Feature Article Assignment

The Reality of it All!
Fame, Fortune or just plain old Fantasy,
What will life on a reality show really get you?

Reality shows have taken over the prime time airways of our television sets, popping out instant professionals on a weekly basis. Shows like Project Runway, Americas Next Top Model and Hell’s Kitchen create instant celebrities out of ordinary people who have yet to make a name fo

r themselves in their chosen field. Although the popularity of these people grow to immense and sometimes obsessed quantities during the duration of the shows running time, what happens to them when their cut from the program or, as said by the host of Project Runway, Iman, they ‘just don’t measure up’?

How does a thirteen-week stint on a television set actually prepare a person for the demands of the real world? Is it fair to allow these people to propel to fame at the expense of hard-working ‘up-and-comers’ who work for years to achieve recognition for their efforts? How do practiced workers receive these ‘professional wannabes’ when they attempt to begin their post-television careers? How are they able to have a high profile career and yet maintain the quality of their work and the attitudes towards the importance of hard work?
The term “Reality Television” is a very broad name given to television programming, according to Wikipedia.org it‘presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and features ordinary people instead of professional actors.’ Reality television can then be broken down into several genres of reality programming. There are eight different categories of Reality shows. The two most prominent being Documentary-style shows, and Elimination/Game shows. Documentary style shows are then broken down to programming that includes special living environmens, such as the Real World; celebrity reality shows, such as The Osbournes or The Simple Life; and Professional activities, examples being Cops, LA Ink and The First 48. These types of reality shows basically follow the lives of the characters in the program, and use the entertaining bits captured on film to create a series. Elimination or Game shows use compitition to draw in their audience. There are dating based competitions, as in The Bachelor, or Average Joe; fear-centric games shows such as Fear Factor, and there are job search shows, which are the variety of reality television that produces their version of career celebrities, as in America’s/Canada’s Next Top Model, producing a spanking new supermodel, or Project Runway, which produces the ‘next big thing’ in the fashion design circit.
How does being a contestant on these types of programs prepare a person for the full time career of not only say, designer, but also the celebrity of being a television star? During the months of taping these productions the participating contestants are given a number of tasks to complete, and challenges to surpass. These challenges are meant to simulate problems that may arise in the day-to-day of a careered person in that chosen field. The winner to the challenges is awarded a luxury prize to reward their winning efforts and the rest of the contestents are left with a feeling of self-doubt and lack of worth. Each week a contestant is removed from the competition, and the chance of winning the grand prize, generally being a contract with a top company in the field, exposure in a popular media source, and funding to help jump-start their career. With the offering all of these great gifts for the winner, its a sure bet that these people will be successive, Or is it?
Project Runway Winners, Jay McCarroll (season 1), Chloe Dao (season 2) and Jeffrey Sebelia (season 3) have each gone on to produce post-Project Runway collections, however for Jay McCarroll, it was on his own budget, with his own contacts, and with proceeds going straight back to his wallet. McCarroll decided post-show not to accept the offer of the gifts, when he found that there was ‘a contractual clause stipulating that the Project Runway production company would own a 10% stake of all his professional ventures in perpetuity.’
Chloe Dao and Jeffrey Sebelia took the gifts and are now working on expanding their own businesses, although Sebelia admits that once he paid off the debt he had aquired by creating his clothing label, Cosa Nostra, his winnings were gone and he was flat broke. Currently he is making a living by creating costumes for the children’s movie, Bratz. Something he is fairly embarassed to admit to, but one that pays the bills.
This is just one example of the results of a reality television program, there have been records of success being achieved from these shows, such is the case of ‘The Bachelorette’, Trista Rehn, she went on to marry her Bachelorette co-star Ryan Sutter, and the couple has recently welcomed their first child. Another example is Canada’s Next Top Model, Rebecca Hardy, who can be seen walking all of the hottest runways, and lining all the most fashionable magazines. All of this being post-reality television success. It seems that the end result of these shows can generally be narrowed down to the following: The Fantasy of a career jump-start due to the exposure of the person’s talents performed on the reality show, while also boosting their popularity and reputation within their career’s community. The Fortune they dream of being able the earn by the masses and masses of people who will be interested in the services they provide; and the Fame, being the popularity the show will allow them to enjoy as they soar leaps and bounds above the competition by using dramatic character plots and multiple personalities. Out of these three conclusions of a reality tv show, not a single one seems to hold up much longer then the air time of the programming. Leaving contestants broken and loathing in self pity, trying to pick up the pieces of their shattered careers. So heres my question: Where is the real in the reality?