Mechanism That Makes Reality TV Unreal

It is known each television format has their own strength that ties audiences’ for becoming loyal consumer. While drama is revealing materials that help audience seeing relevant identification with their daily problems, Oprah personality brings loyal audience watching her daily shows, reality shows with its way of dramatization now have turning into various types of reality and proving that the format could be as inviting as drama and music programs.
Reality show first started in 1948, when Allen Funt’s Candid Camera aired. Words had it said, Andy Warhol’s Chelsea Girls (1966), got several acquaintances with reality television concept. In the film, camera just followed Warhol around without direction. This concept later televised in An American Family, which about a nuclear family going through divorce.

Indonesian viewer would remember first the reality format they watched from the longest running show in MTV history, Real World (1992), which also had its Indonesian MTV Real World version (1998). Before MTV Real World ever made, Dutch Television had gotten similar concept since 1991, the show called Nummer 28, originated the concept together of putting strangers together in the same environment for an extended period of time and recording the drama that ensued.
Reality show recording the stars life drama, later dominates from E! to music channels VH1 & MTV’s. E! has Kimora Life in The Fabulous Line, Keeping Up With The Kardashian, Denise Richards; It’s Complicated, Number One Single, The Anna Nicole Show, Living Lohan and Hey Paula!

While MTV chosen Room Raiders (love it!), My Super Sweet Sixteen (for disgustingly spoiled teens), Punk’D, The Newlyweds; Nick and Jessica, Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County and The Hills (scripted), VH1 had America’s Next Top Model, Bad Girls Gone Bad, Parental Control, and Tommy Lee Goes To College.
Another example that Indonesian viewers could only seen in cable networks or pirates DVD, Simple Life, reality show about two high society girl, Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie spending days living in trailer and doing what describe as blue collar type of job. Simple Life, was no different from various documentary style reality featured on E! Channel which popular as celebreality.
On the contrary of celebreality, is the type of reality show which offers chance to people get what they intend to have in an instant; elimination/game show reality type.

From Joe Millionaire to Smack down (consider as game show) which combining sport with brief drama, The Apprentice to Fear Factor, American Idol to Project Runway, in Indonesia it were games/eliminations reality type that won the most of viewer’s heart. Each elimination reality had its own strength and loyal audience. The common thing elimination reality offered is giving their contestants chance to become temporary celebrity.
Names like Joy Tobing, Delon, and Mike, were example of how for certain people fame can come easily. They were finalist of Indonesian Idol, one of RCTI big hits for non-drama program. No different from

Indonesian Idol, within a year former American Idol contestants, Jennifer Hudson had a better gift, an Oscar.
In 2004-2005 when reality show became trend on national station’s schedule, programs like Akademi Fantasi Indosiar, Indonesian Idol, and Akademi Pelawak Indonesia (Indonesian Academy for Comedian) received critic for instant stardom its offer. Part half of the comments were say by fellow singers and entertainers, so there were more like a threatened expression than pure concern.
Problems started when integrity issue brought into surface. Since the name of the (program) format is reality, people expect to see things as the way they were without feature scenes and scripted dialogue. New Age, Australian newspaper, in their 2003 article has reported that shows like Big Brother, Survivor and The Real World were design to encourage particular behaviors and conflicts.
Reality show’s producers had specifically selected the participants and use carefully planned scenarios, challenges, events and settings (en.wikipedia.org/Reality Show). In Indonesia, member of reality show’s creative teams have admitted that they used similar strategy when designing their programs concept.

They who was loyal audience on Penghuni Terakhir 2 (now known as Starantv, 2005) might remember Wulan, the girl with plain attitude that brought viewers attention to Petir. Petir’s creative person admitted that they had exposing Wulan’s naïve attitude in order to add more spices for the show. It works. Petir 2 was noted more successful than its first season.

Couple of years before Penghuni Terakhir, MTV Indonesia aired the first docureality in Indonesia, MTV Ajang Ajeng, a model search contest where dozens of young girls living together in a quarantine. Their day to day life captured by the camera consist a cat fight between two of contestants. This fight, told one of the crew, was encouraged by production team member. Sensing there were two young girls disliking each other, the sentiment later encouraged for an explosive argument. Reason? So the show would be more interesting to watch.
MTV Ajang Ajeng might put what it was necessary in order making their show enjoyable. But the show also successful not only for gathering young audiences, it also surprisingly had bringing names like Nadya Mulya, Dominique, Shareefa Danish and Dinar, into a good modelling career and later, acting.
Speaking on reality show critism, none had receiving more reviews than Triwarsana production. Owned by Helmy Yahya the creator of Quiz Siapa Berani (Who Dare), which became phenomenon in 2001, the company produced many reality programs that specializing in exploiting poverty.

Nikah Yukk (Let’s Get Married) and Bedah Rumah (Get The House Fixed) were basically designated the same. The poor whose in desperate needs to make their dreams come true (whether it is to get married or having their house fixed), would have to act like in a state of heavenly happiness when they received news that they are the lucky one. Viewers will see how they run, jump, and cry in disbelief. Watching the shows, viewers would find how the blessings been taken so emotional it almost seemed like a degradation of pride.

The type of this kind of reality is self improvement/ makeover reality. 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 the subject instructions on how to improve things; they offer aid and encouragement along the way. Finally, the subjects being present with the final makeover and along with their friends and family and the show’s expert, they appraise the changes that have occurred (en.wikipedia.org/ Reality_show).

Nikah Yukkk and Bedah Rumah, were not only following the show concept, it also put the strength attraction of the show on how good the subject would react when they were receiving the news. The math is precisely planned as what we see on Oprah episodes where guests star accepting gifts they needed or had long time dreaming about. The happy tears we saw were the selling point that has brought in audiences to the show. Which in Nikah Yukk and Bedah Rumah case, apparently have been recognized by Helmy Yahya.

The critics mentioned these as exploitation of poverty, but they were not mentioning how shows like Bedah Rumah and Nikah Yukkk had reflecting the subordinate repressive feelings on certain boundaries. Let us refresh that television world is much more centered on the middle class which provides its typical content and viewing position. As Raymond Williams (1977) lists the characteristic of drama in television;
1. Has contemporary setting.
2. Concerns itself with secular action.
3. Socially extended. By this he means that it deals with the lives and experiences of ordinary people, not kings and social leaders; or in other words, social realism that is inclining towards deals with the working class’s experience of subordination in an industrial society.
Reality shows are inclined with dramatization to add more spices into the show. What makes them not an ethical thing to do is because the uses of ‘reality’ word become a version of lie.
Question, is this definitely wrong thing to do?
In the other side, reality show could be a true mirror on how rough people reacting in the name of competition. Watching America’s Next Top Model and The Apprentice we could find how intricacies are used for bringing down other contestants.

In one of the challenge for Apprentice season 6, the eight contestants left was signed to sell package of stuff in an amusement park. During the challenge, Arrow team member did anything from stealing clients to persuade amusement park’s visitors that they are better off buying Arrow’s than Kinetic’s.
Certain ways, whether or not it is planned by producers or simply the participants limit as being, are done to make sure each person involved can reach what they need to get. Even Mark Burnett, creator of many successful reality shows, has avoids the word "reality" to describe his shows; he has said, "I tell good stories. It really is not reality TV. It really is unscripted drama." (en.wikipedia.org/Reality_show).
David Nevins, Fox executive vice president of programming, giving explanation on American High (2000), “We need to market the characters and the stories like you would market a good quality drama.”
Is this right or wrong? Remember that television operates from dominant ideology viewers have. Remember that representation means everything to accommodate the pleasure of dominant ideologies. Remember that television is contemporary medium that people viewed to find cheap and easy entertainments.

As Fiske put nicely;
Realism involves fidelity both to the physical, sensually perceived details of the external world and to the values of the dominant ideology. In this way ideology is mapped onto the objective world of reality, and the accuracy of realism’s representation of the details of this real world becomes the validation of the ideology it has been made to bear and I use the term made to in both its sense of constructed in order to and required to.

Reality show does no far different from soap opera. They are trying to get audience sympathy, feeding people thirst on life dramatization, and building solidarity from character identification the audience sees in a contestant. These things are how reality show attracts viewers, how they operates. Almost any kind of television format other than news and quizzes and music, offers their own level of drama.
There is nothing real on TV. The makers of television programs do not and cannot present a portion of reality without first recasting it in the language of television and thereby modifying or “fictionalizing” it to some extent. They will necessarily present it from a certain camera angle and within a certain context of other shots. Many programs would not be existed if we did not believe they were presenting some form of reality. The quiz shows of the 190s, for example, based their enormous success on the believable illusion that real contestants were competing in an impartial, improvised contest, in real time, with an outcome that was not predertermined by a scriptwriter (Butler, 2002: 59).

Reality show’s enigma is how making the show to appear realistic while in the same time it not mend to be flat from planned drama. Thus, the question is how far television producers will go to create an entertaining scene’?
After all, drama is like a scene at a party, something that saves the party from boredom.


*Title 'reality tv unreal' is from Winda Wastu.