I remember waiting for Tuesday at ten pm during the Seattle season to see what would happen to Irene, who had some mental issues. The show truly does a great job in developing distinct personalities of the cast. A key aspect of the success of the reality shows is that the audience feels they know the characters. The audience loves looking in on the characters because they feel they know the cast. Reality shows where there are not characters with developed personalities have been successful, but not to the extent that the other ones have been.
Cops is an example.
Since the show changes locations and policemen each episode, the audience does not get to really know the characters. Another example of a voyeur show is CBS s Big Brother . Big Brother is basically a combination of Survivor and The Real World . There are people living in a house, but there is a cash prize at stake and houseguests are voted out each week. What makes Big Brother different is that the shows are not edited.