AHC: Kill Reality Television

[thekingsguard]

Flipping through the channels today, as class was cancelled, really made me realize just how much of television is trashy, low-brow reality television. I'm still at a loss at how we went from Survivor and American Idol to every network on TV having a half dozen reality shows.

My question is, how would we prevent that? Cancel the OTL writers strike? Some early scandals? Good taste or better education? What?

[Flubber]

Looking over possible PODs, preventing the writers' strike would be far more easier than raising cultural and/or education levels.

[Kongzilla]

We must send a message to the people that sign up for Reality TV shows. We must kill snooki and destroy the Jersey Shore set, this will put fear in the hearts of those that dare create crap again.

[Luath]

In their defense/

BOO! BURN THE HERETIC!!! CLEANSE US OF THE UNCLEAN!!!!

Not all reality shows are necessarily terrible, though granted there are more than a few that make me want to do.... bad things, maybe if there was more of a drive for quality reality shows.

[Kongzilla]

I actually really liked the tv show "The Colony"

[ModernKiwi]

You need to prevent the rise of other forms of entertainment (ie console games and the internet). (In other words, you're going to find it very difficult). It's the loss of revenue due to falling audiences who have other better forms of entertainment that has driven the TV networks into these kind of low cost, easy to produce models rather than focusing on better quality to keep the audience.

Note that the BBC (for example) which isn't advertising dependent still produces high value shows (high quality on the other hand is in the eye of the beholder).

[Meerkat92]

We already killed reality TV once during the Snooki War. I'd really hate to have to do it all over again.

[Flubber]

Originally Posted by ModernKiwi

Note that the BBC (for example) which isn't advertising dependent still produces high value shows...

High value shows like "Big Brother", "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire", "Sun, Sex, and Suspicious Parents", "Don't Tell The Bride", "Junior Doctors: Your Life In Their Hands", "Dancing With The Stars", "What Not To Wear", "Life Laundry", "The Weakest Link", and the dozens of others several of which featured the late Jade Goody who makes Snooki look like a freakin' Rhodes Scholar.

OTOH, a network like AMC TV which relies primarily on advertizing can only produce shit like "Mad Men", "Breaking Bad", "The Walking Dead", and the US version of "The Killing".

"Reality" TV is cheap and TV networks regardless of their funding mechanisms like cheap.

[Hadley]

You'd have to go all the way back to the early 90s and either have The Real World flop or never get off the ground to begin with.

[ModernKiwi]

Big Brother was C5 from recollection, not BBC at all. Most of the others you quote from recollection aren't BBC jobs either. Who wants to be a Millionare was ITV.

[Mike Stearns]

What about a POD where Mythbusters premiers a year or two before Survivor. Its as successful as in OTL and it becomes the model for reality TV.

[pieman97405]

Keep TV limited to ABC, NBC, and CBS, or make real life so terrible nobody wants to watch reality.

[Kalvan]

Who wants to be a Millionaire, The Weakest Link, and Dancing With The Stars are all technically game shows. The third has roots all the way back to "Dance Fever" in the Eighties.

Frankly, the best way to destroy "reality" competitions is to have someone who didn't have a pre-existing condition die during the filming of an early episode of Survivor in such a way that a judge has no other recourse legally or morally but to award a lottery win to the next-of-kin.

[naraht]

Originally Posted by Mike Stearns

What about a POD where Mythbusters premiers a year or two before Survivor. Its as successful as in OTL and it becomes the model for reality TV.

Excuse me, we don't write Utopias on this board.

[XNM]

Originally Posted by pieman97405

Keep TV limited to ABC, NBC, and CBS, or make real life so terrible nobody wants to watch reality.

Considering how "reality tv" is about as real as Pamela Anderson's soul, having a Nazi victory TL where tactical use of nuclear weapons is commonplace would probably lead to more crap like Jersey Shore. If reality tv is invented at all.

[naraht]

Originally Posted by Kalvan

Who wants to be a Millionaire, The Weakest Link, and Dancing With The Stars are all technically game shows. The third has roots all the way back to "Dance Fever" in the Eighties.

Frankly, the best way to destroy "reality" competitions is to have someone who didn't have a pre-existing condition die during the filming of an early episode of Survivor in such a way that a judge has no other recourse legally or morally but to award a lottery win to the next-of-kin.

How about having one contestant actually murdered in the first season of Survivor...

[Luath]

Originally Posted by Mike Stearns

What about a POD where Mythbusters premiers a year or two before Survivor. Its as successful as in OTL and it becomes the model for reality TV.

Yeah, but isn't that going to mean that you'll just end up with hundreds of tired knock offs? Thereby diluting the uniqueness offered by Mythbusters?

[Mike Stearns]

Originally Posted by Kalvan

Who wants to be a Millionaire, The Weakest Link, and Dancing With The Stars are all technically game shows. The third has roots all the way back to "Dance Fever" in the Eighties.

I used to love The Weakest Link. I loved the idea of a game show where the host repeatedly insults and abuses the contestants.

[BillyShears]

Originally Posted by Flubber

High value shows like "Big Brother", "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire", "Sun, Sex, and Suspicious Parents", "Don't Tell The Bride", "Junior Doctors: Your Life In Their Hands", "Dancing With The Stars", "What Not To Wear", "Life Laundry", "The Weakest Link", and the dozens of others several of which featured the late Jade Goody who makes Snooki look like a freakin' Rhodes Scholar.

OTOH, a network like AMC TV which relies primarily on advertizing can only produce shit like "Mad Men", "Breaking Bad", "The Walking Dead", and the US version of "The Killing".

"Reality" TV is cheap and TV networks regardless of their funding mechanisms like cheap.

They're the only BBC reality TV shows there and they're all from a channel in the UK called BBC3 which is aimed at the student/young adult/teen market. It does however also produce gems such as Being Human, Torchwood, and Gavin & Stacey.

[vultan]

Originally Posted by Flubber

OTOH, a network like AMC TV which relies primarily on advertizing can only produce shit like "Mad Men", "Breaking Bad", "The Walking Dead", and the US version of "The Killing".

Uh... sarcasm? I hope?