History of Reality TV Celebrities

The Rise of the Ordinary According to the Oxford Dictionary, reality television can be defined as “television programs in which real people are continuously filmed, designed to be entertaining rather than informative.” (Oxford). This genre first made an appearance in television rankings back in 2000. By 2007-2008 it captured 77 percent of the total audiences (Nielsen). Reality Television started in the early 1970’s with shows like An American Family and Candid Camera. From then, different authors have discussed the evolution of the genre and how its personalities were launched into the world of celebrities. In this essay I will summarize the history of reality television and its celebrities and how the audience views the uprising of the genre.
From the beginning, these shows have provided the entertainment without the actors, making it all seem more real and defining the genre as “Reality Television” (Van Elser 96). Most authors, like Sanneh and Van Elser, agree that the genre started to take its influential role when the show An American Family started to gain popularity in 1973. According to Sanneh, An American Family was the first show of its kind. It documented the unscripted life of the Loud family for seven months and compressed it into 12 episodes presented on PBS (Sanneh). USA Today author Whitney Matheson discusses two instances where the show gained its infamy: when wife Pat demanded a divorce, and when their son Lance came out to his family and the world, making him the first openly gay person on television (Matheson). Unlike other stars, reality stars like Lance Loud “outlive their shows, and sometimes find ways to defy them” (Van Elser 96, Matheson). Because of this, Matheson depicts Lance Loud as the world’s first reality TV star.
It wasn’t until 1992 and the debut of The Real World that shows started to resemble An American Family (Sanneh). The Real World combined both fiction and documentary forms by filming the lives of a house full of strangers. When the 2000 came along, “television had witnessed an explosion in the reality genre” with shows like Big Brother and Survivor coming into the scene (Meyer). According to Nielsen, it was in this decade that reality television started gaining recognition in ratings on national television. This led to the creation of channels dedicated to reality television programming and broadcast networks increasing reality television airtime and by 2010 “the reality genre accounted for 40 percent of television’s prime-time schedule” (Meyer). Mike Van Elser reviews Misha Kavka’s “Film & Television” and discusses how the author admires this mix of fiction and documentary presented in these new reality television shows. Kavka views the reality television genre from her genealogical approach. With this approach, she explains how the genre has evolved by using practices established in earlier program developments. She views the genre as “something that occurs in waves” (Van Elser 98). Candid Camera and An American Family’s technological innovations, and the way they used ‘ordinary’ people in television in an unscripted manner, helped the genre evolve into what it is today. Shows take inspiration from past programs and incorporate them into theirs, while at the same time adding something new and innovative to the mix, creating the waves metaphor discussed by Kavka.
As the genealogical approach suggests, reality television has diversified in many ways with shows like American Idol and family documentaries like Pawn Stars, while still maintaining that original American Family formula on series like Teen Mom on MTV (Van Elser 97). The genre didn’t just only consist of just a “household and a camera” anymore; it had evolved (Matheson). But something that remains consistent through out reality television history is how viewers identify with different characters, their values and their behaviors (Dubose). Audiences identify with these characters because they started as ordinary people, just like them.
Today, shows like “The Bachelor” have managed to create characters from ordinary people, like “the woman “crushed” for amusement”, and these characters have become the driving force behind reality TV. These shows have allowed consumers of celebrity to play a part in the production of cultural visibility (Turner 79). They have transformed “the most popular cast members into self-sufficient celebrities” (Van Elser 98). In her New York Times Article, Kelefa Sanneh mentions how author Mark Andrejevic likes this idea of giving viewing time to real people. Like Turner, Sanneh believes that even though these are real, ordinary people, putting them on the air makes them celebrities, making them unreal and taking the ordinary out of them (Sanneh).
Author Graeme Turner suggests that the “precise moment a public figure becomes a celebrity” can be linked to when their private lives become more important than their lives on television (Turner). Tabloids have helped these ordinary people reach celebrity status and this started breaking down the distinction between the ordinary and the private lives of these personalities (Turner 73). Around 2010, celebrity gossip magazines started to become more popular, even when traditional print media was struggling. The popularity of these magazines can be attributed to reality television celebrities because they helped magazines “align the commercial interests of television as an entertainment institution with the celebrity gossip industry” (Meyer). When these reality television show participants enter into the celebrity world through tabloid attention, “their once “ordinary” lives are marked by the extra-ordinariness of celebrity status” (Meyer).
Audiences follow the reality television stars lives because it allows them to “fantasize about gaining status through automatic fame” (Reiss, Wiltz). The tabloidization of ordinary people “flatters the audience” and makes them believe they also have a chance to transform into a star (Turner). This can be explained by George Gerbner’s cultivation theory. This theory suggests that “high frequency viewers of television are more susceptible to media messages and the belief that they are real and valid.” (“Cultivation Theory”) With this theory, Gerbner explains how audiences of reality television shows are cultivating the stars attitudes and start to believe that they one day can become celebrities, because to them the reality television world becomes the real world (“Cultivation Theory”). This has lead to the controversy of how reality television stars are viewed today. Author John Perritano says “critics slam today’s reality television for its lack of class” by glorifying abuse, elevating shallowness and promoting dysfunctional relationships (Perritano 2). “The Week’s” article also suggests that reality television can be seen as vulgar and can contribute to the “debasement of popular taste” (“Pros and cons of reality TV shows”). Both authors also see the good in reality television. Perritano proposes that while some people have utilized it to serve the greater good. They also help show a more diverse nation, even if it’s just to mix people to create conflict (Perritano, 3). “The Week” also believes that some people are “no longer willing to accept only what broadcasters think is good for them”, saying we are not as easily convinced about the reality of these shows (“Pros and cons…”). Since the premier of An American Family, the reality TV star genre has evolved. Stars like Lance Loud have introduced reality television stars to the world. As we’ve learned from Turner, these stars rise from the ordinary masses, and with their popularity they turn into celebrities. Tabloid magazines help create their celebrity status by creating more interest about their private lives to the audience (Meyer). As Perritano mentions, these ordinary people reaching stardom have caused a debate between critics regarding its influence to the public (Perritano 2). It’s safe to predict that these reality television shows won’t be going away any time soon. So as Kavka suggests, the new eras will most likely follow the genealogical approach, taking what worked from past shows and adding new ideas to enhance and help the genre continue to evolve.