A reality television program is supposed to be an unscripted real life situation. As an audience we seem to be getting more obsessed with reality television, from early reality programmes like Big Brother and Pop Idol, their success and other shows of that nature have become a lot more popular.
There are now even certain television channels that focus purely on reality television such as ITVBe and Really. Many of the most watched programmes on television are reality ones such as Britain’s Got Talent, Xfactor, Geordie Shore and The Only Way is Essex.
The reality programmes I tend to watch more are The Real Housewives of Cheshire and Made in Chelsea, the thing I most enjoy is following their lavish lifestyles. I am drawn into the programmes by wanting to see what they will wear and where they will eat and party. These types of programmes are classed as popular culture as they are easy to follow and I and many others watch the programmes hoping one day we can have such a great lifestyle.
It seems as an audience we also love programmes following the lives of celebrities, I could sit for hours watching a camera follow around Kim Kardashian and feel I have a closer insight to her celebrity lifestyle. We also love a bit of drama and cattiness, we love watching people arguing and talking about one another. As an audience we are often given ‘confessionals’, which allows us to know someone’s thoughts and feelings before they go and confront another person in the programme. This makes us feel part of the situation and allows us to guess what the outcome will be.
We also love getting involved in reality television, we love calling up Xfactor and voting for someone who will be forgotten by next year. Reality show owners have now picked up on this a lot more and use social media to their advantage, before advert breaks they tell us to tweet about our favourite stars and vote for them using their program apps. All of these different techniques allow an audience to feel more involved within the stars lives and make us feel we can change their future.
Cooking programmes have often been popular on television, however we now have programmes such as Come Dine With Me. This program gives you the opportunity to learn new recipes like a traditional cooking show, however it has the reality element of people looking around the hosts house, they also give ‘confessionals’ telling the audience what they thought of the host, the night and they then score it. The reality element makes the show a lot more interesting and seems to be the future for cooking programmes.
Although I find most reality shows very entertaining, I do often feel slightly more stupid after watching some of them. I sometimes sit there and wonder why I am so obsessed with finding out what they have been doing with their exciting lives and it makes my own life seem pretty boring. However I know I am just one of millions who love reality television and it seems it’s going to keep growing in popularity.
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