Some reality stars are willing to go to great lengths to keep their shows relevant

Aug 26, 2014 19:59 GMT  ·  By
Most of today's reality series are fake and scripted, thus causing harm to real journalism and television programming
   Most of today's reality series are fake and scripted, thus causing harm to real journalism and television programming

The concept of reality television is a weird one. In theory, people tune in to watch television programs expressly because they want a break from reality, an escape if you will, so having them watch how other people live shouldn't be that interesting, but it is, because of the innate desire of mankind to constantly compare themselves to one another.

At first, reality television played by the same rules as normal television does and had average ratings, simply because people were weary and it wasn't generally regarded as quality programming, more like something to fill up the schedule, kind of like day time soaps.

But then came along very successful shows like Big Brother, which basically paved the way for reality stars and their outrageous lifestyles. One need only mention today names like Kim Kardashian or Kate Gosselin, and immediately the definition of reality star comes into focus.

Imagine a person who is able to make a living simply by allowing cameras to follow them around on a daily basis. The trouble with that is that it quickly becomes boring and you need some “drama” to spice things up. This is where producers come in: highly knowledgeable in what the demographic wants, with no morals or regrets, they won't turn away from anything in search of ratings.

Even though reality shows have often been revealed as being scripted or fake (The Hills was one such famous example from not so many years ago), people still tune in to watch, and what's sadder is that the vast majority actually believes that they are being fed nothing but truth.

The fact that some reality stars are more famous than others means that the majority of people willing to become reality icons have to work very hard at their fame and be able to stoop very low in order to achieve a level of fame.

Case and point: Kate Gosselin and Kendra Wilkinson, both blond and both very ambitious, hoping to make a quick buck from reality television. If Kate won't hesitate to put the children on TV and basically make puppets out of them for rating, Kendra won't think twice about making up some bogus scandal for the ratings and the money.

Wilkinson, a former Playboy bunny who used to get along on her looks alone, found it harder to hack it in the real world and decided to do what any self-respecting C-celebrity does when they need money: sign a contract to do a reality series.

Except that when your life is nothing more than a constant string of parties and events, people get tired fairly quickly, and the only thing that is going to make them tune in next week is some good old fashioned drama.

So, Wilkinson made up this scandal where her husband, who had just left her pregnant, was fooling around behind her back with transgender models. At first, the whole thing worked like a charm: there was a big scandal, the celebrity press ate the entire thing up and took it to new levels publishing rumors, reports, and saucy insiders opinions.

Then things started to slump because the scandal was wearing off. People were no longer interested in who Hank Baskett, Kendra's husband, was bedding and neither were they interested in transgender models.

By the time Kendra appeared on her reality series comparing the cheating to being shot and confessing teary-eyed that she had flushed her wedding ring down the toilet, the scandal had already died down. In part because it was exposed as being fake, since photos emerged of Kendra and Hank still acting as a happy couple off-camera.

So, Kendra moved on to the next big scandal: reconciling with her estranged father. Except this move managed to get the wrong kind of attention from her family. Both her mother and her brother began to publicly blast Kendra for it, since their father abandoned them and treated them poorly when growing up.

Now the family is turning against her, telling everyone that Kendra will do just about anything for money and that her show is entirely fake. Does any of this ring a bell? Because it should, as even famous shows such as Keeping Up with the Kardashians were blasted many a time for inaccuracies and being scripted (like Kim wearing her engagement ring before Kanye had ever proposed).

While these scandals achieve their short-term goals, that of making money for everyone involved, they are hurting real news, because they focus on the shock factor, the scandal, the next big thing, and real life can seldom compete with that.

Why is the public going to care about another bombing when Kim has just had a falling out with Kanye or someone mildly famous has just come out of the closet, while fathering a secret love-child with an illegal alien?

If you too follow such news, avidly seeking the next big scandal, you have officially lost the right to complain about poor-quality journalism, because you too are a contributing factor to the phenomenon which sees people actually making up their own news just to make it sound more scandalous.