Why reality shows are anything but reality?

The concept of Reality Shows began to gain prominence in the early 1990s and television houses began to toy around and experiment with the genre in various forms. Reality shows were originally envisioned to document the unscripted real-life reactions, responses, and actions of participants of the respective shows.

Owing to the record-breaking success and global franchise business model working out, the reality show producers cracked the tricks of the trade and began to whip up formula to spice up the ‘reality’ of the show via culture, emotions, race, controversy, open relationships and lot more.

The original unscripted premise having taken a backseat to near oblivion, the reality shows have been more scripted than the typical scripted shows. The worst part is that this fake reality is an open-secret where the audience knows yet yearns for more.

The evolution of sticking-to-the-script functioning in reality shows has grown so much so that participants are so ready every time to live a famed fake life in exchange for popularity, money, and even the corridors of power politics.

With the advent of technologies newer mediums of content consumption emerging, the extent of scripted innovation has only been growing in the reality show space. It is still a far fetch for reality to catch up to the reality shows.