Sep 20, 2010
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American Idol
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American Idol
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American Idol
No less an industry titan than NBC Universal Entertainment Television chairman Jeff Gaspin thinks that reality is all but played out. "I think we've probably exhausted 80 percent of reality," he told the Wall Street Journal. "That doesn't mean there's not another 20 percent to mine and create hits. I just think they're going to be fewer and further between." Certainly, there will be fewer hours of reality programming on the broadcast networks this fall than in any season since 2005.
Then again, reality remains inescapable on cable, and there's no reason to think it won't continue to do so. The genre's decline on the networks, then, says more about the slumping broadcast business than it does about whether viewers are finally getting tired of watching the latest 'Bachelor' knock-off.
Some of those older reality shows, like 'Survivor' and 'Idol,' date back as much as 10 years, when the networks suddenly stumbled upon unscripted TV as a cheap and effective way to create hit shows. They were much less costly to produce than scripted shows. With casts made up of non-professionals there were few high salaries to pay, and frequent cast turnovers kept the shows seemingly fresh.
