Reality Shows (some random thoughts)

These days there is a flood of reality shows on TV and there so many types covering many walks of life. Some of them test your talent and some test your smartness and some are game shows and some are just there to create controversy. I watch a lot of TV and since I cannot relate to any of the daily soaps, I switch to some of these reality shows. Once during a training on presentation skills, I was asked to present something on a topic of my choice and was given 5 minutes to prepare. I chose to present on reality shows and will try to write down some of those thoughts here.

I have read somewhere that the concept of reality shows was introduced by TV series COPS, started in 1989 because of Writers Guild of America strike. The show is still running and is based on real life cops work. First time something like this was introduced to Indian audience in the form of Antakshari. This idea of a reality show was introduced to me by the 1998 Jim Carrey starer popular movie The Truman Show. After coming to Mumbai in recent years I started watching Roadies, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa, Americal Idol, Dance India Dance, Splitsvilla, BiG Boss, KBC, many Comedy shows etc and very recently Marriage shows, Dare to Date, Emotional Atyachar, and Music ka Maha Muqabala.

Many times people tell me that everything in these shows is scripted and well rehearsed and I tell them, what difference does that make. In the end it's all about entertainment and I am more entertained if I assume that it's real, then so be it. I am enjoying.

You need to PROVE yourself to DESERVE the RESPECT. Prove, deserve and respect being the most commonly used words in the reality shows. Sometimes it's funny to hear these words misused in weird situations. While talent based reality shows are popular the more popular ones are based on group dynamics, like Bigg Boss, Roadies, Splitsvilla. What makes audience stick to these shows is their involvement in the shows. Critical decisions in many of these shows are based on audience votes. So starting episodes focus on knowing the contestants and once audience decides on their favourites, they start voting for them. Once you vote for a contestant you want to see how he/she is performing. So it becomes like a cycle, you vote for the performance and then watch the performance because you voted. This is true in case of many talent based reality shows.

Another reason behind the popularity of these shows, which is more applicable for the shows based on group dynamics, is that they make the audience relate to the characters. In my personal opinion, since there is not much social life left in urban Indian society, these shows make the audience feel closer to the society. These shows become a part of the social life for the audience.

Last but not the least you have some usual suspects who have perfected the art of being on a reality show. Himesh Reshamiya, Malaika Arora, Abhijit, Alka Yagnik, Anu Mallik, Ranavijay, Nikhil Chinappa to name a few. Then there are star appearances to promote their upcoming movies, most popular appearances being of SRK, Salman and Amitabh.