Reality TV

All About Reality Tv

Reality TV isn’t anything new. America’s Funniest Home Videos came out in the late 80′s, along with Rescue 911 and Cops. Those shows were the beginning of a very interesting trend in television. Many shows have followed the pattern, to great effect. Audiences can’t get enough of spying on the real lives of television stars. Survivor and American Idol, along with The Bachelor and Project Runway, have been thrilling audiences for years.


Dancing with the Stars captured the hearts of folks that love to watch dancers compete, while Real Housewives of New Jersey and Jersey Shore let us step into the real lives of folks going through their own personal dramas together.

Another early reality show that helped to kick off the trend was called The Real World. This MTV produced show let everyone watch seven strangers get to know each other in an apartment or home. This Reality television classic set the standard for many of the reality dramas that followed. Likewise, magazines follow a real set of people throughout their careers and sometimes even their real lives.

Sports Illustrated documents the life and times of athletes, Playboy Deals candidly with beautiful women and celebrity men, and Cosmopolitan zones in on the glamorous lives of everyday women that need advice about how to fix hair or get to know their men better. The purpose of all of these reality-based communications is to give “everyday” people the opportunity to see that their dramas are played out the world over. We see the silliness of human behavior, the violence or anger, and we’re drawn to that kind of emotion because we experience it ourselves.

As long as people live in reality, there will be reality television that lets us peek inside the heart of people and witness their interactions in a way that is meaningful to us. It gives us a chance to understand ourselves better and to understand human beings in general better. The talent competitions let us root for the good guy, or bad guy, as we enjoy their talents during the competition. These shows are good for television and they’re good for the people that love them.