Formulas of Popular Culture in Reality Television

            There is a history of everything that has existed and a reason why it has continued to exist or not exist. Examples include, romance, myths, and even heroes. They all have a formula that allows them to continue to exist in society today. Reality television also has a history and formula. Although it has somewhat changed over time and has become misleading in some ways, the formula still remains.

            A formula may contain different story lines but ultimately have extremely immense similarities. In reality television a common theme is that the people on the shows are trying to let the world know how much one persons life can be so different from another’s. As most reality television is exploiting this fact, many shows are still drastically different at showing this.

            The reality television show, True Life is very different from the reality television show, The Housewives. True life is a show that informs other people what it is like to have disorders or issues. The show focuses on a variety of issues people face day to day. It includes people speaking about obsessive disorders all the way to having sexual addictions. In The Housewives, wealthy, upper class women are being exposed on the life they live. It shows the world what it could be like for a woman to be successful and wealthy. The commonality of the two shows is that they both are exposing people and how they live their day to day life. The unfortunate part of this is that some shows are created with people who are not acting real on the show so viewers are getting a false impression of that person’s life.

            Understanding that the formulas of popular culture and the similarities and differences, allows me to see that everything is not reality on reality television. Even if not everything on these reality television shows is real, it is interesting to view how much different people live from one another whether they are wealthy, poor, have addictions, or even have disorders. Formulas are very common. They are stepping-stones for most of what exists in this world. The formula has very much changed over time for reality television, as well as many other things, but it has made the world what it is today.