"Reality" Check: Part 1 - Skill Challenge

I love reality TV. There I admit it. I am a reality TV junkie. 

I prefer what I call "skill challenge" reality; where the winner is crowned best at whatever it is they do, and the reward involves mentorship in their chosen field.  These shows include American Idol (and various country specific variations), So You Think You Can Dance, America's Next Top Model (and country variattions), On The Lot and obscure ones like Shear Genius, and Project Catwalk.  The dating ones I don't like at all, but, if there is a fun twist and the cheese factor is off the charts, I have been known to get hooked. I am thinking of Temptation Island, Joe Millioniare and Average Joe. And who could forget Mr. Personality, hosted by Monica Lewinsky where the contestants were men who had to wear masks all the time, so the hottie chick didn't know if shw was dating an ugly man or not. And finally there are puzzle reality; including the Mole, Celebrity Mole and of course Survivor.

So why do I love these shows? I love how they are put together. How they edit the show to create villians and heroes. How they give the illusion of fairness and truthfulness in the competitions. 

My first example of how reality TV is created is with the American Idol type - "Skill Challenge" shows.  I actually can't stand American Idol. I find they put so much stock into the broad search, where you see so many people get their hopes dashed. To me it's painful, I have trouble getting through that stuff. I find Simon just to awful.  But I digress.

Think about it. How many people show up to these things in one day?  Hundreds, right?  So how do they find the time for hundreds of people to audition in front of the judges? They don't.  Here's what they do: everyone auditions in front of various producers. The producers let the ones who will make good TV go in front of the judges. That means the bad ones have already been screened, and because they are so bad, they get the go ahead.  Knowing this, why do the judges get so angry at the contestants when they know darn well that they have been screened by their own people? You would think the judges would be mad at their own people. No. Instead the judges *act* like they are having a hissy fit and yell at the contestants. All for the cameras. 

Camera angles will reveal a ton of information about who is going on and who isn't. Watch out for are cameras that swing around the contestant (in So You Think You Can Dance), or other unusual camera angles. If you see that you know they are going on and were asked to re-do their audition for the cameras to get good angles. 

If you enjoy a fiction novel about an American Idol rip-off, you may want to read "Chart Throb" by Ben Elton. 

I also find it very funny how the editors use reaction shots to create the illusion of tension between contestants. Someone does something stupid, and they cut to someone else making a face, smirking, laughing or whatever.  I bet that some of the time these are true reactions, but most of the time, these reactions are to other things, but are spliced in to create a story.  For good examples see America's Next Top Model (Jael acting like an idiot at a meet and greet) and Pussy Cat Dolls Present: The Search for the Next Doll (Chelsea and Melissa S' reactions to each other).  Survivor does this all the time in their Tribal Councils.  Keep in mind that the elimination judgement lasts a long time. Survivor  TC is hours long, America's Next Top Model judgement is long enough for girls to faint, and for boots to slouch.  That is a long time to splice together the perfect montage in order to create characters.

What your favorite reality TV moment? I have a few off the top of my head.  "Slurp" from Joe Millionaire (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Millionaire) Johnny Fairplay and his Grandma from Survivor  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Dalton)  and various moments of Stephen Baldwin and Corben Bernsen from Celebrity Mole.