Real life pays real well. Or so the broadcast networks have discovered. It's now a form, just like soap operas, doctor shows, or legal shows. I doubt you, me, our children or our grandchildren will know a time without it. A lucrative idea For networks, the reality show's appeal is obvious.
Reality shows are also incredibly profitable.
All this for an idea as old as motion pictures, and one that has always had a place in the television universe. We've always had 'reality' TV, just in different forms. Which is not to say that reality programming is merely an update of the classic documentary form. This new genre thrives on reality that's contrived, Thompson notes. So it's half fiction, half reality.