Performance in Reality Television

Although reality television is suppose to portray "real life", there is actually a big performance component involved. Once an ordinary person gets in front of a camera, they do not act completely like themselves anymore. Sometimes they try to meet stereotypes. For example, a pretty blond girl who is actually fairly smart might begin to act stupid and naive once on camera to fulfill the "dumb blond" stereotype. Or maybe a sweet and kind guy who happens to be very built and muscular might start to act like a complete jerk and try to cause fits in order to fit the role of "Mr. Tough Guy".

In the article, When Bad Girls Go Good, the authors Alice Holbrook and Amy Singer talk about the reality show Charm School. The characters on Charm School are the girls who competed on VH1's Flavor of Love. While on Flavor of Love these women developed media personalities. The ladies acted inappropriately and always engaged in fights in order to seek attention. The contestants were given names on Flavor of Love like Krazy, Smiley, Hottie, Serious, and Buckwild. These nicknames gave the contestants a certain media personality. The point of Charm school is to attempt to change the ladies back to their true selves. In the article, Holbrook and Singer state that, "Charm School reverses the reality show formula, transferring contestants from 'media people' back into 'ordinary people'." Basically, Charm School is trying to help the contestants find their real selves again and get rid of the media selves that being on other reality shows created. The women get eliminated from the show if they are not succeeding at finding their true selves.

The video series Girls Gone Wild also represents a form of reality television that is performed. The article Guys Gone Wild? Soft-Core Video Professionalism and New Realities in Television Production by Vicki Mayer talks about the poplar series. Cameramen are paid to go around to different places and convince as many women as they can to expose themselves on camera. In real life, if a man walked up to a woman and asked her to take her shirt off, she would probably slap him. However, since these men have cameras, the women are more likely to do it so they can get on camera and get attention.

Jackass is another reality television show where there is a lot of performance involved. On this show, bored white males get together and do crazy activities and stunts to entertain themselves. Robert Sweeny discusses the performance component of Jackass in his article "This Performance Art is for the Birds:" Jackass 'Extreme' Sports, and the De(con)struction of Gender. Although the show wants the audience to think that everything done on the show is spontaneous and unrehearsed, it is very much planned. The characters plan exactly what stunts they are going to perform, take safety precautions, and even rehearse the stunts. Then they use home footage type video to make the stunts look real and like they have not been planned.

Despite what reality television producers want the audience to think, most of these so-called "reality" television shows do have some type of script or outline and are performed to some extent.