This is the story of five Amish kids, a supermodel named Tyra, a billionaire with weird hair and a new respect for reality TV.
Last year, the UPN television network had no reality programs on its fall schedule, and, except for its Monday night lineup of sitcoms starring African-American actors, was generating few ratings and little buzz.
This season, however, the network owns the most successful new series of the summer, the reality show “Amish in the City.” And beginning next month, it will air twice a week “America’s Next Top Model”–last spring’s most popular new show among young women aged 18 to 34.
Suddenly, UPN is a red-hot network that can claim twice as many 18- to 34-year-old viewers this year as last year.
The switch at UPN demonstrates how one or two strong reality programs can reverse the fortunes of an entire network. It also points to a pervasive shift in how networks view–and program–reality TV shows. Once considered a lucrative but lowbrow upstart used to pump fresh blood into summer schedules or plug midseason ratings leaks, reality television now occupies the frontline of TV programming.
Consider: Last year, there were only seven reality shows in the fall lineup of the six broadcast networks. This year, 23 weekly reality programs dot the fall lineup at those same networks, and a host of others appear on the rosters of prime cable channels, such as HBO, Showtime, Bravo and A&E.
It’s not just a matter of quantity. This fall, for the first time, reality shows form the programming cornerstone of every network except the WB.
For the first time in more than two decades, NBC’s “must-see TV” Thursday night lineup is not built around a hit comedy or drama. Instead, the success of NBC’s Thursday ratings lies on the back of Donald Trump’s “The Apprentice.”
These days, “The Apprentice”–not “Law & Order”–is the network’s “single most valuable show,” according to NBC President Jeff Zucker.
It is the same at Fox, where programming czar Preston Beckman calls “American Idol,” not “The Simpsons,” the network’s “crown jewel.”
“For the first time, not only are you seeing more reality shows on the fall schedules, but I think reality shows are finally getting the credit that is owed to them,” says UPN President Dawn Ostroff, who is responsible for turning the network around.
“Like comedy and drama, [reality TV has] become a staple, and that’s because a lot of networks have seen that reality can be a real game-changer for them,” Ostroff says.
The prototype game-changer is “Survivor,” which in the summer of 2000 “came on and helped turn around CBS,” she says. Four years later, the franchise is as strong as ever; “Survivor: Vanuatu,” the ninth version of the series (making its premiere Sept. 16), forms the cornerstone of the CBS lineup on Thursday nights.
In November, ABC will launch “The Benefactor,” starring billionaire Dallas businessman Mark Cuban, who dangles a million-dollar prize in front of 16 contestants.
Meanwhile, Fox will premiere a similar concept: “The Billionaire: Branson’s Quest for the Best” features Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Airlines, leading a group of young entrepreneurs around the world.
That might seem like more reality TV than the culture can bear. But it seems unlikely that the end is anywhere in sight.
“Everyone’s been predicting the death of the genre since the late 1990s, but it just grows and grows,” says Jonathan Murray, executive producer of “Billionaire.”
“It’s not just national; it’s an international phenomenon. There is something about reality shows that attracts young demographics around the world. And that’s too powerful for programmers not to stay with it.”
Around the clock
Reality TV is poised to become more ubiquitous. Next year, competition moves to another level altogether with the planned launch of two 24-hour channels devoted only to reality programs: Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Reality Channel and Reality 24-7, a new channel led by former cable executive Kay Koplowitz.
“Now, it’s not just counterprogramming in prime-time fall schedules, it’s entire niche networks devoted to reality programming,” says Ron Simon, curator at the Museum of Television and Radio in New York City.
–The Baltimore Sun
