By: Jyoti Rathi Raghavan
I am a 25 year old girl, looking for my soul mate to get married. I am talking to a bunch of guys and the whole nation is watching, who I would choose. It’s “The Bachelorette” on a national channel!! We are looking for a match for our 50-something widower multi-millionaire dad. We have invited applications from single ladies. They will stay in our mansion and every week we will eliminate one of them. The last woman remaining is our new Mom!! This is “ Who Wants To Marry My Dad?”And the whole nation is watching this on television too!!!
It’s tough terrain. We must follow the clues and get out of this jungle. It’s “The Amazing Race” and is televised on a national channel!!
Welcome to Reality TV! First it was “Real world” on MTV and “Survivor”on CBS. Now there are “Elimidate”(where a single man or woman chooses his/her date out of 4 probables and eliminates the rest of them!), “The Osbournes”(a show showcasing the lifestyle of famous Singer Ozzy Osbourne’s family), “Race To The Altar”(a reality show featuring 7 engaged couples proving on camera that they are made for each other!) "Blind Date" and many more! Data shows that there are more than 100 reality shows on leading national and local TV channels in America!

From dating to marriage, from games to survival, reality TV has come a long way in the US. The primary reason for this is its low cost of production. You don’t need any script, heavily-paid actors or many sets!! Just an interesting topic and some imagination to spice things up! The second reason is the psychology of people. They want to see people like themselves on TV. Doing things they like, achieving things they fantasize about. There is a huge number of people waiting to be featured on such shows and getting their 15 minutes of fame. And dream merchants are churning one such show after another to tantalize people’s senses! Right amount of suspense, danger, romance (and now sex too!) and fantasy makes these reality shows popular among the audience.
But the question is- How much is too much?? The mushrooming of reality shows on TV is now raising alerts! A new show on ABC called “Extreme Make-overs” is highly criticized for its content. In the show, they call people who think they need a “make-over” and give them a new physical look. They even go through plastic surgery, liposuction and face lifts!! Along with media critiques, the US Senate is also witnessing some heated arguments about the existence of such extreme reality shows.

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Media analyst Matt Towery laments, “Why has our creative community cast off the wit and warmth of Jerry Seinfelds in favor of muttering Ozzy Osbournes and dim-witted Joe Millionaire?”
“Its crap!” says 24 year old Deborah Glowitz, a social worker, “ These shows are nothing but a bundle of cheap thrills, artificial emotions and false situations.” Professor Tony Charlton, an expert in the psychological effects of TV thinks there is a chilling reason for the success of such shows. He says, “ I don’t think people believe these shows are manipulated. I think they buy that they are watching reality.”
However, audience has its own say. “ I can’t come down hard on the entertainment industry without taking into account that they are just producing what sells”, says Adriana Polski, who loves “The Amazing Race”.
“These shows exist because there is an audience for them. The interest of things profane, naughty and sexy has always been there. But now we have the technology to make these things available on a broader and easier scale”, says 21 years old Travis.

“These shows are aimed at the younger audience and are of no interest to oldies like me”, says Kent Wicker, 64 year old store-owner in Boise, Idaho.
In India, however, reality TV has a different meaning. On Reality TV Channel, there are amazing videos of wars, natural disasters, accidents and road mishaps. These shows are aimed mainly at the adventurous male audience. There are game shows and some funny ones like “Bakra” on MTV. But the audience still prefers to watch melodramatic soaps and family sitcoms.
Unlike India, TV in the US is much bolder. Many believe it is not good for a nation where children aged between 6-11 spend more than 24 hours a week in front of TV! For teenagers TV time goes up to 30 hours a week. In this situation, reality shows are not-so-welcome by cautious parents. Mother of three teenagers Mary Walker says, “ There is so much sex and violence on TV and most of this comes from reality shows. Kids are obsessed with it as it is supposed to be “real” and people in real life are doing such things! It is alarming and socially harmful!”
But experts believe that the reality shows bubble will soon burst. A survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation and Stanford University shows that 67% of Americans are becoming tired of so-called reality programmes. Real life war, violence and other such incidents all over the world are also capturing people’s attention making these shows less interesting. So many “me-too” shows have also diminished the image of reality TV. Now they are pre-planned, fabricated and not-so-real. To exist and to re-run the shows, the dream merchants have to think outside the box. As Deborah pleads, “ Enough of reality shows! Give me some real entertainment please!”