence making my life harder because no one was pre image released. They also bought tools and materials from these non sanctioned stores that they originally were not supposed to use. What really shocked me was that after time was up, and the challenge was supposed to be over, no one had finished, and the producers ended up giving them all more time. The main point of the challenge was that it was time/deadline oriented and to just give the contestants more time is inconceivable to me. It also sucked because a normal 12 hour day became a 16 hour one.

The really funny part was that later on once the season aired I watched the episode on TV and saw that the editor skillfully snuck in a few B-roll shots of the exteriors of some of the stores that they were supposed to go to but didn't in that particular episode, to make it seem as if they did. They also completely edited out anything that was shot during the initial deadline and only kept in that of which made the story line seem as if they all finished on time, which being there I know they did not. My question is if your going to be a show based on challenges, why make it easier for all the contestants to succeed in the challenge if your just going to allow them to break the rules? Doesn't that cancel out the idea that the winner is  winning the challenge fair and square? This is another example of how Reality TV pulls the wool over our eyes and what we see is not always what actually happened.

The REALity...

So I was thinking every week I would try and include a post on something I witnessed from behind the scenes of a reality set that I have worked on... Obviously I wont be able to disclose what particular show or mention names but none the less it should be rather entertaining or at the very least eye opening.

On this one dating show I worked on I remember sitting in on a production meeting before an elimination. Little ol me thought we were going to discuss camera angles and lighting but to my surprise when I walked in they had the blown up pictures of the cast members up for elimination on a board. Under each picture there were notes. My second surprise was sitting in along with the producers was the star of the show... I use the word "star" loosely... They were telling him who he should eliminate and why and giving him incentives on why he should eliminate one girl over another. Hold the phone... wasn't this a reality dating show and the eliminations were supposed to be made based on lack of a connection or common interest and or bad dates... Silly me for thinking such, this was not how it was done at all... the producers essentially sat there and told him who was more photogenic, who would generate better ratings, who he looked better paired up with and who the audience would prefer him to be with, not once did he divulge who he actually liked or who he would like to pursue dating. It was never about love or trying to find this guy someone he actually enjoyed spending time with... it was all about ratings. I distinctly remember them keeping this one girl on because she didn't get along with the other girls in the house and the producers were trying to instigate a fight with her and the other girls for a future episode and story line even though he had no interest in her what so ever. When he said he liked this girl or wanted to get to know this other girls he was flat out told "NO" by the producers, and to pick someone else from the "approved" list.

This is just another example of how "reality TV" is nothing more then a scripted show with lesser talented actors with an air of realness about it that is intended to do nothing more than fool the viewers.