The Constant Barrage of Reality Television: Too Real?
by Andy Moseley - reprinted with permission from the April 2001 Mariners' Log
In case you missed the boat (and the 15 that followed it), reality television is all the rage. Now, we have a barrage of shows including Boot Camp, Making the Band, The Mole, Popstars, Big Brother, Fear, The Real World, Road Rules, The Real World/Road Rules Extreme Challenge, Chains of Love, Eco-Challenge, Tough Enough, Survivor, and Temptation Island. There's more on the way. Reality television will not go away in the year 2001. While the shows seem like harmless fun, are they much more? Reality shows have impacted more than just the weekly television ratings.
The big case study is obviously Mark Burnett's mega-hit Survivor. For those of you under a rock during the first season, it was Richard Hatch who "survived" and won the million-dollar prize. He instantly became a big media star, allong with popular fellow castaways Rudy and Colleen. Those castaways who weren't so popular are popping up everywhere nowadays. One in particular is Stacey Stillman, who has filed a lawsuit against Survivor and Burnett. Stillman charges that her early departure from the tribe of Survivor was rigged and Burnett bribed fellow castaways into voting against her. Sure, imagine Kelly writing down Stacey's name on one of those pieces of paper at tribal counsel and saying, "My vote is for Stacey because she just hasn't held up her end of the workload and Mark is paying me off to vote for her." Stacey says she was chosen by Burnett to be voted off to protect the popular 72-year-old Rudy Boesch. The case has yet to go to court, but due to a contract Stillman signed regarding the show, it will be held in Los Angeles.
The survivors have had issues on the respective islands of each season as well. This season's cast in the Australian outback have been a fine case study. First of all, it has been proven that the top way for a person to lose weight is to go on Survivor. Take one look at the castaways this season and you'll agree totally. Young, thin-to-begin-with Elisabeth and Amber are the best examples. The older Rodger (who was probably cast in hopes of finding another Rudy but ended up being a nice, loveable guy) is also showing the effects.
A bigger reality of the series this time was a castaway's having to be transported away from the tribe's area and into the medical region. Mike, the crazy pig-killing castaway, apparently blacked out while building the Kucha tribe's fire and fell into it face first. He suffered burns on his hands, chest, and face and could not continue in the game. Miraculously he healed without surgery. In most reality shows, the danger is not there, but when you're deserted on an island full of alligators and waterfalls, anything can happen.
For such a steampy, hyped-up, sexed-up show, Temptation Island ended with a whimper as all three couples ended up choosing to stay together. Up until recently, excluding the occasional appearance on Howard Stern's show or the TV Guide Awards broadcast, the temptees have been fairly quiet. Leave it to controversial couple Taheed Watson and Ytossie Patterson to come back and be in the spotlight again. The couple were kicked off the show during tapings at it was discovered that they had a child together. Taheed and Ytossie have filed a lawsuit against the network and show producers, charging that they were coerced into lying about having a child, then being made to look like "selfish monsters" when the show aired. The lawsuit claims that both have lost their jobs due to the experience. Don't cry too hard for the couple though; Ytossie has found herself a job as a stand-in for Holly Robinson Peete on For Your Love, and Taheed recently snagged a role on the crime series Arrest & Trial. Yes, I'd be suing too if I lost my normal boring job and found my way back onto television and into the scrutiny of millions of viewers once again.
While still developing a new reality show, NBC was itself hit with a hard dose of reality. Destination: Mir was supposed to put a group of average Americans through full space training, with participants voting off fellow trainees until just a few were left. Those left would be sent up into space, given a few days with the Mir spacecraft, and brought back down to Earth. Well, Mir came crashing down into the ocean, and NBC is in a black hole of sorts.
So far, the other reality shows haven't had anything big to offer, except for the big, boring Big Brother household and the big, loud mouths of the commanders on Boot Camp. A whole new round of reality shows is set to hit the stage, however, and could provde some fun.
MTV's The Real World celebrates its tenth season back in New York City, where craziness reigns supreme to begin with. UPN's Chains of Love features three men chained to a woman for a few days as well as three women chained to a man. That doesn't sound so bad. Popstars continues to piece together the girl group Eden's Crush. MTV and the WWF are teaming up for Tough Enough, a new reality series which will feature WWF hopefuls living together and training under the watchful eyes of such superstars as Tazz and Al Snow with two men and two women earning developmental contracts to wrestle. The season of Survivor is still winding down as is the Real World/Road Rules Challenge, and new seasons of Temptation Island, Road Rules, and The Mole are about to start production. With all of this, more fame-seeking lawsuits are sure to pop up.
