American Idol. Britain’s Got Talent. So You Think You Can Dance…the new genre of TV shows we have come to call ‘Reality TV are anything but reality for most viewers, and therein lies their popularity. The wonder of it all is not so much why we love the stuff as why it took so long for TV to become the New Reality. After all, it has been many generations since humans strode out into the wilderness to test their mettle against nature. Couch potatoes we may be, but we have not lost the desire for the thrill of the quest. There resides in each of us the seed of competitiveness and the need for drama to prove we can overcome. We revel in the rise and fall of others when we are not capable of experiencing our own first-hand. What we have lost is the willingness to try, fail, and move on.
The fan gets to believe that he, too, might one day see his Everyman adored by fans. His dreams of becoming the Next Big Thing are far-fetched if he never leaves his house, but someone just like him can live out the dream in loco reality. On the one hand, the viewer remains safely entrenched in his own world while watching a stand-in play out the drama that he both wants and dreads. On the other, said viewer gets to indulge in some pleasant day-dreams and possibly gain a smidge of self-confidence of the “If he can do it, why can’t I?’ variety. Sadly, most often he gets lazier and more convinced that he, too, deserves recognition without the bother of earning it the hard way.
This is a safe testing of personal reality without any investment. When Susan Boyle failed to overcome, viewers, though saddened, were also relieved. Boyle was a phenom. Had she survived unscathed, her very success would have left many fans sensing their own failures more strongly. More anxiety is not what they bargained for. With her failure (though that word does not really suit her amazing success followed by her sad breakdown under stress) came justification. It brought a return to real reality, leaving many fans comfortable in their ambivalence. Maybe they would never be on stage, but look what happened to Susan! She reached beyond her sphere of reality, and, like Icarus, found her wings melting in the sun. We all enjoy justifying our own behavior. An affirmation of our inability to stretch our personal envelopes can result in a feeling of peace and tranquility.
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