2022-05-18
52 分钟BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts the dumbest.
Genre in entertainment or the one that tells us the most about ourselves since its conception, reality TV has divided its viewers, but we think it's possible to enjoy it whilst also questioning the ethical foundations upon which it was built.
I'm journalist and broadcaster Pandora Sykes.
And I'm investigative journalist Shirin Kahler and a large part of our friendship has been spent discussing Reality Team.
We've both been fans since we first watched Big Brother as preteens, and we've spent a fair amount of time defending reality TV when people are snobby about it or dismiss its importance in our wider culture.
But we've also been troubled by the exploitation, the lack of aftercare, the impacts of sudden fame.
In this 10 part audio documentary for BBC Radio 4, we'll be bringing an analytical eye to a genre that influences almost every walk of life celebrity, music, fashion, beauty, dating and even politics.
Over the last six months, we've rewatched hundreds of hours of reality TV and spoken to over 60 show creators, producers and iconic reality stars in order to chart reality TV's evolution and explore the ways in which the format needs to change.
This is Unreal.
A Critical history of Reality TV Please.
Note there will be strong language throughout.
The series.
From Jay Goody causing a diplomatic incident to the Kardashians impact on young women's body image.
Controversy around reality TV is as old as the genre itself.
Multiple criticisms are laid at its feet.
Can anything ever prepare an ordinary person for the experience of sudden fame?
Or afterwards, when the fame dries up?
And in the chaotic and unpredictable world of reality tv, can producers really control what happens inside the show or outside on social media?
In short, is it possible to make reality TV cruelty free?
But in 2021, these issues came to a head for one show in particular, reality TV dating show Love Island.