What was the name of that bre'esh show now... Brainiac!
If someone does something right it doesn't mean everyone else will, even if another format becomes more popular, they'd probably still follow Sturgeons law.
AHC: Kill Reality Television
- Thread starter thekingsguard
- Start date
What was the name of that bre'esh show now... Brainiac!
If someone does something right it doesn't mean everyone else will, even if another format becomes more popular, they'd probably still follow Sturgeons law.
Flubber
Banned
The point is that a network's funding source has no bearing on the "quality" of shows it green lights. As you note, the BBC's entries in the reality TV genre are aimed at a particular demographic. It the audience which ultimately determines what gets shown, not the network.
Several suggestions have mentioned a scandal or other catastrophe being linked to an early reality show. That's a rather good idea which has a historical precedent. A series of scandals involving fixed game shows in the late 1950s essentially kept that genre off US airwaves for years.
I keep thinking if Honey Boo Boo dies of a heart attack or Snooki kills her child it might kill modern day reality television... after those two, I can't see how we can sink much lower.
Is there any real chance of the former happening? That South Park episode has her getting a heart transplant, and her mother gives her a mix of Red Bull and Mountain Dew, but I didn't think her diet would be so extremely bad.
That being said, I of course wouldn't wish it on her. The cast of that show don't seem like bad people, from what little I've seen.
In the UK, I'd disagree for example as this shows, most of the greatest British television programmes have been BBC not ITV (the major commercial rival).
Concerning reality TV though, yeah it's really no different whatever type of funding model. Perhaps Big Brother being fixed to keep certain people in? This spreads to other programmes like the X Factor/Idol or whatever.
Potentially, but not necessarily. Mythbusters will remain unique because its first, but instead of crappy American Idol and Jersey Shore knock offs, and outright strange or creepy shows like Whisker Wars (yes its a real show) or Toddlers and Tiaras, the networks will be trying to mimic a show that's fun, funny, informative and actually entertaining. My point is that you are going to end up with knock-offs anyway, so why not create a POD that challenges networks to copy a formula that requires them to put some meat on the bone, so to speak, instead of endless shows about three year olds dressed like Lady Gaga, gator westling rednecks and shallow, bitchy women fighting with each other.
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Wait for someone to cross the line. You see, reality TV is relying more and more on "acceptable targets". Jersey Shore is rich hedonistic Italian twenty-somethings (or guidos as they commonly are called). Honey Boo Boo is proud southerners. My Strange Addiction is people with strange addictions.
You need someone to make a show about a bunch of black people acting like stereotypical gangstas or Hispanics living in a shitty southwestern apartment and drinking too much tequila.
You need someone to make a show about a bunch of black people acting like stereotypical gangstas or Hispanics living in a shitty southwestern apartment and drinking too much tequila.
Big Brother is not a BBC production, nor is it commissioned by the BBC , it began life on Channel4 and moved to Five when C4 decided it was too trashy. ( made by an indepedent production company IIRC)
'Who wants to be a millionaire' - again never been anywhere near the BBC, shown on ITV - all in all a fairly standard General knowledge quiz show with the gimmicks of ask the audience and phone a friend ... the only reason the million GBP prize is an issue is because the BBC can;t have prizes that large and for a long while the IBA restricted the value of prizes on UK independent television ( hence the speed boats, caravans and Austin metros as prizes on Bullseye - and they were pushing the upper limit for prize funds at the time )
'Dancing with the Stars' is not a UK series - 'Strictly Come Dancing' however is ... and as Saturday tea time light entertainment ... why not .
'What not to wear' - a progamme that has been dead for 5 years ...
'Sun ,Sex and Suspicious parents' - hands up for the BBC on that but it is a BBC3 commissioned production
'Don't tell the bride' - again fairly harmless fare - and BBC3
'the weakest link' fairly standard quiz show format with the gimmick of voting off ' the weakest link' instead of eliminating a player on the basis of some other arbitrary performance factor
Junior Doctors, i'm not quite sure what your objection to a serialised not quite a strict documentary is ...
and Jade Goody and the Beeb, not quite given She was 'discovered ' on big brother ...
I think this idea has promise, if someone were to air footage of so called reality scenes being rehearsed over and over again maybe that would be enough to lower the ratings to the point were the sponsers move on to the next fad.
Sometimes it seems that people do not realise that we do have tv here that is not BBC.
I m going to reak rnks and defend aspects of reality tv. Not all of it is asinine crap.... just most of it.
Here is an example of British reality tv - the UP series.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Up_Series
Up started in 1964 with a programme Seven Up which featured fourteen children from various socioeconomic backgrounds. There have been follow up programmes every seven years as the children grow up snd make their way through life. 56 Up was shown earlier this year. Only one of the 14 refuses to participate any further. All of them are still alive.
Reality tv need not be crap. The Up series in not a BBC venture but is made by ITV
Here is an example of British reality tv - the UP series.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Up_Series
Up started in 1964 with a programme Seven Up which featured fourteen children from various socioeconomic backgrounds. There have been follow up programmes every seven years as the children grow up snd make their way through life. 56 Up was shown earlier this year. Only one of the 14 refuses to participate any further. All of them are still alive.
Reality tv need not be crap. The Up series in not a BBC venture but is made by ITV
There's always a way to sink lower. Always.
Come back to this topic in ten years. You may wax nostalgic about missing the good ol' days of "Honey BooBoo" compared to what is being made now.
. In fact, I'd bet money on it.
indeed it has to be wondered given the examples from ITV, Five, and Sky which are purely commercial and from C4 which while a statutory corporation is commercially funded.
it's also quite apparent that people are ignorant of some of the other stuff the Beeb does, in addition to the 4 main TV channels, News 24 and the various other bits and pieces of telly like BBC parliament
- 2 dedicated children's channels CBBC channel and Cbeebies
- 9 National Radio channels, R1, R1x, R2, R3, R4, R5, R5SX, 6music and R7
- BBC Asian network and Welsh and Gaelic radio +TV
- local news
- local radio
- the none FO funded bits of the World Service ( and maintaining R4 long wave to provide English radio to the near continent)