Why Reality TV Isn’t Going Away

Reality television is going to part of the diet no matter what.  There’s a lot of reality television that celebrates the discovery of talent.  American Idol, The Voice, that’s great. 

There’s also humiliation television and there’s a lot of reality that works that way as well.  Not something I wanted to put on.  Not something I did put on.  There’s an audience for that stuff.  I guess there always will be. 

But the audience is discriminating and reality has kind of settled in as part of the diet and there’s also a return to comedy.  Comedy was fallow for a while, particularly after the Must See era ended, and now comedy has come back, a lot of scripted drama.  And the viewer is king.  You get everywhere.  There’s cable.  There’s network.  There are over 200 channel choices in the average home.  That’s an age of choice.  That’s pretty exciting. 

In Their Own Words is recorded in Big Think’s studio.

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