|
Reality TV is not just an issue in the US market. I can tell you that Reality has shaken the entire TV universe to the core.
Prime time schedules around the world are stuffed with Reality.
Big Brother, which bombed in North America, is a hit in Europe. RTL2 in Germany strips the show daily at 7pm. That's five hours a week of primetime, gone.
Reality is cheap to make (the budgets are a fraction of what dramatic programming costs). Reality rates well (people watch the shows, and if they don't well they didn't cost that much to begin with). Reality can be produced indiginously (outside of North America they live on US produced programming, a lot of it... With Reality, they can license the format to a show like Survivor or the Bachelor and make their own version in their own language... these rate extremely well).
Reality is also extremely versatile. A UK producer was telling me that he had pitched a documentary series on twins to a broadcaster. It was to be a very informative factual series. The broadcaster suggested that they turn it into, "The most perfect twins". It was to be a competition to see which twins were the most identical. The show would still have all of the factual information that the original concept would have but that information would be delivered in a more entertaining method.
Needless to say the show was greenlit.
I wouldn't moan over US programming too much. People forget how much drek has been produced that wasn't reality.
The interesting fact is that most of the truly innovative programming being made today is coming from the world of Cable and Satelitte rather than the networks -- HBO, Showtime, etc. -- a creatively wiping the floor with the networks.
__________________
"My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars."
- Old Man Luedecke
|