Reality TV is Not Reality

[I'm bumping up this entry because another season of The Bachelorette has started.]

It should come as no surprise to any adult with any sense that "reality" television is not reality. News teams that attempt to give us reality for the sake of informing us quite often fail to provide reality (often by what they don't show) - so shows that are openly about entertainment certainly aren't going to be reality.

I bring this up now not just because another season of that joke, The Bachelor, has come and gone, but because comedian and podcast superstar Adama Carolla recently explained a few important things we didn't see on a recent episode of Celebrity Apprentice. As the article points out, since real charities will have to deal with real consequences as a result of how the show plays out, it is a little more important how producers manipulate the situation than, say, what happens on the latest Kardashian series or season of The Bachelor.

I like Adam's work. If nothing else, I would have liked to see him continue on the show because of the humor he brought to it.

"Reality" television is not reality. It simply features characters who are aware, and behave according to that awareness, that they are on a television show. What is that? Postmodern? Self-aware? There's probably a better term than "reality".

On Law and Order SVU, the character Detective Benson is not aware she is on a television show.

On The Bachelor, every single one of the participants is a character, even if the actors are using their real names or actual stage names, who are all aware they are on a reality show. Same goes goes for Survivor or Celebrity Apprentice or Storage Wars any other "reality" show.

Just as it is with other television shows, the writers, directors, producers, and editors can craft the shows to portray the characters in way the performers might not be like in their lives.

The difference is, more people are likely to realize that a character on a "scripted" sitcom or drama is not the same as the actor portraying that character. Yes, some people have had trouble with that, but I think fewer people have trouble with that than with "reality" shows. Since some reality shows record and entire season before any of it airs, the participants might have no clue what's being done to their character until it is too late to attempt to do anything about it.

See this previous entry on The Bachelor and this one as well.

[For what it is worth, producers and participants have pretty much revealed that the shows of The Bachelor franchise are somewhat artificial and "scripted" or a put-on, rather than reality.]

The Most Dramatic Rose Ceremony Ever

There can't possibly be anyone left over the age of ten who watches "The Bachelor"/"The Bachelorette" thinking that the show is really about romance and finding true love. There are probably more people who watch pro wrestling who fail to grasp that the shows are "booked" - the vignettes, the outcomes, some of the moves, and some of the trash-talking by the characters is written by others, and the wrestlers are actually cooperating in choreography with each other to put on an entertaining show. (It would be interesting to hear from the pro wrestler who was on this season a comparison between his roles.) The difference is, pro wrestling can be watched in-person and on live broadcasts in which mistakes and performer-improvised aspects will be included. And people can and do really get seriously injured. And, of course, the industry now openly admits the nature of their programming. In contrast, the people behind "The Bachelor" seem to fear that being open and honest about the nature of the show would take away the fun of their show.

It is absurd for a contestant on this series to talk about what they were given by the star as a date. The settings and activities of those dates are arranged by the producers.

The entertainment value of "The Bachelor" series is mostly in 1) laughing at the stupidity of the whole thing; 2) noticing just how much the people behind the show will stretch credulity; 3) watching the train wreck of bizarre behavior and hokey acting by some of the performers; 4) guessing who is being set up to be the “star” of next season.

My wife watches the show and she shows me the "good" parts. It was rather easy to figure out that last season, on "The Bachelor", Ali was being set up to be the star of this current season of "The Bachelorette". It was also obvious that Jake made the decision he did because he knew people would forgive him for dumping the woman he chose; fewer people would if he picked the "good girl" and then dumped her. And there always is a dumping – none of them ever stay together. Thinking about that – none. Nonmatchmaking "reality" shows have actually ended up creating lasting couples, because the participants have something in common. This time, it appears that the break-up was timed to keep the two of them in the headlines after Jake's run on "Dancing With the Stars" ended.

In the latest episode of this season – Ali's season – a contestant left after it was revealed that… gasp… he had a girlfriend! And he had been seeing someone else in addition to her, too.

How many other participants on the show have a girlfriend or women he has been seeing back home? Probably most. There's no way everyone else on the show, aside from this guy, was completely unattached and seriously looking to settle down with someone they were going to be performing with on such a farce of a show.

The entire premise of the show is hard enough to believe. Twenty-five young, attractive, unmarried professional men (or women) have each closed all other doors and are wholeheartedly focused on winning over an attractive woman (or man) who is dating twenty four other men and making out with some of them on camera, spending time with them in hut tubs and overnight in nice hotel rooms. (I would suggest not promising exclusivity to anyone unless there’s a ring and a date.)

Do all of the guys really want to marry Ali? I'm sure most of them, if not all, would love to share a room with her overnight, and that all of them want to stay on the show as long as possible (at least when they start out), hopefully setting themselves up to be the next Bachelor… where they will get to star for a season and make out with various women. But there's no way that all of them really want to marry her. And, given the track record, there will be no pressure for them to do so should they have the misfortune of being picked by her instead of being picked by the producers to be the next Bachelor.

There there's the fact that everyone – from the guy who is supposedly quitting and running away from the show to his girlfriend who supposedly isn't part of the show - waits for cameras to get into place (sometimes coming to a remote city) before going ahead and doing what they were going to do. Kind of like pro wrestling television.

Don't get me wrong. I find the show entertaining, like watching an empty car burn. I just don't think it is doing positive things for relationships.

If you are also a viewer, are you there for the right reasons?

Click on my tag below to read my previous writings about "The Bachelor".

The Bachelor and Bachelorette Franchise is Not About Matchmaking

And so passes another finale for a season of "The Bachelorette". My wife watches.

If you don't want the show spoiled for you, come back to this blog entry later.

Natalie Finn has this story for E! Online, corporate sibling to ABC. This is the one quote I picked out:

Here's a lesson to remember, girls - as nice as one man's 8-pack may be, go with the guy who thinks you're a genius.

Just as men looking for a wife need to see past the well-placed molecules to evaluate character traits of women, women need to do the same when it comes to men. If she looks well enough, she just might be able to find the guy with the 8-pack who also thinks she is a genius.

Back to the show.

So both (or three) dudes were ready to propose to her, and one actually did, and she accepted.

Are they still together? Will they be in another six months? This franchise has a terrible track record, as do most imitators/variations. I wrote about this previously. Everything I wrote still applies. How much time are these people really spending with each other, and over the course of how many weeks?

I understand that as a straight married male, this show isn't targeted towards me. But c'mon, ladies, do you watch thinking there's a good chance that these people are going to find lasting love with each other?

Please Stop Watching “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette”

Although I own shares of ABC’s parent company, I hereby urge everyone (which mostly means women) to stop watching “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette”. Isn’t it obvious now that, like other matchmaking “reality” shows, that the goal isn’t matching compatible people for lasting relationships? The goal is to get you to watch the show. That means participants and situations are going to be selected to be geared towards that, not towards developing an honorable relationship. With extreme rare exceptions (maybe no exceptions, actually), these kinds of shows have failed to produce a lasting relationship. Just about any other television show, reality or otherwise, has had a better track record than the modern matchmaking shows. The real goal of any of the pool of hopefuls is to stay on television as long as possible, not to find true love. How can you find true love with cameras and bright lights and a crew surrounding you whenever you are together?

Here’s E! Online Natalie Finn’s story on the latest with “The Bachelor”. Last I checked, E! is partially owned by ABC’s parent company, so this isn’t going to be hard-hitting journalism.

Recent Bachelorette reject Jason Mesnick, whose heart DeAnna Pappas passed over in her own second-time-around quest for love, has signed on to be the new
Bachelor when the ABC series returns in January 2009.

Ugh.

The hunky single dad from Seattle had been all primed to propose, ring and everything, when Pappas stopped him from getting down on one knee, leaving him—and plenty of viewers—crushed.

He’s a divorced dad. He shouldn’t be dating. Much less on TV. He should be concentrating on raising his child.

Instead, she opted for 26-year-old snowboarder Jesse Csincsak.

And how is that working out? You can keep track of this sort of thing on Wikipedia.

Now Mesnick gets another shot at making the perfect match. The hunt is on for 25 ladies willing to bare their hearts, souls and, in some cases, claws on national TV.

And be portrayed as the producers/editors choose. Actually many of them are struggling/hopeful actresses anyway, and they will act on the show.

The logistics are still being hammered out, but Chris Harrison, who hosts both The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, told iFilm.com during the recent Television Critics Association press tour that Mesnick's 3-year-old son, Ty, "would have to take center stage."

Great. Let’s screw up this kid as much as possible.

“If they look for the right people [to cast], anything is possible."

Hey, buddy, they aren’t going to cast people who are fundamentally compatible with you – at least not for the most part. They are going to cast a wide variety of attractive women based on their ability to fill archetypes, stereotypes, and entertain the audience.