Reality television supposedly documents unscripted situations and actual occurrences for the viewers to watch. And there are many genres of reality television which have become popular over the past two decades.
In the blog Edictive, the author has listed 7 types of reality television shows and there are other sources which offer further breakdowns on types of reality television. All television shows have to be edited to fit in a time frame, however some so-called reality television shows have been staged and restaged for best entertainment value.
The worst type of reality television are those programs which have story lines created by the producer to humiliate participants and as in the case of the Kardashians have made untalented people into celebrities who really don't deserve their fame.
Regardless, reality television is often times less costly to produce than scripted television shows and can be quite profitable for the networks which have produced them.
Reality shows by Jerry Springer, Maury Povich and Steve Wilkos (former bald guy bouncer for Jerry Springer) are staged to make overweight, toothless, tattooed men and women appear as social misfits.
These men have created reality shows which consist of plenty of yelling between the guests, stories by guests of alleged sexual in-breeding with family relatives, friends, and farm animals, and a ton of paternity and lie-detector tests to rat out the creepiest of their creepy guests.
The emcees of these shows have been laughing all the way to the bank as Americans have tuned into some of the most off the wall characters on television.
Dr. Phil McGraw tries to portray himself as a caring professional. Why in the hell would anyone wish to appear on the doctor's show to be emotionally stripped naked and then humiliated in front of a live studio audience and American viewers?
Dr. Phil understands the need for his followers to feel better than the dysfunctional men and women being interrogated by him on the stage. .
Another piece of media trash has been loaded on the American public by NBCUniversal which is a subsidiary of Comcast. , the largest mass media corporation in the world. The new reality show is Chrisley Knows Best.
Todd Chrisley a narcissistic southern millionaire whores his entire family out for his supposed comedic reality television about his overbearing parenting skills.
NBC Universal believe that Americans will tune into to watch this flamboyant "straight guy?" raising his five children in Atlanta. But as Tom Conroy so eloquently noted in Media Life Magazine, Chrisley has so much crap going on his life that well he just is not funny.
So much of Chrisley Knows Best is blatantly staged and they would have been better off casting Todd Chrisley as a character actor in a scripted television show versus a psuedo reality show.
As for Chrisley's children, well they are most definitely not fun to watch and their sexuality is played up over and over again by their parents and those who have staged their performances.
And though I am most definitely not in the upper 1% of the wealthy bracket in the United States, the Chrisley family demonstrates why Americans have learned to love to hate wealthy Americans portrayed by this clod and his spawn. And with the likes of Jerry Springer, one understands why the upper 1% looks down with such contempt at the rest of us in the lower 99%!
In the mid 1800's, David Hannum criticized showman P.T. Barnum for catering to the most gullible of people who came to pay to see the showman's circus and sideshows. Hannum said that Barnum's business philosophy was "There's a sucker born every minute."
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P.T. Barnum |
Much like P.T. Barnum, American networks hope that gullible American viewers will continue to tune into their extreme shows which they continue to spew out.
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