Reality TV Primer Part 2: Show Types

People generally think that the term “Reality TV” clearly defines a specific type of modern television like Survivor or the The Bachelor. But when pressed, most people will also say The Real World came first, and Cops soon followed. But even The Real World is (or at least was) very different from a show like Survivor - that is, there’s no cash prize. In fact, most modern network reality TV is more closely related to game shows in a mini-series format.

Incidentally, Cops came before The Real World, but that hardly matters because versions of reality programming have been around for a long time. I don’t know if this site is really legit, but here’s what they say:

PBS debuted An American Family, an unsettling, yet fascinating documentary series, in 1973. The members of the Loud family opened up their home and lives for seven months to producer Craig Gilbert, who shot 300 hours of footage. Only 12 of those hours made it to television. An astonishing 10 million viewers watched the marital breakup of Bill and Pat Loud and the coming-out of their son Lance. The family complained that the hours chosen for broadcast misrepresented their lives.

I may go a little broad with my definition; you may find yourself disagreeing with some of the types I have listed below. But whether you’re right or not, I include them because my job as a reality Script Supervisor carries over in some way to each of these categories. Many shows blend several of these types, so don’t get too hung up on any rules I might casually make up. I’m also making up some of the category names, but whatever.

Clip Shows [AFV, Real TV, Max X]
As the name suggests, these shows are a collection of found (and almost always paid for) footage, often with a host and a paid audience to laugh at the puns. Yes, on shows like that, the audience is paid. I admit it: I like to watch AFV, but I prefer to watch it with the volume down. Oddly, I don’t even find Tom Bergeron that offensive, but I like the extra shock value that comes when you have no idea what or when catastrophe careens out of nowhere.

Documentary – Descriptive [Cops]
In my mind, both the purest form of reality and the rarest. There’s doesn’t have to be that much field producing going on (“Why did you become a cop?”). Cops also has no teases, no replays, and no voiceover. I like that.

Documentaries about found subjects would fall into this category. Apparently the lack of hot girls is the reason why there are more of them to be found on PBS and cable than on network television, though sometimes a show like The Restaurant will find a healthy mix of attractive people and not-too-fabricated scenarios.

Documentary – Prescriptive [The Real World, Pioneer House]
Though the people may be real and their reactions occasionally un-coached, there’s a one-hundred percent phoniness to the scenario. There’s no cash prize, or “job title” prize, but to say there’s no prize at all is pointless. Just being on TV is prize enough for most of these aspiring actors. You could say that simply living through the scenario essentially makes these transformative (see below), but they lack the how-to-do-it aspect. I should also add that pretty much anybody who’s on TV for more than a few seconds is paid (or advertising something that pays them), but that’s not a plot point in these shows.

It’s probably worthy of it’s own category, but Dating Shows fit snuggly in here. The wee but ever-airing Blind Date and the lumbering giants of The Bachelor/Bachelorette are false scenarios with real flakes.

Game Show – Lifestyle & Performance [Survivor, Fear Factor]
I wonder if these shows will ever fall into a quiz show scandal of their own? Heavily produced, highly fabricated, and a cash prize! Don’t tell me you think Trump really fires the worst candidate.

These are typically mini-series programs with seasons that don't quite add up to the years they've been on the air. I'd also include the unreasonably mighty American Idol in this.

Game Show – Quiz Shows [Jeopardy, Millionaire]
Nothing complicated here. Quiz shows occasionally branch into one-hour mini-series events, but most of them are as regular as your grandparents. There’s a studio, a couple of contestants, a host, and puzzles to solve and questions to answer.

Talk Show – Daytime [Oprah, The View, Ricki]
Often done "live to tape," these show have an interesting flexibility not allowed in most TV. The host is so prevalent, that the actual show content and format can vary wildly from one episode to the next.

Talk Show – Late Night [Letterman, Conan O’Brien]
Though the humor can be "edgy" compared to daytime talk shows, the format is apparently not as flexible. Pretty much all of them go like this: monologue, comedy segment, commercial, guest, commercial, comedy segment, commercial, guest, commercial, band/comedian. Jimmy Kimmel tried to stray with his show (that was once actually live on the East coast), but he’s since been reeled in and now follows the format. Also, I hate the word "edgy" as a description for any media.

Transformative [Extreme Makeover, Trading Spaces]
Whether it’s your body, your bedroom, your body in the bedroom, or your auto... body that needs work, these shows swoop in with designers, doctors, and d-something-mechanics. Build and Makeover shows were once almost exclusively on cable, but network shows like Extreme Makeover and its Home Edition have made transformations so lavish, the cable shows are falling to the side – seriously, the ratings are tanking. I’ve done a little case study on myself, and I think I know why transformative shows are popular: I can watch 3 hours of This Old House, and accomplish 0 hours of work. It's awesome.

News – Day & Date [Local News]
I’m guessing most people don’t think of this as reality. Maybe it’s not. I think my skills could get me a job somewhere in news, so I’m going to count it. Plus, I live in LA, so I'll watch live high-speed pursuits for hours. Real.

Legally, “Day & Date” means quite a lot. When The Apprentice decides to follow a contestant down the street, technically the production must get releases from any stores that end up in the shots. News shooters don’t have that responsibility, as long as it’s visible from the street (they still need to get permission to shoot on private property). They have this extra freedom presumably because what they're covering will air that date on a daily newscast - some kind of freedom-of-the-press newsworthy thing, I think.

Although I suspect it’s got some tricky loopholes, the news can also show pretty much any footage that’s newsworthy without clearing it. The next time disaster strikes America, make a little drinking game about the on-screen “bugs” in the footage free-for-all that ensues. Say, if you see a CNN logo under a CBS logo - drink. Or maybe if you see a “Lonely Man with an Old Video Camera Productions” logo sprawled across the top of the screen - drink. Anytime you watch Fox News – drink a lot.

News – Magazine [60 Minutes, 20/20]
Packed with segments and blowhard hosts, these shows are typically one-hour programs meant to scare the elderly. Not quite as free-running as the Day & Date news, they still get a lot of mileage out of the fair use concept. The segments in these shows are more thoroughly edited, and sometimes they even research the stories a little bit. I recently saw an abysmal episode of Primetime Live.

I guess I’d also have to count the half-hour entertainment programs like The Insider in this category. Even though some of them are Day & Date, they’re steeped in product placement and have a pretty narrow focus.

Prank Shows [Jamie Kennedy Experiment, Punk’d]
Prank shows used to look a lot more like clip shows than they do today - apparently it takes a star like Jamie Kennedy to get them made now. I’m hoping that somebody one day will punch Ashton Kuchar in the face, and I take a little joy in knowing that it may have already happened, because they’d never air it.


Up next, Part 3 of my thrilling Reality Primer - "So you want to be a Reality Star?"