When Reality Blurs With
Unreality
Gordon Pepper
Before I start with this
column, let me preface it with this - of course we know
that 'reality' game shows aren't real. The game is real,
but not everything going around the game is real. I'm
not nearly going to be naive enough to suggest that
everything that goes on in a reality show actually
happened and nothing was somehow manipulated by a
producer to make certain pieces magically fall into
place.
This has happened many times in the past few years. The
most notable one was UPN's Manhunt, which got yanked due
to those allegations. The idea of the game was to have
contestants avoid bounty hunters, who go after them with
paintball guns. The problem was that the hunters with
the paint ball guns may have been a little too good, as
allegations were brought up that they were sparing a
specific female contestant with nice... assets, and that
female eventually won the game. After the tapings
completed, a lawsuit was immediately filed, which led to
the show - and people behind the show - being suspended.
That has been the only show to smack of '21' style
game-show rigging, but there have been other shows that
have come dangerously close. During the first season of
The Apprentice, there were two specific incidents in
episodes that could have been disastrous for the Donald
had people voiced their concerns legally. In the episode
where the candidates had to renovate and then sell an
apartment, there was a New York Times article claiming
that one of the people who wound up buying the apartment
was shooed into the place at the last minute by a
producer. Another article intimated that the person
actually lived in that apartment, and her signing the
deal wasn't her buying the place as much as it was just
a lease renewal. Neither of these allegations made it to
a courtroom, but it would have been interesting if it
did.
What did make it to a courtroom? Lawyer Stacey
Stillman's suit against the producers of Survivor.
According to her, a producer spoke to contestant Richard
Hatch and 'convinced' him to vote her off instead of
Rudy Boesch. As we all know, Rudy came in third and
Richard won the whole thing. As you may not know,
according to Survivor rules, it is illegal for a
producer to call anyone over in private and talk to
them, so this could have derailed Survivor from even
getting to a season two. After a denial from Hatch (who
would have been the only person to make the charge
stick), the lawsuit was dismissed and Survivor continued
it's juggernauting rampage.
The objective of a show is to garner ratings and to
provide entertainment for the masses. How do you get
that excitement going when you have either a dull show
or dull contestants without completely manipulating them
or the scenes? You use something that has been an
effective tool or garnering excitement since the
beginning of time - the almighty power of booze. Alcohol
is incredibly effective in loosening people's lips and
eliminating their inhibitions, which will make them be
at the very least entertaining, and at the very most,
controversial.
The most effective use of that tool has to be in Big
Brother 2, when an intoxicated Justin Sebik thought it
would be a lot of fun to hold a knife against the throat
of fellow contestant Krista Stegall. That got him
immediately booted from the show and set the stage for
the tool to be used in other shows. The bottle has also
been effective in the Bachelor series (and most reality
love shows, because let's face it, the genre would be
stupefyingly dull without it), Paradise Hotel (which
wound up being a hit for Fox), Forever Eden (which was
another show which was on the verge of being pulled into
the courtroom with accusations of manipulation, but it
didn't last long enough on Fox for people to care about
it), and even Survivor, as the bottle led to 2
significant happenings in the Thailand series - 1.
Robb's breakdown, potential maturity and consequent
ejection, and 2. Ted's grabby-grab of Ghandia (which led
to her primordial scream and a firestorm of discussion
both on the show and from the viewers watching). The
most latest booze sighting - Beauty and the Geek, where
it has been spotted near the Jacuzzi in an attempt to
have the geeks and beauties get closer together - but
don't forget, it is NOT a relationship show ;).
That brings us to the latest offending show - Hell's
Kitchen, who brings us into a new genre of manipulation.
The charge? Manufacturing drama that doesn't affect the
competition per se, but is clearly manipulated by the
producers and is not real. On the first episode of the
show, Gordon Ramsay, the mad chef, delayed all of the
food from being served, which led to an over 2 hour
delay of food and eventually, the chef's closing. What
would most people do when their food is being delayed 1
hour? Leave the restaurant. What do these people do?
They go over to the kitchen and get into a cursing match
with Ramsay. The result was certainly entertaining
television to hear Gordon and the eaters spout off at
each other, but it felt manufactured and the cynical
alert went on. Despite the signs that the confrontation
was fake, I shrugged it off...
...until the second episode, where I was convinced that
the people who were yelling at Ramsay were actors. What
was the kicker? The people who got so sick and tired of
waiting that they ordered pizza, which was brought into
the restaurant and promptly eaten in front of Ramsay.
Not only does it smack of ridiculousness, it is also
borderline illegal (pending on the rules of the state on
a restauranteuring license) and could result in legal
action against the people who brought in the food and/or
the restaurant. Any legitimate restaurant would never
have let the food get past the door, much less inside
the eating room, but Ramsay's squad just let them waltz
in with minimal resistance, which convinced me that the
whole scene was a planned ruse. Sure it was funny, but
those 10 seconds for me ruined the legitimacy of the
show and got me wondering if there was anything else
that was fixed...
We all want the ratings, but there's a problem when
producers try to get them by sacrificing the idea that
the show is run on the up and up. It's happened before,
and it will happen again, but do we want a competition
or do we want a spectacle with a little game (which may
not be as honest as we think it is) thrown in? The
ratings show that we want a solid game show, but let's
make sure that the show that we eventually do get looks
less like a horse and pony show and more like the
Kentucky Derby.
Let's look at some more
shows that have premiered this week and my quick look at
them -
The Next Food Network Star - Marc Summers, who was had a
reputation of delivering quality shows (we'll forget
Wickedly Perfect) has another goodie as we see eight
potential people (actually, seven people and one team)
competing for a Food Network spot. The best part of the
show is that it treats both the contestants and the
audience intelligently, and it even tells you what part
of the show/competition they rig up and what part they
let the contestants hoist themselves up by their own
petards. Like the America's Next Top Model series, they
tell the competitors their good sides and what they need
to improve as they all get ready to create their pilot
show. If you think that Gordon Ramsay's show is too
cloying for your tastes, then THIS is the food show you
should be watching.
The Scholar - 10 students compete in weekly challenges
for $50,000 and attempt to win enough money to not worry
about college tuition. The rules are a little confusing,
but the idea is sound and their heart is in the right
place. The contestants are also likeable and this show,
which stresses academics over attitude, could be a great
message for the youth of America. Unfortunately, the
youth of America have also sent their own message, as
they would rather be watching...
Fire Me Please - ...this dreck, about people competing
to be canned from their jobs before 3 pm so they can win
$25,000. I'm not going to say that there weren't funny
moments, but I just don't find people doing yoga,
getting arrested, making idiots of themselves and
forcing a legitimate company (assuming that they are
legitimate) to have any sort of work delayed for the
sake of entertainment. And to add to it, to not tell the
company that they are going to have their production
halted for this mess is unconscionable. I only hope that
the poor people that did have to deal with the manic
contestants from Hell got compensated - a lot.
The Cut - Tommy Hilfiger combines elements of The
Apprentice, Project Runway and America's Next Top Model
for this new show that features a set of hopefuls who
are looking for a $250,000 fashion line from Hilfiger
himself. I happen to like these sort of shows, and I
think that the contestants are unique and fun enough to
carry the show. That being said, these sorts of shows
aren't for everyone's taste and a huge Bravo rating for
Runway may not translate so well for the sort of ratings
that this sort of show needs. Time will tell to see if
this show gets pampered or if it gets rejected.
That's all for this week. Join us in 7 days for more
shows and more opinions.
Gordon Pepper can be reached at gordon@gameshownewsnet.com. |