[James]

Time for a reality check?
(Posted 06/04/2004)

The latest series of I?m a Celebrity..., McFadden, Jordan, Lydon and all, provided ITV with its biggest reality TV audience. But is too much reality TV compromising the integrity of TV as a medium? Adam Woods investigates

Reality television has given us many things in the three-and-a-half years since Channel 4?s Big Brother gave the genre its first genuine hit in the UK.

There were the dozens ? hundreds? ? of temporary tabloid celebrities and the 30 weeks? worth of number one reality pop singles in the past three years, not to mention the millions of ?water-cooler moments? many feared we would never experience again as the digital age and its limitless options arrived.

Then, there were the real numbers: the 15 million ITV viewing peak as Will Young was voted the first Pop Idol; the 9.4 million who watched a victorious Kate Lawler leave Channel 4?s Big Brother house at the climax of BB3.

And, staggeringly, 15.7 million tuned in as former Atomic Kitten Kerry McFadden emerged victorious from the latest run of ITV?s I?m A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here.

But the broadcasting world could never be accused of letting a winning formula go under-exploited, so for every genuine ratings winner there has been a clutch of lesser genre items, from Channel 5?s early misfire Touch The Truck to Channel 4?s recent sleep-deprivation show Shattered.

In fact, in the light of the many variations on the theme, it is increasingly hard to define exactly what reality TV is. Sub-genres such as the property show (Property Ladder, Changing Rooms), the celebrities-under-the-microscope show (Celebrity Fit Club, Celebrity Big Brother, I?m A Celebrity..., The Games), the role-reversal show (Wife Swap, Boss Swap, Faking It), the cult soap (The Salon) and the reality pop show (Pop Idol, Fame Academy) all combine different elements of the reality formula.

Voyeurism of the viewer

Ultimately, the only theme common to all of them is the voyeurism of the viewers.

The success of I?m A Celebrity... 3 once again saw a flagship reality show surfing the crest of a critical and commercial wave. But even in the face of such conspicuous popularity, a look at the schedules is enough to make you wonder how we found ourselves so reality-reliant.

In the face of such saturation, it is not hard to see why reality TV has picked up a bit of a bad name ? even in media circles, where big audiences make the world go round.

?I think there is a danger in the public perception, despite the numbers being there, that it is one show too many,? says Ilker Shakir, broadcast director at Initiative Media. ?As the years go on, people begin to feel they have done it, been to the pictures with it, read the book. My guess is that the novelty is beginning to wear off, as it has done with property programmes, as it did with fly-on-the-wall documentary stuff.

?It shows a certain lack of imagination in the major broadcasters that the next big thing is reality TV again.?

Others are harsher still. ?The fact that so many people in this country can be entertained by such basic television is a slight worry,? says BJK&E board director Tara Marus. ?But it is even scarier when you realise how many closet I?m A Celebrity..., Big Brother or Pop Idol fanatics there are. There is a large and eclectic group of people who are prepared to watch these programmes.?

But in many ways, it is the wide appeal of reality shows that is their saving grace. The nature of the media coverage for the most successful shows tells us that Guardian-reading professionals are as liable to succumb as Daily Mail-reading, Home Counties housewives or the Daily Star-reading millions who are generally assumed to make up the core audience.

?These shows are hard to ignore ? they dominate a schedule,? says Julian Bellamy, Channel 4?s head of factual entertainment and the commissioner of both Big Brother and Shattered. ?They almost have a tipping point at which they become so big that you feel like you have to watch them.?

History lesson

Five biggest reality TV moments (all figures are viewing peaks rather than averages)

15.7m Kerry McFadden wins the third series of I?m A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here(Feb 2003)

15m Will Young defeats Gareth Gates to become the first Pop Idol(Feb 2002)

12.8m The final line-up of PopStarsband Hear?Say is revealed (Feb 2001)

12.3m Phil Tufnell emerges victorious from the second series of I?m A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here(May 2003)

12.1m Michelle McManus wins the second series of Pop Idol(December 2003)

Ongoing backlash

Such ubiquity does not come without a price and in this case it is an ongoing general backlash that holds reality television responsible for everything from the lack of good drama on the box to the spiritual bankruptcy of British popular culture as a whole.

?You tend to get this very pompous attitude with reality TV,? says Zenith Optimedia head of TV Chris Hayward. ?Reality TV still has to be good of its kind to attract an audience. I?m A Celebrity... worked because thought went into putting the right people together.

?I don?t think it is for us to opine whether it has artistic merit or not,? Hayward adds. ?That is pompous nonsense. I don?t support dumbing down or anything like that, but this is a genre of programme that has found large audiences, and that is what we look for ? to develop large audiences for our clients.?

Accordingly, for many clients the fact that well-developed reality TV reliably produces sizeable audiences is a good enough argument for the ongoing relevance of the genre, particularly in quiet periods when little else in the schedules is delivering such a hefty punch.

?We were quite keen on I?m A Celebrity...

because January was not a great month for television,? says Dominic Stead, joint managing director of MPG London. ?Clients say: ?That is a programme I would like to be on because it is doing the numbers.?? The sheer fact that reality television commands not only the schedules but also the print press in the way it does means few clients are short of an opinion on the issue.

Just as reality-pop shows have demystified the star-making process, so the entire reality genre has made audience ratings an item of general interest.

?Clients like talking about it,? says Carat media director Philippa Goldberg. ?If they are in a buying review or are talking about dynamics within the marketplace, they can get involved as well. All our clients want TV that delivers audiences, and when it is delivering 10 million in one fell swoop they are going to be happy about that.?

But there are those who believe the spirit of innovation that spawned the genre in the first place cannot sustain it for much longer. For one thing, whatever else reality TV may be, it is frequently a bulky commodity in scheduling terms. ?In the case of I?m A Celebrity..., we had the best part of two weeks? programming at prime time made up of one programme,? says Ilker Shakir. ?In my view, that sucking-out of prime air time over a period does more harm than good.?

Nonetheless, reality marches on. Five invested about £5m in its Back To Reality programme, in which survivors of series such as Big Brother, Survivor and I?m A Celebrity...

were isolated from the world and pitted against each other for the amusement of the viewing public. Channel 4 has several reality properties on the drawing board, including Big Brother 5 this summer.

ITV, by comparison, is exercising commendable restraint after its fortnight in the jungle. It took its highest audience share for years with I?m A Celebrity..., with 25.8% of viewers ? although, aside from a new series of Hell?s Kitchen in May, the network has no further reality plans to discuss at this stage.

?ITV?s audience is broad and diverse. Our programming has to reflect that,? says ITV director of programmes Nigel Pickard. ?We don?t commission programmes because they are ?reality? or because they fit a certain genre.

We commission shows that we hope will be a hit with our audiences.

?I?m A Celebrity... was a great success for us and we are thrilled that millions of viewers were hooked. But you can?t do programming like that all the time ? it has to be a part of a much wider mix. Stripping a programme across the schedule can work to great effect, but as a scheduling tool it should be used sparingly.?

Bellamy believes reality television thrives in schedules the world over because of the way it encapsulates the best of many genres of programming.

?The great thing about these shows is that you can?t pigeonhole them,? he says. ?Big Brother, for instance, is part-documentary, part-soap opera, part-drama, part-entertainment show. It works on a whole series of different levels.

?Good reality television is underpinned by good, old-fashioned storytelling. It is about friendship, feuds and love affairs.?

The appeal is certainly a universal one. Big Brother and Pop Idol have been licensed worldwide, and a global generation of television commissioners continues to exercise the full extent of its imagination on the format.

Fox TV recently announced a potentially never-ending show, Forever Eden, in which young people reside indefinitely in an isolated luxury resort. In December, the Middle Eastern Broadcasting Corporation unveiled plans for a Big Brother-style show to run in several Arab states, which will see eight young Muslim women competing to win an arranged marriage.

What they say about reality TV

?As the years go on, people begin to feel they have done it, been to the pictures with it, read the book?

Ilker Shakir, broadcast director, Initiative Media

?The fact that so many people in this country can be entertained by such basic television is a slight worry?

Tara Marus, board director, BJK&E

?I actually don?t think it is for us to opine whether it has artistic merit or not. I think that is pretty pompous nonsense?

Chris Hayward, head of TV, ZenithOptimedia

?These shows almost have a tipping point at which they become so big that you feel like you have to watch them?

Julian Bellamy, head of factual entertainment, Channel 4

?Reality as a genre doesn?t mean anything. Viewers don?t watch genres, but great stories?

Sham Sandhu, controller of special events and pop features, Five

What is reality?

In the face of the apparently inexhaustible permutations of the formula, Sham Sandhu, Five?s controller of special events and pop features, goes as far as to question the very use of reality as a catch-all term.

?Reality as a genre doesn?t mean anything,? says Sandhu. ?If you look at the shows that people call reality television, some of them are light entertainment shows ? Pop Idol for example. Some of them are documentaries in the old tradition, such as Wife Swap.

?Watching Shattered was an interesting confirmation of the fact that it is not about reality at all ? it is about casting and stories. I don?t think viewers watch genres; viewers watch great stories.?

If Sandhu does not recognise reality as a genre, however, his most recent programme certainly did. In fact, if reality TV was to disappear from the schedules altogether, Back To Reality, with its collection of reality stars, might have made for a fitting final series.

The programme posted underwhelming viewing figures, starting on 1.8 million and immediately dipping sharply. In theory, a rejection of a concept that has been touted as ?the ultimate reality show? would seem to signal a rejection of the reality concept as a whole. But as fans of the genre know ? and as its detractors fear ? reality doesn?t necessarily work like that.

Think you know reality TV?

Try our quiz

1 Who won the first series of Big Brother?

a) Craig b) Nasty Nick c) Brian

2 Which presenter is best known for hosting Changing Rooms?

a) Linda Barker b) Carol Smillie c) Carol Vorderman

3 Who sponsored the last series of Pop Idol?

a) Cadbury b) Nestlé c) Masterfoods

4 What was the name of the male pop group chosen from Popstars: The Rivals?

a) D-Side b) One True Voice c) Boys Aloud

5 How many series of Big Brother have been broadcast so far?

a) Three b) Four c) Five

Answers: 1a, 2b, 3b, 4b, 5b

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