The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States has shown several reality shows. One of these featured several families who were put into 19th century conditions as if they were settlers. The families were competing to see who could get their house set up and their food in for the winter.
The reality aspects of the show were the accoutrements of life in a cabin in a rural area. Outside of most of the physical setup, nothing was real. There was even a closet in each home with modern technology so that the participants could carry on a vlog of their thoughts and experiences, making even the physical setup artificial.
True pioneers did not compete with each other. They helped each other to survive, because survival was challenging. The element of competition, then, turned something that could have been interesting and even authentic into a cat fight between a particularly obnoxious competitor and everyone else.
When Hollywood wants to flummox people, it puts the lie directly into the name of the thing. "Reality" television is probably much further from reality than the average sit-com. Video can be cut and manipulated. Situations can be set up to bring out the worst in people. One wonders whether the genre was developed so that studios would not have to pay professional actors.
In short, reality television isn't real. It's a way of manipulating and humiliating people as a means of entertainment.
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