The world of reality TV has dominated our screens and the attention of its viewers for over 10 years. The deregulation of terrestrial television meant the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Five weren’t the only broadcasting providers of information and entertainment, as cable introduced a range of niche channels with niche topics, putting terrestrial channels in danger of losing its mainstream audience. Therefore terrestrial TV had to provide something new; “cheap alternative to drama” . This alternative became “Reality TV”, a factual based genre with high entertainment values. It requires no actors, no scripts and no expensive settings which lead to an increase of a wide range of reality TV shows for a range of audiences.
The Reality genre is hard to define, but is best described as a “ mix of fact and fiction, of popular elements of documentary or news, popular elements of lifestyle or talk shows and drama like melodrama or soap opera." Though reality mixes a range of TV genres, it is successful and popular because of its “entertainment orientation", and seeing people respond in voyeuristic ways. It aims to represent and reflect real people, their real lives and real emotions, but when studying the genre, it becomes clear that this reality is somewhat constructed and mediated in many different ways.
This essay explores the construction and success of the genre with a particular focus on, self improvement Fly-on-the-Wall documentaries, Wife Swap and Supernanny. They are slightly different to the typical reality game shows such as the X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent that dominate our screens, yet they are still very popular as they provide a good balance of entertainment and information, which put them in the contemporary media landscape. An exploration of narrative techniques and conventions are used to construct reality in Wife Swap and Supernanny, and why the genre has become so popular with audiences and dominates out TV screens.
Firstly Reality TV shows are constructed using the codes and conventions of fly on the wall documentary to represent reality, as it is a well regarded factual genre. “Television's first reality show” was the fly on the wall An American Family (Craig Gilbert, USA, 1972), which followed the "experience of a nuclear family”ibid and was 12 episodes edited from “300 hours of footage”ibid. The household setting and highlights of a long process in chronological order are some of the conventions of documentary adopted by the reality genre. This is seen in Wife Swap; a two week event, with two families, is edited into an hour of highlights. In particular, Series 7 episode 1 of Wife Swap: The Ahmeds and Escotts, uses many documentary conventions such as the humorous voice over, interviews with the show’s participants and sound bridging to add to the feel of a documentary. The most noticeable convention is the hand held camera providing voyeuristic elements to the show and this is one of the elements that make reality TV as popular as it highlights society’s love of viewing and prying in others lives in our "open society" .
Not only do reality TV shows adopt conventions of documentary, but it mixes with mainstream popular entertainment and fresh, original ideas, making it extremely popular. This led to An American Family (Craig Gilbert, USA, 1972) being labelled an “exceptional program that broke the rules of television production” and its format has inspired newer shows, including BBC’s The Family (1974) and revamped for Channel 4’s recent version. Similarly, Supernanny provides information for the audience, on dealing with children, yet the arguably adopts comic elements, from family and life struggles faced in sitcoms to provide entertainment. However, modern critics argue the use of documentary for mainstream entertainment is damaging to society as it attempts to replace “the more serious and challenging forms of documentary with so much lightweight, undemanding pap" …
Though the genre of the show supposedly represents reality, the institutions involved in the text construct it to fit their own ideologies. Wife Swap and Supernanny are broadcasted by Channel 4; a Public Service Broadcaster that aims to entertain, inform and educate. These ideologies are clearly reflected in Supernanny and Wife Swap’s entertaining yet informative nature. However, some institutions implicitly reflect their ideologies though means of mediation and this applied to both Supernanny and Wife Swap.
Firstly, institutions are looking for “a special kind of performance ability”ibid.13 for their show to provide a constructed show full of entertainment, and this process begins with the selection of characters. The institution involved in Supernanny select families with extremely naughty kids and stressed out parents, to create dramatic conflict, which provides entertainment. Propps theory could argue that the children selected for the show are Proppian villains, and the parents, particularly the mothers, are the passive princesses that need to be saved from their children’s destructive behaviour. In series 2, episode 1, The Collins Family, the children are referred to as the “mob” and “gang” by the male voice over. This stereotypes the children and could be interpreted as the future generation of young criminals that are negatively stereotyped in the media. Though this looks at delicate issues, audiences would “trust that people have been treated fairly”, however, the authoritative male voice over presents these exaggerated representations as the truth. This construction of the truth is further mediated, with the use of the Supernanny, Jo, who is female but interestingly is the powerful and dominant heroine. Her forceful entrance to a family home, her disruption and later resolution could be interpreted as the ideologies of the institution; the powerful and elite always win the battle, hence the positive new equilibrium at the end of every episode.
Secondly, institutions use editing to reflect the constructed conflict in their shows, which provides entertainment and suggest the popularity of the show. Wife Swap selects contrasting characters such as “moderns” swapping with “ traditionals, urbans with rurals.”ibid The editing reflects this binary opposition of characters through the use of paralleling the families’ wife swapping experience, which a “basic prerequisite; no friction, no show”ibid. Interesting, it has been suggested that “the mainstream media” ibid owners attempt to “encourage life choices”ibid that are in their interest, by siding with a particular families’ values that reflect their hegemonic values. In Series 7, episode 1, it is clear that the expressive, free and independent thinking Escotts family are favoured by the text compared to the very religious and traditionalist Ahmed family. The prominent scene where the Ahmed wife seemingly interrogates the sexuality of lesbian daughter, Becky, represents the wife as a cruel villain disrespecting a teenager, who represents the free-willed person of society. This is linked to the theory of hegemony because the “dominant classes”ibid - being the institution- “persuade subordinate or lower ones to accept and adopt their values.”ibid Therefore, the institutions present their hegemonic ideologies and provide entertainment though the parallel editing of binary oppositional contestants, to create conflict.
"Reality TV couldn’t be the success story it is if it didn’t appeal to lots of different kinds of audiences” .The genre is so popular because it has a wide audience yet is able to appeal to individuals on a personal level and therefore suggests why it’s so successful. Wife Swap is targeted at 16-45 year olds with a wider audience of 14-60 year olds. Interestingly, the show has the capability to appeal to all of the 4C’s as the show represents theses people through their lifestyle and values which audiences can identify with and support. For example the Ahmed’s are a resigned family as they stick to historical and cultural traditions, while the Escotts are Reformers, independent with their individual values. Not only does it appeal to a wide range of 4Cs but a wide range of ethnicities as they want to see how they are represented in the show. It is this wide appeal that suggests the popularity of the show.
The range of narrative pleasure and gratifications that come from reality TV also suggest why it is so popular amongst audiences. Though Supernanny has a household setting, it is arguably targeted at a female, mother audiences, as they can gain information about childcare from the show, in terms of the Uses and Gratifications theory. Other narrative pleasures include the happy ending, which is very common and almost an audience expectation in the self improvement reality genre. In Supernanny, the show begins with equilibrium of extremely naughty kids with defenceless parents and the arrival of Jo is the disequilibrium causing the disruption to the family. The new equilibrium would be Jo restoring balance of power within a family, common in the ‘self-improvement’ reality genre. This brings about ideologies of authority, power and hegemonic values from the institution. In terms of the uses and gratifications theory, escapism allows audiences to voyeuristically interact with two other home and family lives, to see how they live in the comfort of their own home. In Wife Swap, the entertainment is provided when audiences see how the wife’s and new families struggle to get along with each other or settling into the new rules. The ways in which families respond to the Wife Swapping situation allows audiences to identify with the families as well as identifying their own faults and possible improvements in their own lives: this becomes the information and learning element of the uses and gratifications theory. This wide range of audience pleasure highlights how active audiences are, as well as suggesting why the reality genre is so popular.
The genre is also popular because it reflects society and its current issues, making it relative and identifiable to a range of audiences. Both Wife Swap and Supernanny deal with “family breakdown, or the ‘broken Britain’ theme ”. These programmes are set in very private and internal spaces, which are broadcasted on national television which reflects many elements of our society. In particular, both shows have invasive characters, whether it’s dominant Jo in Supernanny or Wife Swap’s wives invading the personal lives and values of other families, they reflect our open society -‘nothing is sacred’ philosophy" - our voyeuristic nature and scopophilic pleasures, “the pleasure of watching” someone in their own lives, in the comfort of the audiences' home. It also gives audiences a chance to see an aspect of others lives, that might not be identifiable to their own, giving them a possible representation of our society. This shows the importance of reality TV audiences to trust and have faith in the texts they are watching, to gain information about the society they live in. However, if the programme makers exploit participants of Supernanny and Wife Swap, this could be argued as tokenism and stereotyping that only reflects a small part of society and therefore an unjust representation of our whole society, which is very misleading. Though it is arguable that programme makers exploit participants, the shows created aim to reflect an identifiable society audiences live in, which suggests its popularity.
Both Wife Swap and Supernanny also have an informative nature and aim to deal and fix some of the moral panics within society, which could suggest why it is so successful as audiences believe in its power as a media text. Reality brings up “a moral issue and make people confront it” and take a view point. For example Wife Swap linked to the concern of failed marriages in the UK and Supernanny linked to the great concern in the bad behaviour of young people. “Whether it resolves the issue for people is another matter"ibid, as these stereotypes and representations are constantly shown, it could have a cultivating effect on society and therefore is contributing to these moral panics rather than resolving them.
Reality TV is constructed in the documentary format to reflect its representations of the truth and reality. It has to reflect itself in this way because institutions mediate them to reflect their own ideologies such as hegemony, authority and high entertainment. Its ability to appeal to wide audiences makes it popular, as it reflects their society and them as individual people. Though there is great success made from the reality TV genre, there are other ideas about its negative impact on the status of the media industry and society. Many critics believe “the rush to deliver more and more” reality shows means the “standards will not be maintained”ibid or that it appeals to “stupid people” , making the respectability of TV go down. However, its “experimental nature”ibid that mixes popular genres makes it successful as it takes “things you like in other shows.” ibid Though its easy to say how institutions are manipulating reality shows to reflect their own ideologies, we must consider that audiences are becoming more active in their viewing, there is a “heightened general awareness of fakery” in reality shows, and has this affected the reputation of “more serious, kinds of documentary” ibid that it adopts from? To have an idea where reality TV’s success will lead into the future, is by looking at successful genres from the past. Docu-soaps were popular and very successful in the mid 90’s with shows like “Airport, Driving School and Vets in Practice” , but the “veritable feeding frenzy among programme makers” ibid led to an explosion of the genre where audience just got fed up. Could this mean reality TV has the same fate?
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