Of course, knowing one’s audience – and never forgetting who they are – is crucial. When Millionaire and The Weakest Link launched “celebrity” versions of their shows, many insiders felt they – in hip TV parlance – “jumped the shark.” “The greed of the networks took away a key element of [Millionaire],” says E!’s Sonnenberg. “If I see a New Jersey mother of three on, I can say, ‘God, I hope she wins because she says she’s going to buy her son a house.’ When it’s a celebrity, the drama’s not there.”
Certainly one way to keep things dramatic is to allow viewers to affect the outcome of the show. “I’m guilty myself of getting on the phone and dialing up American Idol,” admits Kunitz, explaining that the most successful reality shows provide some element of viewer participation. “With Dog Eat Dog or Fear Factor, you’re watching someone who could be your neighbor or brother or sister and you start to think, ‘Wait, could I do that? Do I have the guts to overcome that?’ It’s a different form of participating than on American Idol.”
Success can also come in surprising – and at times downright unpleasant – ways. “After Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire, when Rick Rockwell’s personal history came forth, there was a huge media frenzy,” says web head Walker, adding that when Darva Conger announced that she was going to pose for Playboy, the number of hits on his website catapulted from several thousand a day to about 75,000. “The media scandals raised a lot of interest in reality television in general.” Certainly, formerSurvivor’s pondering Playboy layouts or suing the show keep it in the news and ego-lacerating Simon Cowell’s quips made for good American Idol copy. And, well, there go any questions about Anna Nicole Smith’s appeal.
One thing’s for certain: reality television is here to stay for the time being. As one former movie producer who’s transitioned into reality TV put it, “I think networks have started going, ‘Wow, we’re spending millions of dollars on an hour of television when we could spend half a million and get as good a rating.’” Good ratings make people millionaires and, as Reege well knows, that’s what we all really want to be.
