“People seem prepared to do anything to achieve fifteen minutes of fame”, and The X Factor and The Apprentice are two examples of this. Television of the last ten years will be remembered for the sudden outbreak of reality TV. Reality shows like Big Brother, and talent shows like Popstars, emerged in 2000 with immense popularity with audiences. Big Brother released many spin offs, the most popular being Celebrity Big Brother, and Popstars inspired many other talent shows, including Pop Idol and The X Factor. However, issues about the content of these shows caused many to believe that reality TV is responsible for the dumbing down of audiences. The format’s lack of intellectual content is thought of as being an easy way for commercial channels to make easy money as they can attract mainstream audiences. An episode of The X Factor “led 3000 people to complain to the broadcasting regulator, Ofcom – 10 times the number that complained about the BNP leader’s appearance on Question Time”, suggesting that today’s society consider reality TV to be a bigger issue than political issues. However, the BBC, a public service broadcaster, released a new kind of reality TV talent show – The Apprentice. Some consider this to be one of the only quality reality TV shows that we have today as it is not only entertaining, but it is considered to have intellectual content. However, some still believe that no reality TV can be good for us as there are questions about how much of it really is reality. Are public service broadcaster reality shows just as lowbrow as commercial talent shows, and what are the different reasons that audiences have to watch them?
Since the beginning of the decade, there has been an increase of the amount of reality TV shows broadcast in the UK. “With the UK launch of Big Brother in 2000, and amplified by the talent show format and The Rise of Cowell, reality TV would define the noughties obsession with harvesting jerry-built celebrities” as more and more people aspired to get their fifteen minutes of fame. “The success of reality TV is partly due to the increasingly voyeuristic nature” as people wanted to become celebrities and the voyeurism that reality TV offers allowed them to find out what it would take for normal people like them to gain this glamorised celebrity status. Audiences see normal people on reality TV become famous and want to imitate this success. It could be argued that this leads to many more reality TV shows so that there would be something for everyone to apply for.
ITV is a commercial channel which is profit driven. To gain advertising revenue, commercial channels need to have a large audience share watching their shows so that advertisers will invest in them. “Channel 4 and ITV are the organisations that broadcast the most popular reality television formats”, as they are cheap to produce and attract mass audiences. The voyeurism of reality TV gives it a lot of appeal, as well as the sudden celebrity status that contestants gain from it. Reality TV was seen as an easy way for everyone to get fame, which made it successful in a time when there was an “obsession with celebrity and everyone wanting to be one”. The X Factor was first broadcasted in 2004, just after the sudden rise of reality TV. As commercial channels need to make as much profit as possible, many of them turn to reality TV as they are “relatively cheap to make, certainly compared to drama, and they appear to guarantee audiences”, meaning that commercial channels can rely on them to be profitable. In order to appeal to a wide range of audience, The X Factor is a lowbrow show that focuses on giving the audience entertainment gratifications. Being a singing competition, it does not require any knowledge or skills other than being able to sing and entertain audiences. However, The Apprentice, where candidates have a high level of intelligence, may only appeal to highbrow audiences who can match this intelligence. As the BBC is a public service broadcaster, it has a remit to entertain, educate and inform audiences. The channel broadcasts more intellectual shows than commercial channels, as their priority is to produce quality TV rather than just to gain audiences. The Apprentice is a challenging watch and the educational content holds lasting value as “The Apprentice created more lasting celebrity than Big Brother”, so the educational content of public service broadcasting shows lead to a lasting success rather than just a short-lived fifteen minutes of fame.
Since The X Factor first began in 2004, the viewing figures have increased every year of it’s run, to the point where it is now one of the most watched and talked about TV shows in the UK. It offers viewers a variety of audience pleasures, which allows different people to gain different gratifications. The voyeuristic nature of the show allows audiences to watch other people, which enables them to make judgements and opinions about the contestants. Audiences gain escapism by watching other people’s lives, as “it certainly helps you forget about the stresses of the day when you can see people having a much worse day than you have had”. Because of the mass audience of The X Factor, there is a lot of discussion about the show, leading to social interaction between viewers. “Audiences engage and chat to each other more about reality television than any other format”, and their opposing opinions lead to these discussions. Also, on the spin off show, The Xtra Factor, audiences can interact on a wider scale as they take part in the show. There is opportunity for user generated content on the official website of the show as viewers can comment and discuss the shows. The Apprentice offers similar gratifications to audiences as the voyeurism and the social interaction elements are essential in both shows. Also, audiences can identify with certain characters as “comparisons are a relatively natural thing to make: we either take the stance that we are better than the participants, or we want to be them”, and social identification is a key audience pleasure as it makes audiences feel that they have a better understanding of the characters and their situations. Although it can be argued that both of these shows have similar gratifications, they still appeal to different audiences as “it is acceptable now for the middle-classes openly to discuss reality television, so long as it is a conversation on last night’s The Apprentice”. It can be considered that social interaction about The Apprentice is a more intelligent conversation than social interaction about The X Factor, where “intelligence is being compromised”.
The X Factor offers audience participation, which some people believe to be one of the reasons that it is so successful. Audiences can see the effect that they are having on the show, and “the ‘real’ drama of the programmes is added to by the interactivity, with the audience supposedly directly influencing events on screen”, which is a huge appeal of the show. Voting for people gives them a role in giving someone celebrity status and making their lives better. The audience become a part of the ‘narrative’ as they are the helpers that guide the Proppian hero to success, giving them narrative pleasures and making them active consumers of the text. Audience participation is also offered through interactive media, giving them a range of ways to be involved in the show. New and digital media has meant that they can use the red button to vote rather than just the traditional methods of phoning and texting, giving them the “big interactive buzz of ‘...pressing the red button...’” so they have the excitement of being involved. “Simon Cowell [...] knows how to run a popular election” and audiences never fail to make sure that they have their say.The democracy of the show means that audiences have an effect on the outcome, giving them an essential role in order to allow ITV to gain mass audiences and advertising sales. Audiences can also use social networking websites to interact with other audience members while taking part, including Facebook campaigns that are either for or against The X Factor’s domination of the charts, the most memorable being the audience trying to keep the winner off Number 1 in the charts. In The Apprentice, the audience have no effect on the outcome of the show. In The X Factor, contestants have to be memorable and likeable in order to gain votes, whereas in The Apprentice, audiences are passive so their view on the contestants is not as important. Because it is Lord Sugar that decides who wins and who is fired, the audience for The Apprentice are not as important to the show as the audience for The X Factor.
All television has been mediated. Although reality TV is not scripted, it has still been structuralised and a narrative and character roles have been built into the show, removing the actuality that would be expected from ‘reality’ TV. In The X Factor, the judges all have separate roles. Although it can be considered that they are all the heroes as they give contestants hope of success, there is the sympathetic judge, Dannii Minogue, the pitiful judge, Louis Walsh, the fun judge, Cheryl Cole, and the villain, Simon Cowell. These character roles mean audiences can have opinions on each of the judges, which helps with social interaction. Also, the character roles make the show seem more like scripted drama so audiences engage more with it as there is a narrative to follow, encouraging regular viewing of the show. The X Factor is a very dramatic show with many stories in every series, whether they are about the contestants or the judges, but it has been said that “the on-air rows and feuds were designed to increase the show's entertainment value”, raising questions about how much of reality TV is reality and how much the actuality has been adapted to create more entertainment and draw in audiences. The contestants of the show are also given character roles, and it has become expected that a ‘villain’ will survive, such as Jedward and Wagner. Not only do audiences like to watch their favourite characters, but there is also “a slightly twisted appeal of watching someone you dislike” as they create entertainment due to the amount of universal hatred that the public have for them. The Apprentice also uses narrative and character roles, with Lord Sugar being a wise teacher and the candidates as his keen students. The character roles in The Apprentice are less about entertaining audiences than The X Factor, who deliberately select bad contestants for entertainment purposes, as in The Apprentice, the candidates have all been chosen to have an equal chance. However, the roles are still present as the interviews with the candidates always seem to show the worst of them. Although The Apprentice is considered to be saving audiences from dumbing down as it is a highbrow reality TV show, the narrative element raises questions about how much good it is doing for audiences if they are only watching for the constructed narrative. Giving the show wide appeal has led to it “‘borrowing’ from fiction, particularly narrative techniques, structures and characterisation”, so it could be considered as still dumbing us down as the education has become fictional.
Throughout the last 10 years, reality has become “the hottest and most talked about TV genre of our time”. The X Factor has been one of the most successful reality TV talent shows and “shows like [...] The X Factor have actually got people more interested in music again and are sending more people into record stores”. However, issues and concerns about the quality of lowbrow TV shows and the effect that they are having on audiences have recently led to a lot of criticism of reality TV. However, the launch of the public service broadcaster reality TV show The Apprentice has meant that there is now a reality show that is considered to be highbrow and quality TV. This has opened the reality TV genre to a much wider audience as intellectuals now have a reality show that they consider to be acceptable. However, the audience are passive and do not have as much involvement, which raises questions about how much the show is challenging audiences. The narrative also diminishes the educational content of the show as “once you see the mediation process involved, you are aware that it is not a real situation”. Therefore, although public service broadcasters differ from commercial TV channels and some of their audience pleasures differ, it can be said that both shows have the main purpose of giving audiences entertainment gratifications, so there are questions about how different the two shows can be.
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Bibliography
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/dec/03/x-factor-itv-simon-cowell - The X Factor set to make £100m for ITV – and £7m for Simon Cowell
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/nov/23/dannii-minogue-x-factor-cleared - Dannii Minogue’s X Factor comments and treatment of Susan Boyle cleared by Ofcom
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/nov/14/is-x-factor-killing-pop - Is The X Factor killing pop?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/dec/16/most-watched-tv-shows-2009 - ITV dominates list of 2009’s most-watched TV shows
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/oct/17/apprentice-alan-sugar-women-at-work - The Apprentice catfight did businesswomen no favours
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