“The desire of grand prizes starts to fade once you open the curtain and witness the reality of reality-TV” – By me cause that shit goes hard right? Hello? Moshi moshi? Is this thing on?
Warning: What you’re going to read about may disgust you in this hypothetical scenario. Feel free to skip it if you’d like.
Imagine you’re an executive of a television firm in the early 2010’s, and you’ve broadcasted absolute bangers on your channel. Some of the quotes, memes, jokes, references, all stem from one of your shows on YOUR network.
Now sitting in your office in the comfy woven leather chair, you hear a knock on the door at roughly 12:14pm. Typically you’d have lunch around this time but, you’re in a good mood and let’s be honest, you got nothin better to do.
You invite them in and they appear to be the director from your most popular show “Bold and Bronzy“: A series about a rich Miami family and all of the insane, unrealistic scenarios that the group has come across in their day-to-day lives. Sure it’s had their fair share of controversies from the drama and criticism, but the amount of publicity from the show alone makes up for it in millions of revenue.
They don’t even greet you, they’re more excited on showing you the “interesting” and “daring” new shows that NEED to be funded and broadcasted soon. They’re asking you if any of these premises peak your curiosity:
- “Delinquent kids and troubled teenagers are rampant in some of these communities, and if some of them don’t start behaving soon, they’ll end up in jail/prison. Why don’t we cut out the middle man and instead expose them to the absolute obscene, depressing, and sometimes horrific realities of an already abusive and broken system. After a day in there, we hope that they’ll receive enough shock and unforgettable trauma that they won’t ever want to commit any crimes again. What was the premise behind this? Don’t worry about it.”
- “A phobia is an intense, irrational, uncontrollable, and persistent fear of a specific object, situation, or activity. Some people are able to maintain their composure while in these situations, but lets really put them to the test. No, no, no, I don’t mean exposure therapy like being in a room with a couple of insects. Let’s have their bodies completely covered in roaches, spiders, snakes, buried alive, drowning, eating rats or pretty much anything we want, and why not have them drink a damn near bucket of donkey juice that isn’t even the last gateway to the grand prize of $50,000. Yes, we have worse than that in store, just you wait!”
- “Obesity in America is a huge problem, and we don’t mean that metaphorically. We need to have a show where contestants are incentivized to lose as much weight as they can in a given time to win the grand prize. I don’t really care how they lose the weight and what they did to get there, it’s a matter of who lost the most; everything’s fair game more or less. What happens with their bodies afterwards… that’s their problem, not mine.”
What? You think that the contestants will gain their weight back? I don’t think so, and if so, who cares? We got what we wanted, they got what they wanted… right?” - “Love Island”. No, I’m not going to write a whole premise for it. There’s too much badness in that show for me to cover 😭
- “Love, friendships, families, relationships in general can be simple, but often complicated. Tragedies arise, the situation builds, and I feel as if we can capture that moment where the tension is at its peak. Let’s have these groups with their bold, exaggerated, chaotic, and of course, staging fights for a live and broadcasted audience to see. I don’t care what happens, as long as nobody dies, and good luck suing us. Oh and like, if you flash your breasts you get some cheap plastic beads too or whatever…”
- “Times were tough back then, and kids nowadays really don’t know good they have it, do they? What if… what if they were left to fend for their own without any adult supervision? What if they were in the middle of nowhere in a deserted, hot, and old fashioned town that was ran into the ground by the settlers of old. They have to make their own currency, cook for themselves, hunt for themselves, figure out how to get water, and even clean the outhouse that they all will use. I’m thinkin roughly… 40ish kids? We don’t want them too old… nor too young… let’s make the oldest 15-16 years old, and the youngest… 8… yeah, 8 sounds about right; wouldn’t you agree?”
So after hearing all of those, would you take up their offer? Would you be interested in testing the waters?
Regardless if you did or didn’t, just know that at least one person, or a group of people greenlit those ideas. To add a bit more to how much of a rampant problem this is, more shows include:
- America’s Next Top Model
- The Bachelor
- Big Brother
- The X Factor and America’s Got Talent
- COPS and Live Pd
- Jersey Shore
- The Real Housewives of Beverley Hills
- Joe Millionaire
- Survivor
- Dance Moms
- Naked and Afraid
- Teen Mom / 16 and Pregnant
- Beast Games
The list goes on and on, but these problems aren’t standalone situations. The majority of western and American reality-TV shows seem to have an urge to design their premise around manufactured tension, pressure, competitions, repetitive and extreme exhaustion, and/or life-changing prize money. The contestants or actors for the most part are merely devices to see how to increase the network’s ratings, and often aren’t compensated for the amount of mental, physical, and emotional trauma they’ve received.
After so many repeated incidents, you would think that people would realize how immoral and unethical their actions would be. And yet every single show that’s cancelled for whatever consequences, 3 new ones emerge from the curtain while 10 others are getting ready back stage. As for why this happens so frequently, well…
There’s a Profit in Pain:
Ratings, ratings, ratings. It’s the lifeblood and the overall drive of why these high-stake intensity and dramatic shows exist. These producers have mastered the formula of turning human messiness into cheap, high-engagement content, and they don’t have to pay for large writers’, non-famous casts, fewer expensive sets, and have many episodes that can be produced quickly and effortlessly. Especially when a humiliating meltdown, dangerous stunt, cruel elimination, and shocking reveals happen, posting snipets on platforms like Youtube, Twitter, Tiktok and other tabloids reward these clips. These shows aren’t selling you a simple TV show, they’re selling you an built-up, ethically questionable, exaggeratory experience that isn’t replicated in your day-to-day lives.
This is also true for the contestants, but it varies between television shows. Shows such as Naked and Afraid, Beast Games, Fear Factor, America’s Got Talent, Squid Game: The Challenge (which in itself is ironic), and especially Survivor, tend to have individual contestants that aren’t necessarily celebrities and competing for a grand-prize. These contestants aren’t typically actors, or known throughout the digital-media landscape, most of them are average everyday people like you and me. When competing for a prize (whether it be fame, monetary, opportunities, etc.) it is natural for the environment to be tense, but to the extent of having trauma, embarrassment, sexual harassment, unfair treatment, abuse, and every other offense or misdeed is completely unacceptable. Even though a contestant may of been awarded something, situations like these tend to go unannounced or unaddressed for the majority of the show until (or even if) lawsuits are filed.
MTV’s Jersey Shore, Real House Wives, Kardashians, and shows where celebrities are created and the main focus-point of the premise, they tend to use each other’s fabricated drama or information that should have been kept private. By exposing their personal lives and profiting off of each others misfortunes, viewership and ratings tend to explode after each clip and moment is broadcasted and remembered for the whole world to see. Essentially, they’ve willingly (or in some cases, were force to) traded their privacy, personality, vulnerability, what they are as a person, who they loved, the people around them, and most importantly, the peace they once had. In return, they obtained the wealthy and publicity they desired, but also received criticism, mental/physical/emotional trauma, outrage and backlash from their own relations and audience, and often a tarnished name that in most cases are irreversible.
“People always be like ‘What zero bread does to a mf’ but I’ve seen what too much bread does to a mf, and it’s much, much worse” – Socrates maybe? I dunno
It was all According to Plan:
With that being said, the opposite is also true, as businesses naturally will take risks. Let’s say hypothetically one of your shows on your network tanks horribly. They either had a terrible premise, no public interest, or even bad marketing and promotion, yet… you don’t really care.
For the most part, even if a television or streaming show gets only 1 or 2 seasons, even IF it tanks, this was nothing more than a sign that sign that a company took a few swings and missed. What they’re really searching for are their shows like Survivor, Jersey Shore, Love is Blind, Love Island, Shark Tank, Pawn Stars, Duck Dynasty, Dancing with the Stars, you get it.
Those shows aren’t “home runs”, they are your “Out of the Parks”, and we as a collective are addicted to them. These series make them financially insulated, and can make them effectively immortal to any losses. Essentially, no matter what, they’re profiting.
I strongly recommend you reading the two articles below along with a part of the “UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION” transcript showing Netflix reporting $45.18 billion total revenue and $10.98 billion in net income:
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/05/netflix-cancel
https://ew.com/tv/netflix-ceos-defend-show-cancellations
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1065280/000106528026000034/nflx-20251231.htm
Who’s Gonna Stop Me:
From all of the shows that I’ve provided and more, each and every one of them has had a lawsuit amount the malpractice that transpired either in the production, or the show itself. You wouldn’t be crazy to assume that with so many lawsuits, executives would get an idea that these types of programs should be abandoned, but this has little to no, or even the opposite effect.
The headlines make it sound catastrophic, but the business impact is often much smaller than the complaint makes it seem. The complaint is usually a demand, but not the full payout. For example, in The Jenny Jones lawsuit, a jury awarded $29.3 million, but the verdict was later thrown out, meaning the headline number didn’t become the final result. If it even reaches to a settlement, many of them are often confidential, which lets the company cap a risk and avoid a public trial. This tends to aid them in avoiding more discovery and settle without admitting to wrongdoing.
In addition, these contracts made with reality TVs are built to protect the producers. Agreements and contracts (especially waving of liability) are made in favor of the executives, and while they aren’t a legal armor invincibility, it draws out the lawsuits making them slower, harder, and less attractive to pursue. Even IF the money sounds large in theory, like a $800,000 settlement for an individual person or group, these do not include the legal fees, time, and effort that was put into reaching that settlement.
Also, let’s be honest, $800,000 is not a lot of money for a payout in comparison to these large corporations. By the time the show has already done their promotion, ad sales, subscriptions, licensing, clips, franchises, hell even spinoffs, they’ve already banked the vast majority of the revenue. In no universe will a hypothetical show that profited $100 million even tremor at the thought of a $10 million lawsuit. Regardless if the series were to be cancelled, the main point of to the business man and executive’s eyes wasn’t to to build a community, provide ethical entertainment, or a place for you to enjoy and build relation to. Their goal was to sell us a distortion our own reality, a gateway to a realistic fantasy, and avoid every consequence while doing so. Worst part about it, we as a collective bought into it; which brings us to the last point.
I would provide a lawsuit for each of the shows I’ve listed here, but transparently, that would make this essay long enough as is.
Thankyou For Your Patronage:
These networks and shows only function if we purchase with our money, or our time, and good God are we often doing both. In some cases, we’re just like the VIPs of Squid Game.
For live or reality-TV shows like Jersey Shore, Jerry Springer Show, and even Dr. Phil, the audience functions just like the VIPs; spectators positioned in the comfort of their own home. They’re not the ones being humiliated, manipulated, injured, or psychologically pressured; they just simply watch it unfold as entertainment. Especially if the contestants aren’t necessarily celebrities, the audience is unfamiliar with the roster. Viewers may feel more connected and drawn towards them and not immediately question or challenge the moral and ethical issues and situations a contestant may have, or the show as a whole. Ultimately, the network benefits, the audience is entertained, and the contestants are left to deal with the consequences after the cameras stop rolling. This is probably the most hardest thing to stomach once you realize it.
So… Now what:
Strictly for us as a collective, I’m not saying to “stop watching/streaming reality-TV forever”, as television shows are a great way for the audience to build community, make connections, or even something to talk about between friends and family. The main thing I want us to be aware of though are the creation of these shows and how damaging they can be to the contestants involved. We need to start analyzing key moments and listening to our gut feeling of “wait a minute… somethin ain’t right about that” while actively criticizing any manufactured and intentional wrongdoings from the show themselves.
Outside of us though, there needs to be written policies and laws that apply for all states in digital media production. Three policies I can think of that should be implemented and clearly stated are…
- Blocking or Severely Limit what is allowed to be broadcasted for safety of contestant
- Harsh punishments and Repercussions for organizations who fail to comply to these rules, primarily being financial compensations to the contestants that were impacted
- Reality Production Participant Protections with clear informed consent processes, minimum safety standards, labor classification review, no silence clauses, etc.
Hopefully in the future, we’ll be able to enjoy our shows and not have to worry about any ethical boundaries that may of been breached. I doubt that the broadcasting and streaming stations will change the channel anytime soon, so it’s up to us to make a change. In the meantime, we should keep one eye on the screen, the other on the fine print, grip onto our moralities, and understand how the real plot twist is that we were the VIPs all along.
Sincerely,
Cravings and Comfort
P.S.: . This was all based from an assignment I did in college about Beast Games. Here’s the download file to it.
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