What Happened To Reality TV

By Giselle Melanson
Fancast.com

What happened to reality TV?

Some people say reality TV took off with Survivor; other people say it started with The Real World. Whichever show popularized the genre, there’s one thing we can all agree on: reality TV used to star normal people. As in, “non-famous” people. As in, people who were looking for a shot at some prize money, 15 minutes of fame and an adventure–not their soul-mate and a giant career boost.

These days, the bar has been raised when it comes to what reality TV contestants expect to get out of their “journey,” and since most of them now seem to be celebrities, well–you know what they say about backstage demands. It all started innocently

enough back in 2003, when reality TV and B-List celebrities united for the VH1 show, The Surreal Life. The show provided some long overdue air time for stars such as Gabrielle Carteris, MC Hammer, Corey Feldman, Emmanuel Lewis, and others who have felt their fame fading since the 80s and 90s.

Then, something funny happened. Audiences became genuinely touched by, and interested in the blossoming romance between the show’s season 3 contestants, Flavor Flav and Brigitte Nielsen. So much so that the pair then got their own spin-off reality show: Strange Love. When the couple parted ways after just one season, Flav continued his quest for love on his spin-off-of-a-spin-off reality dating show, Flavor of Love.

Following Flav in his celebreality dating show footsteps came Scott Baio, in Scott Baio is 45 and Single [watch an interview with Baio]; Lisa Loeb, in #1 Single; and Bret Michaels, in Rock of Love. But you don’t need to be celebrity from the 80s or 90s to get a reality dating show. Sometimes all you have to be is a former contestant on of one of them–like Tiffany Pollard, who parlayed her popularity as a Flavor of Love bachelorette into her own dating show, I Love New York ( a spin-off of a spin-off… of a spin-off.)

If the success of reality TV has proven that people like to watch people, then celebreality TV must prove that people like to watch people they recognize even more. From accountants and computer technicians stranded on a desert island, to an 80s rap singer adorning his bachelorettes with giant clock necklaces, perhaps what’s familiar really is what’s most comfortable.