unit.docx

1、unitUnit 5Part AReality televisionReality television is a genre of television programming which presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors. Although the genre has existed in some form o

2、r another since the early years of television, the term reality television is most commonly used to describe programs of this genre produced since 2000. Documentaries and nonfictional programming such as news and sports shows are usually not classified as reality shows.Reality television saw an expl

3、osion of global popularity starting in the early 2000s. Two reality series - Survivor and American Idol - have been the top-rated series on American television for an entire season. The shows Survivor, the Idol series, the Top Model series, the Dancing With The Stars series, The Apprentice, Fear Fac

4、tor and Big Brother have all had a global impact, having each been successfully syndicated in dozens of countries.Currently there are at least two television channels devoted exclusively to reality television: Fox Reality in the United States, launched in 2005, and Zone Reality in the UK, launched i

5、n 2002. In addition, several other cable channels, such as Viacoms MTV and NBCs Bravo, feature original reality programming as a mainstay. In April 2008, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences announced it will give its very first Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Host for a Reality Show or

6、Reality Competition on September 21. Reality television has become such an integral part of television and our culture, so it only made sense for us to create this new highly competitive category, TV academy Chairmen and CEO John Shaffner said in the announcement. Types of reality TVDocumentary-styl

7、eIn many reality television shows, the viewer and the camera are passive observers following people going about their daily personal and professional activities; this style of filming is often referred to as fly on the wall or Factual television. Often plots are constructed via editing or planned si

8、tuations, with the results resembling soap operas hence the term docusoap or docudrama. In other shows, a cinma vrit style is adopted, where the filmmaker is more than a passive observertheir presence and influence is greatly manifest.Within documentary-style reality television are several subcatego

9、ries or variants:Special living environment Some documentary-style programs place cast members, who in most cases previously did not know each other, in artificial living environments; The Real World is the originator of this style. In almost every other such show, cast members are given a specific

10、challenge or obstacle to overcome. Big Brother is probably the best known program of this type in the world with different versions produced in many countries around the globe. Celebrities Another subset of fly-on-the-wall-style shows involves celebrities. Often these show a celebrity going about th

11、eir everyday life. In other shows, celebrities are put on location and given a specific task or task. VH1 has created an entire block of shows dedicated to celebrity reality, known as Celebreality. Professional activities Some documentary-style shows portray professionals either going about day-to-d

12、ay business or performing an entire project over the course of a series. No outside experts are brought in (at least, none appear on screen) to either provide help or to judge results. The earliest example (and the longest running reality show of any genre) is COPS which has been airing since 1989,

13、preceding by many years the current reality show phenomenon. Elimination/Game showsAnother type of reality TV is reality-competition, or so-called reality game shows, in which participants are filmed competing to win a prize, often while living together in a confined environment. In many cases, part

14、icipants are removed until only one person or team remains, who/which is then declared the winner. Usually this is done by eliminating participants one at a time, in balloon debate style, through either disapproval voting or by voting for the most popular choice to win. Voting is done by either the

15、viewing audience, the shows own participants, a panel of judges, or some combination of the three. (These programs have also been called game operas, a term coined by Steve Beverly.A well-known example of a reality-competition show is the globally-syndicated Big Brother, in which cast members live t

16、ogether in the same house, with participants removed at regular intervals by either the viewing audience or, in the case of the American version, by the participants themselves.There remains some disagreement over whether talent-search shows such as the Popstars series, Americas Got Talent, Dancing

17、with the Stars, and Celebrity Duets are truly reality television, or just newer incarnations of shows such as Star Search. Although the shows involve a traditional talent search, the shows follow the reality-competition conventions of removing one or more contestants per episode and allowing the pub

18、lic to vote on who is removed; the Popstars series also require the contestants to live together during the run of the show (though their daily life is never shown onscreen). Additionally, there is a good deal of interaction shown between contestants and judges. As a result, such shows are often con

19、sidered reality television.Modern game shows like Who Wants to Be a Millionaire also lie in a gray area: like traditional game shows, the action takes place in an enclosed TV studio over a short period of time; however, they have higher production values, more dramatic background music, and higher s

20、takes than traditional shows (done either through putting contestants into physical danger or offering large cash prizes). In addition, there is more interaction between contestants and hosts, and in some cases they feature reality-style contestant competition and/or elimination as well. Popular var

21、iants of the competition-based format include the following:Dating-based competition Dating-based competition shows follow a contestant choosing one out of a group of suitors. Over the course of either a single episode or an entire season, suitors are eliminated until only the contestant and the fin

22、al suitor remains. Job search In this category, the competition revolves around a skill that contestants were pre-screened for. Competitors perform a variety of tasks based around that skill, are judged, and are then kept or removed by a single expert or a panel of experts. The show is usually prese

23、nted as a job search of some kind, in which the prize for the winner includes a contract to perform that kind of work. The first job-search show which showed dramatic, unscripted situations may have been Americas Next Top Model, which premiered in May 2003. Other examples include The Apprentice (whi

24、ch judges business skills), Hells Kitchen (for chefs), Shear Genius (for hair styling) Project Runway (for clothing design), Top Chef (for cooking),Top Design (for interior design), Stylista (for fashion editors), Last Comic Standing (for comedians), The Starlet and Scream Queens (for actresses), On

25、 the Lot (for filmmakers), The Shot (for photographers), So You Think You Can Dance (for dancers) and the MuchMusic VJ Search (for television hosts). . Fear-centric Possibly introduced in the mid 1990s with Australias Who Dares Wins, then in the US with MTVs Fear in 2000, fear-centric shows place pe

26、ople in situations or locations aimed at generating emotions of fright, panic, or revulsion. Shows in the genre include Fear Factor, Scare Tactics and Celebrity Paranormal Project. Sports Most of these programs create a sporting competition among athletes attempting to establish their name in that s

27、port. The Club, in 2002, was one of the first shows to immerse sport with reality TV, based around a fabricated club competing against real clubs in the sport of Australian rules football; the audience helped select which players played each week by voting for their favorites. Self-improvement/makeo

28、verSome reality television shows cover a person or group of people improving their lives. Despite differences in the content, the format is usually the same: first the show introduces the subjects in their current, less-than-ideal environment. Then the subjects meet with a group of experts, who give

29、 the subjects instructions on how to improve things; they offer aid and encouragement along the way. Finally, the subjects are placed back in their environment and they, along with their friends and family and the experts, appraise the changes that have occurred. Other self-improvement or makeover s

30、hows include The Biggest Loser and Fat March, (which covers weight loss), Extreme Makeover (entire physical appearance), Queer Eye For The Straight Guy (style and grooming), Supernanny (child-rearing), Made (attaining difficult goals), What Not to Wear (fashion and grooming), Trinny & Susannah Undre

31、ss (fashion makeover and marriage), Tool Academy (relationship building), Flavor of Love Girls: Charm School & Rock of Love Girls: Charm School 2 (manners), The Girls of Hedsor Hall (etiquette) and The Bad Girls Club & Bad Girls Road Trip (self-improvment).RenovationSome shows make over part or all

32、of a persons living space, work space, or vehicle. Social experimentAnother type of reality program is the social experiment that produces drama, conflict, and sometimes transformation. Dating showsUnlike the aforementioned dating competition shows, some shows feature all new contestants each episode. This format was first used in the 1960s show The Dating Game. Modern examples include Blind Date, Room Raiders, Elimidate, Next, and Parental Control.Talk showsThough the traditional format of a talk show is that of a host interviewing a featured guest or discussing a chosen t