Why Reality TV Is Important

Esquire magazine columnist Chuck Klosterman (Chuck Klosterman's America) has identified, in his September 2004 column, just what it is about reality television that draws so many viewers. The column is essentially a review of HBO's new reality series Family Bonds, which follows the life a Long Island family of bounty hunters.

The source of his revelation comes from reading Moneyball, a book of insights by Billy Beane (General Manager of the Oakland A's). However, the concept comes from a criticism identified by one of Beans's assistants, Paul De Posts (now General manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers). This criticism of scouts, Klosterman feels is applicable to all aspects of life:

"All too often, people make the mistake of viewing their own personal experience as typical. In baseball, this means scouts are drawn to young players who remind them of themselves. But this happens all the time, pretty much everywhere lese. Humans tend to think that whatever happens to them is generally what happens to everybody and that their unique thoughts and feelings are somehow universal. In actuality, this is almost never true. Every person (especially the successful ones) inevitably experiences life in a way that is specific to him or her alone.

This fallacy-the fallacy of self-assumed normalcy-is central to the success of reality programming. The reason people find shows like The real World and The Apprentice and Survivor so compelling is that they perceive the cast members to be surrogates for average citizens, all of who are viewed as fundamentally alike. Because these are not fictional characters, audiences feel comfortable placing themselves into the onscreen scenarios and judging the participants' behavior against what they would do in the same situation. If you area noncelebrity, you are inclined to unconsciously believe that you share certain unifying characteristics with all noncelebrities. This is how reality television generates comedy: We love seeing other "normal" people make decisions that we consider ridiculous. If a contestant on The Bachelor makes a seemingly inexplicable statement or an ill-fated choice, our immediate reaction is to think, What an idiot. Who acts like that? The answer is, of course, anyone who isn't you. And this is where De Posta's point becomes trenchant: Since everyone views his or her personal experience as normal, all other experiences seem bizarre (and thereby entertaining). Our self-assured normalcy makes everyone else sad and interesting."

Klosterman's appraisal of the family, the Evangelistas, is that he can't relate with any of them: "These people are all fucknuts." However, he confesses to a feeling of familiarity, and that the experience was somewhere between watching a freak show and a voyeur of his own existence. Furthermore:

"Everything the Evangelistas do is inherently normal. Their world seems insane, but that?s only because it's not. Every family in America-if cast in the context of reality program-would come across as abnormal.

And that is why reality reality television is important.

Reality television is universally maligned for being vapid and uncreative, and everybody seems to think it's acceptable to admit to watching these programs only as a so-called guilty pleasure. Just about every smart person in 2004 agrees that this stuff is devoid of value. But there will be a day in the future when people think differently. There will be a day when this era if TV is remembered as groundbreaking and vital, because shows like Family Bonds will have destroyed the myth of normalcy. Reality TV will ultimately prove that there is no "normal" way to live, and it will validate the notion that every human experience is autonomous. And if that isn't more important than Ed Sullivan and The Honeymooners, I don't know what is."

(Esquire-September 2004, p.125-126)

And this is why I watch The Real World.