On February 12th, after three months of sign picketing and protesting, the Writer's Guild struck a deal with media companies -- primarily over the distribution of digital and media rights -- and the strike came to an end. As planned by the "starving" writers, the strike devastated the television and film industry: TV audience ratings sharply declined, non-writers involved in the industry lost about $440 million and old episodes of cheap soaps were painfully repeated over and over again. The worst consequence of the writer's strike by far, however, was the explosion of reality TV that occurred.
Polls indicate that the popularity of reality TV has grown exponentially since the early '90s. This trend underscores a troubling correlation between the shows' popularity and producers' general tolerance of vulgarity, sexual explicitness and chaos. Not only is the growing trend of reality TV conquering television broadcasting (think Godzilla rampaging Manhattan), but the running time of individual shows is also increasing: "Survivor," "Amazing Race," "Bachelor" and "Real World" are now older than such long-running scripted series as "M.A.S.H.," "Cheers," "Murphy Brown" and "Friends."
Not only are these reality TV shows ridiculous (and becoming increasingly so), but they exhibit a side of humanity that is depraved, obscene and, frankly, embarrassing. It should come as no surprise to viewers to discover that psychologists scheme for days in collaboration with producers and editors in order to cast the most cataclysmic and combustive group of people possible. Some of the more recent exhibitions of this human debasement include such shows as "I Love New York," "A Shot at Love," "Father Hood" -- featuring Snoop Dogg, if there ever was an expert on the matter -- and "Rock of Love," in which a group of tasteless women compete to become Bret Michaels' wife. In comparison to these shows, "Survivor" and "Battle of The Sexes" seem tame -- civilized, even.
And what's more, it seems that the best may still be to come! Two of the up-and-coming reality TV shows which make me salivate are "Who Wants To Marry a U.S Citizen" and the tantalizingly titled "Hey Bitches" -- the story of a 24-year-old, gay male who moves to New York in order to pursue his calling in the fashion world. What further puzzles me about the striking popularity of such shows is that audiences, knowing full well that the shows are often staged and frequently scripted, readily buy into their facade of portraying reality.
On a more serious note, though, there is a deeply voyeuristic nature to the obsessive watching of these reality television shows -- especially where the sexually explicit nature of reality TV is concerned. Blurring the division between public and private spheres, the camera lens invites us to exist within the very homes of strangers. This redefined audience-actor relationship may intend to make the viewers feel like Harry Potter when he sneaks around Hogwarts beneath his invisibility cloak -- a little cheeky, but within a certain boundary of acceptance. It also testifies -- with uncomfortable accuracy -- to our desire to step into the shoes of a stalker.
Yet the mystery remains: What constitutes our love affair with reality television? With so many viable reasons for rejecting reality TV altogether (if not on principle, then simply because it insults our collective human intelligence), why do we love it? How can we love it? While we are well aware of the corruption of our minds that takes place whilst watching reality TV, and we understand that we're dangerously encroaching upon voyeurism, the reality of reality TV is that we simply love it -- even if we hate that we love it.
In fact, I'm watching an episode of "Laguna Beach" with my roommate as I'm writing this very article. The reason we can't get enough of reality TV is because it serves as one of the few things in our busy daily lives which requires little or no brain activity to digest. Reality TV acts as a mechanism for relaxation, like reading trashy magazines or playing video games; in its very absurdity, it grants us a little perspective within the context of our own existence. And watching reality TV often serves as a form of viewer bonding; once in a while, it helps to laugh at someone else. We watch reality TV because it's our guilty pleasure. We know its wrong -- well not right at least -- but we do it anyway.