2008 Woodie Awards
Opposing viewpoints - weighing in on reality TV
TURN IT UP: Real or not, it's really entertaining
Heidi Stenquist
Issue date: 4/8/08 Section: Opinion
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City Times
"Will you stay in this house and rock my world?" Bret Michaels asks his rock goddesses, in "Rock of Love 2," where he tries another stab at love with millions of viewers watching, including me. Reality TV is wildly entertaining, and among the top rated shows today by far.
Anyone of us would make for great viewing; each person is so different in their response to things, facial comments and body movement. It's live people watching. A certain voyeurism we deliciously eat up. Carl Jung, Swiss Psychiatrist said "It all depends on how we look at things, and not how they are in themselves."
If you enjoy special features and documentaries, you might also gravitate to TV shows involving real people versus scripted shows with industry stars. Reality TV goes back to the days of "Candid Camera," "The Gong Show," "The Newlywed Game," "The Dating Game," "Laugh-in," "Star Search" and "Love Connection."
Those shows have paved the way for "Dancing With The Stars," "Americas Got Talent," "Cops," "American Idol," "Punk'd," "Hell's Kitchen" and hundreds of others. Even the American Gladiators are back. The "Amazing Race" is a great adrenaline rush, and every "Bachelor," or show like it, I'm going to watch. The human struggle is very engaging.
The travel channel, the history channel, HGTV and countless other shows teach you things of significant value and take you places. People like watching the plight of love, the exchange of words in conflict, and the "Dirty Jobs" of others.
I like to see human free-style emotion, I don't care that it's set up. Its fun to see who's going to win a challenge of sorts, how they behave, what is said. Editors have to cut a tight show, which means splicing transitions, background noise. They have a story and their intention is to move it forward with what they've got, placing the audience where it wants.
Behavior is very telling. Reality TV is the study of others, entertainment, and real people we don't already know about. As VH1 puts it, "Watch and Discuss."
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