The Dollars, Cents, and Psychology of Reality TV

Last Saturday, as Martha Stewart was enjoying her last evening without her court-mandated ankle bracelet, CBS aired a two-hour season finale of “Wickedly Perfect,” the reality TV show that pits perfectionist contestants against each other in a battle of obsessive-compulsive domesticity. Now that Ms. Stewart is prepping her own reality TV series, who needs stand-ins?Ms. Stewart’s spin-off off from Donald Trump’s hit “The Apprentice” is not the only new show on the docket, sorry, schedule. PoweR Girls premiers March 10 on MTV showcasing New York City’s most infamous publicist, Lizzie Grubman. Ms. Grubman, you may remember, did her own two-month tour of duty in the slammer in the fall of 2002 after backing over 16 people outside a Hamptons’ night club in her Mercedes SUV the year before.The trade publication PR News has blasted the show – not for starring an off-the-record specialist with her own record – but because it demeans the public relations business by making the P.R. grind look like one big party. Fancy lunches, front-row seats, boozy bashes…quelle idee!Remember the days when starlets hung out at drugstores sipping cherry Cokes and waiting to be discovered? If Lana Turner were alive today, she could spend her year’s allowance on soft drinks languishing in obscurity while reality TV scouts pored over mug shots to figure out which con deserves his or her own TV show.One show shopped about a few years ago didn’t even require the convicts to be famous. According to Andy Dehnart’s hysterically funny, but depressingly accurate Web site, www.realityblurred.com, the only requirement for Danger Island was that participants be convicted felons. Wrote Dehnart, “Danger Island will put 12 convicted felons on an island to compete for $1 million. They’ll have to escape from professional man hunters in order to keep going. The prize will be given to the victim of the winner’s last crime.” Mercifully, the show never got real.As far as tasteless reality shows in gestation go, the winner has to be “Make Me a Mum.” The big idea is that one group of men vies with another to be chosen as the sperm donor to a woman willing to accept the gift of life. According to Hollywood Reporter’s Andrew Allenstein, international reality TV juggernaut Endemol sought to sell the show first in Europe, where it was previewed with disgust. Endemol is now prospecting in America, but in an effort to raise the tone a tad, the company has decided not to use microscopic cameras to film the fertilization of the lucky egg.What is true is that reality TV makes money. Reality TV saved the day for the networks at a time when they had been cast adrift by the strength of cable and were clueless about their future. It’s no coincidence, perhaps, that the first show to make it big was named “Survivor.”According to a report in Forbes.com last summer, Fox’s American Idol averaged $414,700 for a 30-second spot. NBC’s “The Apprentice” was earning around $287,000 for the same split minute. That compares to under $200,000 for an episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent. It comes as no surprise that there are over 260 reality TV shows listed on Web sites devoted to the genre.But before the advertising comes the audience. What makes people want to watch this stuff? According to a study conducted by Psychology Today magazine, “The attitude that best separated the regular viewers of reality televisions from everyone else is the desire for status…Reality TV allows American to fantasize about gaining status and automatic fame.”Moving on.Mr. Dehnart, a die-hard reality man, has a more positive spin. In an e-mail correspondence, this was his defense: “We watch reality television for two primary reasons: First, and most significantly, it’s entertaining. The shows’ stories and personalities are interesting, dramatic, funny, perception-altering and informative. There’s also a certain appeal because we’re watching real people, not fictional characters played by actors…Because of her experiences and notoriety, Martha Stewart’s forthcoming version of “The Apprentice” will offer viewers the chance to get to know a larger-than-life personality in a new way, just as we’ve gotten to know Donald Trump.”Case closed.Ms. Bailey is a writer and family therapist. Email: ebailey@nysun.com.

The Dollars, Cents, and Psychology of Reality TV

The Dollars, Cents, and Psychology of Reality TV

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