Why The Writer’s Strike Won’t Affect Reality Television
November 8, 2007 by Faith Whitfield
Filed under Reality TV
Now that the writers strike is well underway, with no end in sight, it looks like we are going to be stuck watching a whole lot of repeats and a whole lot of reality television. I’m sure you’ve read all articles, saying that soon we will be watching reality shows so lame it will make Anchorwoman look great. Maybe they will even bring Anchorwoman back; after all we only saw one episode before it was canceled.
And all this talk of the impending the takeover of reality television might reinforce some myths in the minds of the ill-informed. Some of you may be thinking we will be seeing reality shows because no one writes them. Why would someone write them; they are real! There is no story, no script…they just have a general concept, and the rest is all real emotions from real people.
Ah, but you’re wrong. Everything isn’t as obviously phony as The Hills, or last week’s haunted house episode of I Love New York 2, but every show has writers. Fortunately for you, and unfortunately for them, they are non-union writers.
Jennifer L. Pozner explains how writers fit into reality television and the WGA strike in a great piece that you can read here.
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They are scripted to a degree. Or perhaps a better term is “manipulated”. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that on The Amazing Race Family Edition, the Weaver widow just happened to have to go to a race track when her husband had died in a racing accident. Or on Survivor Australia they had a bug eating challenge when one of their cast members was a vegetarian. Or this season on Survivor they went to a Buddhist temple when one of the cast members was a Christian radio host. These sorts of things are planned. They don’t just happen.
There are so many reality tv shows nowdays that the writers strike won’t even make a dent unless every writer in the world strikes. Speaking of reality shows. I was highly ill that the bachelor ended like it did. I feel like that was just a bunch of wasted time for nothing.
In effect, the writer’s strike will help the reality tv world because they’re not scripted.
The writers strike will not hurt me. I love reality shows, particularly The Amazing Race ( which my brother and neice have been trying to get on) and Survivor. I also have watched very little tv the past two years so repeats never bother me