Eras of Reality TV
By: Abby Lee Miller
Reality TV gained popularity with its competition shows such as Big Brother, The Amazing Race, American Idol, America’s Got Talent, and The Bachelor. Some of these shows are obviously still airing while others have ended. Throughout the years other reality competition shows have come to fame. Some of these shows include Love Island, Naked and Afraid, Too Hot To Handle, and Naked Attraction. In other words, competition reality TV has succumbed to just putting naked people on TV thus building a horny fanbase. The transition from competition shows which required actual talent, dedication, and hard work started slowly with Naked and Afraid. Naked And Afraid was the beginning of this transition where it combined the new trend of nudity with the hard work and dedication of reality competition shows past. But now we have evolved, or should I say devolved, to watching someone pick their partner based on their genitals and calling it quality TV.
Another distinct era of reality TV is reality shows following celebrities and their families’ lives. The first of its kind (and most notable) would be Keeping Up With The Kardashians. This is not to be confused with the Hulu Original The Kardashians (because apparently we needed to know more about the Kardashians). Other reality shows of this kind include Paris In Love, The D'Amelio Show, and The Family Stallone. There is also the show Sister Wives which doesn’t follow celebrity families but it does follow this polygamous family… though I’m not sure they can be categorized as polygamists anymore considering 3 of the 4 wives left.
Another era of reality tv focused on following a group of young adults all stuffed together in one house, the most iconic of these being Jersey Shore, Bad Girls Club, and America’s Next Top Model. This era of reality TV glorified bad behavior and encouraged eating disorders. Seriously, watching early seasons of ANTM is actually dumbfounding, girls who wore a size medium were categorized as Plus Size Models and girls wearing a size small were encouraged to lose weight. There’s also that infamous photo shoot where the girls “switched races”... oh, they did it twice.
There is also the ever-problematic era of shows like 19 Kids And Counting. This show follows the Duggar Family in their extremely strict religious lifestyle. The show centered around Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar who had, you guessed it, 19 children. Most of those kids are now well into their adult years and their oldest son, Josh Duggar turned out to be a huge piece of shit! Who would have guessed that their parenting style would result in criminals? Hmm, maybe everyone!
You can’t talk about reality TV without bringing up the problematic reign of… Dance Moms (my personal guilty pleasure). I’ll confess, I enjoy an episode of Dance Moms as much as the next squirrel, but when you really let the behavior in the show sink in… you realize it's pretty shitty. This show traumatized likely all of the girls who starred in the show. This show is my Roman Empire, I honestly think about it every day. Abby Lee Miller berated children from ages 5-13 and also frequently criticized their bodies in extremely damaging ways.
The only Reality TV show that I will claim no qualms with is Judge Judy and her new show Judy Justice. She is iconic, badass, sassy, and have you seen her ass? Seriously have you?
