In truth, most of these are just highly evolved game shows. You have contestants, you have a prize, you have timed tasks to complete and predetermined competitions to win. If you call Wheel of Fortune reality TV, maybe you have the right idea after all.
But there's another category of reality TV, in which there isn't a competition, and there are no winners. Shows like Extreme Makeover, MythBusters, or my personal favorite... Tough Love. (Yep, we got a Wikipedia article.)
Since these shows don't depend on finding a winner, the producers actually have far more creative control over what happens... or at least, what they show on TV. Game shows like Survivor must justify to their audience HOW the winner succeeded. Unless they hire actors to compete (which many shows resort to doing), they must depict the real story, as it happened. But in the second kind of reality TV, basically, producers can show whatever the hell they want to show, because there's no predetermined result. The line between "scripted vs. reality" is even further blurred.
This latter category is where I would put Jon and Kate Plus Eight.
Now I'm sure you've seen the news stories. Affairs, lies, marital problems galore. I've actually watched the show, and I know a thing or two about relationship problems, so I know there's definitely truth to these stories. Jon and Kate are in some serious shit. You can see it in all their interviews. But somehow, some way, they've managed to turn this public relations nightmare into a nice, fatty cash cow. TLC just doubled the number of Jon & Kate episodes this season to 40. Ratings are soaring. They're going to walk out of this hell as ice cold millionaires.
But that's not what I want to talk about. I want to talk about the other eight employees of the show... the ones who don't have creative control. The ones whose lives are actually being lived out on national television, whose life experiences are carefully being written and plotted out by producers in a control room above their garage.
According to a story published today by the Associated Press, Jon and Kate Plus Eight has come under investigation by the Pennsylvania Labor Department for possible violation of child labor laws.
Having experience in this business (and this genre), I can tell you that unless most reality TV is done completely differently than what I saw on the set of Tough Love, this investigation has a lot of merit and should be taken quite seriously.
The experiences you see on a non-competitive reality TV series like Jon and Kate Plus Eight -- birthday parties, family outings, even simple day-to-day "storylines" -- are about 85% scripted. That's not to say the dialogue is written... it almost certainly isn't. But just about everything else (that isn't spoken) is mapped out in advance. Most of the events that happen are specifically calculated to provoke reactions from the stars of the show (called the "talent"): joy, disgust, anger, goofiness, etc.
In this case, the "talent" happens to be the eight Gosselin children -- none of whom are over the age of 10.
These children have been surrounded by TV production crew and cameramen, on a near-constant basis, throughout most of their lives. Where you and I have home movies from our childhood, that few have ever seen, their "home movies" are beamed by satellite to millions of homes across the country, and worldwide. And my guess is they don't sign a waiver for every episode.
But all violations aside, they will be paid quite well for all of this, don't worry. Their trust funds are surely through the roof.
If I'm disillusioning you about the "reality" of reality TV... I apologize. But the truth of it is, the Gosselin children should be treated like professional actors, because that's basically what they are. And honestly, there's no telling what kind of damage is being done to them psychologically by this whole goddamn sick affair. There might be lawsuits down the road. There WILL be therapy.
In fact, this whole situation reminds me of a fantastic movie I saw several years ago. At the time, it looked like science fiction...
1 comment:
There WILL be tell-all books. At least eight.
Snarkiness aside, this whole concept makes me sick. It's one thing if a bunch of skanks want to parade their business all over the place for the salivating enjoyment of the IQ 90 masses...it's another thing if a couple of fucked-up people with a litter of kids wants to exploit their kids. Neither one did any actual work (okay, Kate gave birth to eight kids, which is HARD, but hundreds of thousands of women have done that all over the world in the last few decades without making public fuss about it).
Ramble ramble ramble. My point is, Jon and Kate need to go away and the eight need to be removed from the public eye, deprogrammed, and allowed to grow up as normally as possible.
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