Ordinary Stars

With today's reality TV show stars there a new sense of intimacy between the audience and the star. These stars are supposedly the everyday person, therefore making them more relatable to the the viewer and encouraging interactivity. With this relationship established, producers and networks take advantage of this relationship and create access to the star. By having these people be unknown people who are usually looking for a way to become popular in the audience's mind, it also opens up for more outlets that that star is likely to use to reach that audience. Also with more access to the show there are also new ways to interact with the show beyond the actual content, especially through the show's website. This is a part of interactivity. For example, the show Top Chef. On the Top Chef website there are plenty ways to connect with the show beyond the content. There are blogs and recipes from their favorite contestants on the show. Also there are recaps of the show and extra features such as casting videos, merchandise, and games. These are all ways that the audience can further their interactions with the show. This show encourages interactivity further by the subject of the show. The contestants are chefs and everyone needs to learn how to cook, thereby forming a link between the professional and the viewer. Reality TV and Top Chef have to do more things to make it interactive. They have to cast people that come on that are relatable but also entertaining to encourage viewers to want to learn more about the participant. Once this relationship is made people choose a person to root for and one to root against. Reality TV depends upon viewers attaching themselves to the "ordinary" people on their show and following people along as they go through the different challenges of the show and (in this case) fight to the death to become a top chef.

1) What made the company pick these ideas for TV shows vs. others?

2) What's one project you really wanted to see get done but never made it to production? Why didn't it make it?

3) There is a lot of reality TV here, do you hope to later go into other genres or TV?