TV Dreams and Reality

Michael Hedges June 3, 2009 Follow on Twitter

Reality TV – and certainly the talent contest variety – are proven popular programs with audiences worldwide. Broadcasters, originally attracted by comparatively low cost, push producers for bigger stunts. The genre has matured, something producers fight. Even in fair fights somebody gets bruised.

UK broadcaster ITV put to rest months of harping by whingers on the sidelines about its survival as a programming force. A week of prime-time reality-talent shows – including world-class football – culminated in 17 million Brits tuning into the finals of Britain’s Got Talent. Fortunately, the UK media regulator isn’t inclined to investigate.

It was a major ratings victory for ITV. A week of feel-good TV (except the football results) arrived just as the British public began to fathom the degree to which their public servants have been fleecing them in “Moatgate.” In all, it was great television programming mixed with a bit of luck. ITV’s Michael Grade, oft thrashed by sideline whingers, had his week of TV entertainment.

The prize was Britain’s Got Talent, produced for ITV by Talkback Thames. The series opened early in April as popular totteriness grew in advance of the Eurovision Song Contest, in which Britain failed to score last year and several years before. Very early in the reality-variety series an instant occurred, a singer with a huge voice and a warm story. The British public, largely but not entirely, attached themselves to Susan Boyle’s story.

As usual, Britain’s tabloid editors and writers – not limited to newspapers - put their hooks into Ms Boyle with a barrage of coverage; some delighted, some unpleasant, some untoward. You see, reality TV shows attract viewers in search of a story – a narrative – and not always positive. This inconvenient reality isn’t limited to television viewers, though that is the last standing instrument of mass distraction. Viewers, listeners and readers regardless of medium plug into a narrative to channel good feelings, if mentally healthy, or crazy ones, if not. How many tune into automobile races hoping to see a big crash?

So, Susan Boyle did not win Britain’s Got Talent. She did, though, win a recording contract, a tour sponsorship, massive publicity and the hearts of many. The Telegraph (June 3) reports she’s been invited by US President Barack Obama to sing at the White House of July 4th Independence Day. It’s the stuff that dreams are made of. You go, girl!

By the end of it all, Ms Boyle was understandably wrung out, apart from but related to being wrung dry by the tabloids. That exhaustion sent her to hospital. UK government ministers, spinning in their own reality show, called for official inquiries.

“Broadcasters should always put people's welfare first,” offered Culture Secretary Andy Burnham. “For people who get exposure this quickly, there needs to be a broader understanding of this extraordinary process.” Media regulator OFCOM has, according to the Guardian (June 2), refused to be pulled into that moat.

Producers and broadcasters of programming featuring amateur talent are abundantly aware of attendant liabilities. Participants sign contracts, usually on advice of legal council. Strictly legal responsibility notwithstanding, producers and broadcasters are also aware of moral responsibility, something adjudicated swiftly in the court of public opinion. Anyway, advertisers just hate being associated with problems.

Grueling competitions – or the appearance thereof - in the reality TV genre are part of the attraction. Tension and release are integral in show business for raising the applause meter. Sometimes bad things happen. Last week a contestant on the Bulgarian version of Survivor, broadcast on News Corp Bulgarian channel bTV, dropped dead of a heart attack while the show was being recorded in the Philippines.  And he was a professional stuntman.