Thread: Will reality TV ever be phased out?

I know there is quite the following when it comes to reality TV. Most of what reality TV is made up of is very, well... Trashy/easy television. Some stuff that follows couples or families can be okay but for me, I would rather watch family vloggers on YouTube than watch a TV show.

Do you think reality TV as a whole will ever lose its appeal?

I think the successors in spirit to the trashy reality television shows of the 2000s and early 2010s are the douchey rich YouTubers (not naming names, but you all know who I mean) whose sole point seems to be flexing on those who have less money than them. They make needless videos on tiresome, played-out topics, and it would be a net positive, I think, if they all vanished from the face of the earth.

TV in general is being phased out, there are more people who watch stuff online and less people with TV licences.

Originally Posted by TheGhostOfSabotage

TV in general is being phased out, there are more people who watch stuff online and less people with TV licences.

There is still reality "TV" in a sense online though. It just isn't on a TV. I know a lot of people use their smart phones these days to watch stuff. For everything else, smart TV's with things like Hulu and Netflix. While we have more stream watchers than ever before, reality TV still seems to thrive.

If it's not on TV then it stops being reality TV.

Yes, I believe so that it might. The way we consume media is changing at a rapid rate, and I think there would come a time that content would all come from online. Reality TV has scripts too, and they just cast actors that make it look like its natural.

Originally Posted by TheGhostOfSabotage

If it's not on TV then it stops being reality TV.

I don't think that's true. There are popular YouTube channels that could be regarded as reality TV, in a manner of speaking. If it's not on television, it'll be on the internet. Saying that content that lacks the "TV" acronym isn't the same content is a bit silly and just semantics. In some fashion you still get episodes on the internet, just as you'd get on television. The only major difference between television and internet streaming is that the former is a scheduled broadcast and the latter is on-demand.

The thing with reality TV is that it's such a broad term. A lot of people watch shows like Britain's Got Talent because they're talent shows. By the same token you could also call shows like Ninja Warrior reality TV. But when I hear "reality TV" I think of shows like Big Brother or Love Island. Why people want to live vicariously through trashy contestants is beyond me. It's as if their lives are so mundane, they're willing to choose the lowest common denominator for escapism.