The Reality TV Controversies

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Themes: Ethics in Business
Period : 2001-2002
Organization : Fox TV, Parents TV Council
Pub Date : 2002
Countries : USA
Industry : Media, Entertainment and Information

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Case Code : BECG013
Case Length : 11 Pages
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A Series of Controversies Contd...

The 'Temptation Island' controversy sparked off a fresh round of heated debates worldwide regarding reality TV shows. Since its inception in the late 1980s, Reality TV had always been controversial genre because if emphasis on violence, crime and sex. Some of the major controversial reality TV programs during the late 1990s and 2000 included Fox TV's 'Who Wants To Marry A Multi-Millionaire,'¹ CBS' 'Survivor,'² Endemol Entertainment's 'Big Brother,'³ and UPN's 'Chains of Love.'⁴ These and many other reality TV shows had been criticized for encouraging voyeurism in viewers and exploiting the human weakness for violence and sex.

Background Note

In 1926, John Logie Baird demonstrated the first television (TV), a black and white model, which marked the beginning of a communication revolution in the world. Regular scheduled telecasts first began in England in 1936. The TV market grew at a healthy pace in the late 1940s. By 1949, there were over 100 TV stations and over one million families owning TV sets in US. By 1951, the number of TV owning families in the US increased to over 100 million. After color TV was launched in the 1950s, the TV market grew quickly across the world. The popularity of TV over other communication media was attributed to the impact created by visual images.

During its initial years TV shows were primarily adaptations of existing radio shows. However, in the mid 1950s, TV shows created a distinctive identity for themselves in the entertainment and communication media. In the next two decades TV media extended its roots to all corners of the world and became an inseparable part of almost every household.

The advent of satellite broadcasting technology during the mid 1970s transformed the entire TV industry. It now became possible for TV networks to show their programs all over the world. In the next couple of years, the satellite TV industry established itself strongly, reaching out to millions of subscribers all over the world. By the 1980s, TV had established itself as one of the most effective and powerful media, generating huge revenues through advertisements, with access to the drawing rooms of billions of households.

Over the decades, TV became an integral part of the advertising strategies of companies the world over. Companies either sponsored programs or developed 'between-the-program' advertisements or sponsorship rights. A wide variety of programs were offered through a large number of TV channels, targeting different sections of society. TV programming content worldwide has been mostly dominated by trends in the Western countries, specially the US (see Table I for Eras of TV Programming).

TABLE I
ERAS OF TV PROGRAMING

TV programming changed constantly to adapt to changing times and viewer preferences. Based on the time frame, TV programming was divided into seven eras that constituted:
• Vaudeo (1948-1957): Era of sitcoms (situational comedy) including comedy specials based on radio shows, ethnic sitcoms, domestic sitcoms and others.
• Adult Westerns Era (1957-1960): Era of telefilms.
• Idiot Sitcom Era (1961-late 1960s): Era of magic, barnyard, monstrous and escapist comedies.
• Relevance Era (late 1960s-1975): The period of TV renaissance that gave rise to quality TV.
• ABC Fantasy Era (1975-1980): The era of escapist dramas and sitcoms.
• Soap Operas and Real People Era (1980s): The era of prime time soaps (daily serials), reality TV shows and domestic sitcoms.
• Era of Choice (1990s): Era of drama, action, sitcoms, reality TV, sports and news magazines.

Source: www.montana.edu

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1] 'Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire' invited unmarried women to compete to be the bride of a multi-millionaire (Rick Rockwell), who was conspicuously kept invisible all through the show. The show became a roaring success with high TV ratings and Rockwell married the winner of the show (Darva Conger). The show came under fire when it was discovered that Rockwell's previous wife had a restraining order against him. Darva eventually annulled the marriage.
2] 'Survivor' pitted a group of strangers against each other on a deserted tropical island. The person who succeeded in being the last person on the island was the 'survivor', and he received a prize of $1 million. The show was criticized for encouraging in-fighting between people and establishing the 'survival of the fittest' concept in an unrealistic, brutal manner.
3] 'Big Brother' locked 10 people in one house and recorded their every move. Each week, viewers were asked to identify the least powerful inmate, who was eliminated then from the show. The last person remaining in the house is declared the winner and is awarded $500,000 as prize money. The show was criticized on the same grounds as 'Survivor.'
4] Chains of Love featured a woman who is handcuffed to various men at a time for a whole week until she selects one, rejects them all or calls for help. The show was criticized on the same grounds as that of Temptation Island.