(Josh)
Today's networks are dominated by reality television. Some families are even willing to create elaborate hoaxes about their six year old child in a hot air balloon just to be on a reality television show. But is reality television really as real as the viewers may think it is?
Most people would agree that it certainly doesn't realistically portray the rather dull and monotonous life that many of us feel we lead on a day to day basis. If the average person went to live in a house with seven strangers for several months, such as they do on they do on MTV's "the Real World," there probably wouldn't be too much excitement.
Ray Richmond, television critic for the Hollywood Reporter, in a comment about "The Real World," stated, "While 'The Real World' isn't fully scripted, participates have maintained that there was meddling by producers--denied by all involved -- to stir the pot and ratchet up soapy conflict." This only proves our suspicions about reality shows. Someone must be tampering with them because actual people don't actually act like the ones on some reality shows.
J. Rupert Thompson, the director and producer of "Big Brother" and "Fear Factor" among others, also believes that there is something very unreal in reality shows. "Certainly, reality TV is a very manipulated format where the basis of it that real people are put into unreal situations to create a story," Thompson explained.
My brother recently told me he was going to e on a reality show and I couldn't help but feel like he was making a big mistake. I was afraid that he might be manipulated and worked into a frenzy in order to make the show more dramatic, or that the show may give an unrealistic portrayal of his character. Luckily, this revolutionary show that he is the subject of, ControlTV , is nothing like any other reality show ever before. It may be the most real reality show.
On October 6th ControlTV created a brand new type of reality show that innovated the reality show genre and made it more realistic than ever before. On other reality shows, the audience may wonder what is happening off camera that they cannot see. However, there is no such concern about ControlTV. Unlike other show before it, where the contents of a week are edited down to half an hour, putting the editors in charge of showing what they want to show, this show is streamed live from the Internet 24 hours a day focusing on the life of one subject. The subject of ControlTV is Manchester High School alumnus, and my brother, Tristan Couvares. Because the show is streamed live every second of the day, except for the times it is experiencing technical difficulties, it gives a very realistic portray of the life of the subject, Tristan. There is no suspicion of producers meddling with his life because the audience can observe what is going on all the time.
What also makes this unique is that the audience can vote on aspects of Tristan's life. For example, the first vote on the show on the morning of October 6th was "How should we wake up Tristan?" The audience the voted from the three choices, crowning "Mariachi Band" as the winner. Then, and actual Mariachi Band entered Tristan's apartment and started playing.
There are down sides to this brand new show. A majority of the time viewers will find themselves watching Tristan doing mundane day to day activities, such as eating or sleeping. Nothing will make someone feel creepier than watching a man on the Internet sleeping. Also, Tristan is not allowed to go anywhere without a camera crew, which impedes his daily activities. Many time he cannot leave the house because the camera crew is unable to go with him.
Despite the bad qualities that the show possesses, it certainly is a very ambitious undertaking. For better or for worse, reality television will mark a new age of reality shows. Finally there will be actual "real" reality television, even to the point of monotony. For anyone who wished to see the show themselves, please visit www.controltv.com.
