The Emotion Work of Reality Television

Television producers of reality shows are responsible for guaranteeing that over the course of filming there will be dramatic and emotional encounters to become the core of an on-screen story. Grindstaff says that the normal route of manipulated situations to create a more stressful interaction is problematic because there are limits as to what contestants would be willing to do and they always have the ability to quit during production. Instead, producers must create an emotional connection and build a relationship with each guest or contestant on their show.

 Grindstaff explains that, in general, most females and men in lower economic classes use ‘emotion work’ – meaning they use emotions to not only build relationships but also provoke desired reactions from their peers. These slight manipulations are often used to maintain normalcy, but can be used by producers to inspire more emotionally charged reactions from individuals on reality or talk shows.

Personally, I am unsure how necessary this tool of emotional manipulation is. I believe it is important for producers to build good relationships with the contestants so that everyone feels comfortable during the filming process, but I do believe that the situations themselves create high levels of stress and therefore heated reactions from the contestants. However, in a talk show or a confessional situation, it is important for the producers to know how to bring down emotional walls. By this point, the participants will have emotional guards in place about what is being discussed and producers have to build a trusting relationship to break through.

While I do believe these types of relationships are useful in creating dramatic reality television, I wonder how ethical they are. Contestants know to question the tasks they are assigned and their fellow competitors when they agree to appear on a reality how. However, most do not think to question the production staff of the show – the producers are supposed to be on their side. While I do feel somewhat uneasy about the imbalanced relationship if contestants are aware of their situation and lack of power, and producers do not overly abuse it these emotional connections help create good reality television.

Questions:

-How do producers approach the participants of a reality-competition show differently than an average reality show?

-Is the main goal in creating a show always to create the most dramatic story or is there a benefit to creating a simpler and more realistic plot line?

-How much do contestants personalities versus talent influence their ability to join or remain on a reality-competition show?

Reality Success

Reality TV has taken the global television culture by storm encouraging ordinary people with no training or television background to get involved in the production of shows and star in them. Referencing to Havens and Lotz's commercial mandate and economic conditions, the brilliant concept of reality TV meets the criteria for a successful show. The primary goal for a television show is to make profit and the best way to do that is to find an audience and gain a following. What better way to reach an audience is there than getting them involved with starring in the show and helping produce the show. Reality TV shows like MTV's Jersey Shore and FOX's American Idol incorporate the audience around the world and give them a huge role. The stars of Jersey Shore are ordinary people that are part of the entertainment cultural production in the US and therefore are willing to divulge personal information on national television as well as express themselves beyond traditional norms in order to capture the attention of producers and the viewing audience. The best parts about casting ordinary people to star in a show are the cost to cast the stars and the quality of performance. They are cheap and willing to work for low wages for fame and they are not expected to be quality actors because they don't have any training. This fits television's commercial mandate if the audience gravitates towards them. But since the actors are similar to the audience they are relatable. And since a lot of reality TV shows use conflict or alcohol to encourage conflict, people are interested.

Which brings me to my next point of interactivity. What better way to keep audience interested than to give the audience some sort of production control. Now reality shows like American Idol, have given the audience voting and responsive capabilities through telephone and online voting to live performances and through blogging. The interactivity gives the fans a sense of empowerment of the show of their choice. They invest the time to watch the show and now they have the ability to change the show to what they see fit by adding their own input. The script-less, non-big named relatable cast, and interactivity from the audience are the perfect ingredients to a successful show the meets the commercial mandate and follows the economic conditions. Networks and producers are formatting shows off one another based on contest, reality conflict, and talk shows because the trends are pointing too a strong success.

3 Questions for Magical Elves:

1. What’s the hardest part about producing a TV show?

2. Magical Elves seems to focus on producing reality tv shows so how do you pick an event that occurs in reality to base a show around?

3. How did you get into the production side of the Entertainment business?

This is not "Reality" TV

Grindstaff's response to how producers can guarantee good, dramatic, television programs when using ordinary people is that production of these shows must cause conflict. She continues to say the just producing these situations can then cause more problems in themselves due to the show becomingg too unruly or contestants quitting. Producers will force contestants or participants on talk shows directly into conflict situations attempting to play off the participants emotions, drawing the audience in. Producers put ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances like living on an island and competing for a million dollars. When a million dollars is on the line there is bound to be plenty of conflict and emotion. Grindstaff continues to say that producers put in "emotional work" in order to shape the emotions of the contestants into a direction the producer would prefer. Producers will force a show to be shown with circumstances they think the show should be shown.

After reading this aricle I could not help but relate the circumstances Grindstaff was discussing to a show I watched a lot growing up. So naturally the article made me think of Survivor. Many aspects of the article pointed only to creating conflict, which is what Survivor is all about, there is physical competitions leading to direct physical conflict as well as the mental aspect of the game. Another point the article spoke of was shooting hundreds of hours of footage and then showing only portions the producers deem as good television. This is exactly what survivor does is view every minute of the contestants lives on the island. After all of these things being added together producers get exactly what they are looking for physical and mental conflict created by simply the nature of the game. These conflicts then reveal certain emotions about each of the contestants which then draw in an audience. The show has also ran into problems discussed in the article of contestants quitting due to the stress. This all being said, I completely agree with Grindstaff's response, that producers are able to guarantee good shows by forcing contestants into a particular conflict attempting to draw out certain emotions. I can only compare her analysis with a show I have history with and Grindstaff's analysis seems to be right on cue in describing a show that has been very successful and in its twenty third season.