blogpost11

Kristen Coyne

10 April 2015

Blog post 11

            Watching reality television is a guilty pleasure many of us have, mainly because it is so addicting. Although it is proven and evident that it is partly staged, we still just can’t keep our eyes off of it. In the article “Real World” by Jeannine Amber, we got a closer look at behind the scenes of reality television. It seems that the shows are all drama and fighting, but really the producers are provoking these things to happen to keep viewers entertained. They provoke them whether it is with alcohol or telling them to do a little thing such as a sigh or a name call and then it escalate quickly from there. They also make it a point to hire people with who seem like they will have clashing personalities to make the shows more interesting. Nene Leakes of Real Housewives of Atlanta gets in an argument with another member of the show. She explains that this behavior is unlike her and reality TV there is often many situations you get put in that you are not comfortable with. She explains the incident as “an out-of-body-experience”. The way the television producers take a small thing that isn’t even necessarily an argument and blow it up to be a huge deal would highly affect the actions of who is part of the argument. The pressure of being on reality television clearly has an impact on the way women behave.  Nene and her husband’s twelve-year marriage also ended while she was on the show. She explains that if she had not been on the show, they might have been able to work things out. There is no privacy on reality television and I feel that is the biggest problem. The main things people would want to keep private such as a relationship or arguments is what the television producers want to see more of and they thrive off of magnifying and blowing up a small issue into a much bigger one.  Although many people state how ridiculous the stars of the shows are with their drama and arguing, when it is more realistic with conversation and real life things, viewers complain that it is boring. The television producers do make reality television shows ridiculous, but that is what the viewers want to see. No one would tune in if it was just a regular group of people being friends and getting along drama free, so there is no happy medium for reality television.