Term Paper 3 - Reality Television Critique
Gwen Gunnels
Professor Reppert
Mass Communication
October 20, 2020
Reality Television Critique
Some people say that when it comes to reality television, you either love it or you hate it. Some people find it entertaining to watch the chaotic portrayal of other people's lives while escaping the ordinary messes of their own. Others find the drama hard to watch and cringe at the overdramatized depiction playing on the screen before them. In my opinion, there are plenty of reality TV shows that can entertain anyone depending on the viewer. For instance, my parents used to watch Pawn Starts while my brother would rather watch American Pickers. Two reality television shows that I will be discussing are two shows my friends and I enjoy watching, the Netflix original show Love is Blind and the TLC show 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days.
The Netflix original show Love is Blind premiered its first season on Netflix on February 12th, 2020. By April of 2020, the show had been viewed by around 30 million Netflix accounts. The show introduced itself as a "blind love experiment" to see if couples could fall in love without seeing each other and to test the theory that "love is blind." Hists Nick and Vanessa Lachey, explain that the contestants will meet one another in a room called a "pod" with a thin wall between them to get to know each other. Once each contestant finds a love interest, they will get to know each other without seeing them in person until the engagement. Once engaged, each couple goes on vacation and later goes home to live with each other for a few weeks to see if they are really compatible. Most contestants do not make it to the vacation stage of the show, while others make it all the way to the altar.
The show contains drama that increases with each episode. One way the producers increased the drama was to send the contestants on vacation while they unknowingly stay at the same resort as the other couples. While watching the show, you can feel the suspense as you watch each couple decide if they are going to get married or not. Most viewers have their own opinions on which couples do, or do not, belong together. This makes the show interesting to viewers as they see some contestants try to interfere in the other couple's relationships. The show interviews each contestant privately to discuss how they feel about their partner or the other contestants. The last episode contains many surprising conclusions as the viewer waits to hear the words " I do or I don't" and discover the answer to the question, "Is love really blind?"
The show 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days premiered on August 6, 2017, and currently has 4 seasons. The show is a prequel to the show 90 Day Fiance where couples meet each other in America under a special U.S. visa. 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days shows how each couple becomes acquainted and get to know each other in person. Before meeting in person, most of these couples met each other online and only know each other through a computer screen.
Most of the drama from the show originates from different family cultures, age gaps, and even catfishing. Many of the couple's families do not approve of the relationships because of the difference in culture. Also, many of the couple's ages can have quite a gap, this can also create disagreements with family or even drama between the couples themselves. Because the couples originally meet online, some cast members come to realize they have been scammed. It is really hard to watch this happen because although it is painfully obvious to the viewer that they are being scammed, the contestant cannot grasp that they have been talking to someone other than they thought. Some couples find that their relationship works, however; some find that what they thought was perfect through the screen, is not at all what they thought it would be in person.
90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days season four trailer
Both of these shows gain success by the way the producers target audiences and promote advertising. Both shows advertise by placing commercials on television, using celebrity endorsements, and having the cast members post on their own social media. Both shows have social media accounts where they post clips from episodes and have fans answer questions about their favorite moments during each season. Shows like this also use social media by creating hashtags. By using hashtags on social media platforms such as Twitter, the show can appear in the "Trending" tab on Twitter when the hashtag is used enough. Some reality television concepts can fail because the show is not targeting their audience well enough. It could also be because they did not find cast members that can connect to the audience or it could be that the show just did not have the entertainment value that an audience is looking for.
Both of these shows target a common audience. Although each show is structured differently, they both contain couples who have to determine if they are compatible enough to get married. Based on the people I know, these shows entertain people, especially women, of all ages. For example, my friends and I watch them as well as our older siblings, people out parents age, and our grandparents. From further research, I found that the IMDb website concluded that Love is Blind, although mostly watched and better rated by women, had almost the same amount of ratings given by viewers over the age of 18, both male and female. The same statistics can be said about the ratings from 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days. It is interesting to note the amount of non-United States users compared to the United States users who gave ratings to Love is Blind.
 |
| Love is Blind user ratings https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11704040/ratings |
 |
| 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days user ratings https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7252812/ratings?ref_=tt_ql_op_4 |
Both of these shows are great examples of what types of reality shows are being shown today. If I were to create my own reality television show, it would be a show about twins. Because I have a twin sister, I think it would be cool to separate each set of twins into a separate house. Although my sister and I are fraternal, the show would consist of identical twins to test the many theories associated with them. Each of the twins could interact with the other contestants and the audience could see how one twin interacts differently than their sibling. I also think it would be cool to trade twins in one episode to see if anyone in the house would notice. Of course, there would need to be a lot of study and research conducted to make the episodes entertaining, but I think it would interest a variety of viewers.
Comments
Post a Comment