Survivor One World: reality (television) sucks

Remember when Survivor represented a fresh, innovative take on television that promised to change things, and then went on for 24 seasons not really changing at all? Well, that’s probably because it isn’t exactly the raw, organic show that its producers want it made out to be.

When former cast members went to visit Northwestern University’s college-level Survivor course, they shared some unsettling information about many people’s favourite “reality” show. realityblurred's Andy Dehnart writes of the "truly surprising examples of producers’ impact on their lives and game":

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They are surprising to me because the contestants actually admitted these things in public, when the show has been pretty good about controlling its cast and press, and because while it takes place in an obviously artificial context, Survivor maintains an exceptionally high standard that few other shows even attempt. I roll my eyes at people who dismiss the show as fake, because everything from the hunger to the challenges to the environment are very real, but there’s apparently a lot of what amounts to cheating—the audience and other contestants—on the periphery. And that’s very disappointing.

And Lori Rackl of The Chicago Sun-Times notes that former cast members have reported that camera operators occasionally provide a bit of food or aid with starting a fire for starving and/or freezing contestants.
It helps me to bypass the countless iterations of reality competitions to assume that everyone who signs up to be on one has essentially written off their sense of dignity, so I doubt it can feel any worse to admit to not being able to make fire for yourself, despite being on Survivor.
And if it’s not bad enough that producers have somewhere upwards of a half-year’s worth of time to edit three days into forty-two minutes of very select footage, they have the gall to actually manipulate shots while they’re happening, to fabricate contestants’ camera-confessions, wardrobes, and even their voting decisions. Some of the crew even handed out candy to some isolated individuals.
My biggest qualm with Survivor, or Big Brother, or “insert generic reality competition here,” is not, in fact, the show itself, but its fans and apologists. I realize that television is generally trending towards sensationalism, and that despite all the meddling happening behind the scenes to make said sensation, there are still some genuine moments between almost genuine people caught on tape. But the emotional involvement in what boils down to a false, or at best, fixed competition, is like a sports fan betting money on a little league game being played on Xbox.


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