Stardate 20010716.1518 (On Screen): TV has always had a taste for the unscripted. This goes back to its earliest days. Certainly TV sports was a way of watching something which could not be predicted even by the producers of the shows, but I'm thinking of the quiz shows which became so popular in the 1950's. There was no ability to tape-delay in those days; the only way to create something ahead of time was to film it and it was easy to tell when this was done, so when "The $64,000 question" ran on TV, people
knew that it was live. Of course, the fact that it was live didn't mean it wasn't rehearsed. It was possible for a quiz show to be non-fun to watch. No-one wants to see someone miss all the questions, so producers started feeding the answers to the contestants ahead of time. It all
blew wide open with a scandal about a show called
Twenty-one with two contestants called Herb Stempel and Charles Van Doren. The reason was simple: an exciting show meant high ratings, which meant better advertising revenue. QED
So I can't say I'm surprised that word is beginning to leak out that the "cage" shows (e.g. Survivor, Real World) are somewhat less than totally spontaneous. They're among the highest rated shows on TV today, during a time when the big TV networks are gut-fighting against each other for larger shares of the declining overall ratings for big-network TV. The 1950's quiz show scandals actually lead to congressional investigations; maybe that's needed now? I think it is precisely the purported spontaneity which attracts the voyeur instinct here (but I'm guessing because I've never watched any of them). A good high-profile rigging scandal would take the wind out of the ratings of these shows. If someone wants scripted conflict, they'd do better with "All My Children". At least the actors would have more talent and the camera angles would be better. (discuss)
