Have We Seen The End Of The Reality TV Boom, Or Is It Just Getting Started?

Following the huge ratings success of Married at First Sight's debut, we asked one of our contributors to explore the future of reality TV in Australia.

Reality television has been the most popular genre of recent years, dominating the ratings in spectacular ways.

But all good things must come to an end, right?

Reality television’s greatest strength is thriving off controversy in order to retain viewers. Its shows divide the audience, as many of us can’t look away from a potential train wreck.

Reality television exists in different forms: it could be a competition pitting individuals against each other for a grand prize or a show that follows people’s lives on a daily basis, in situations and environments that rarely occur in real life. The style of show determines the means the network will use to create controversy, and by extension, earn higher ratings.

Whilst My Kitchen Rules thrives on the casting of ‘villains’, invested in the belief the public is rooting for their demise, shows like Married at First Sight exploit the controversy of marriage as an experiment, rather than the lifelong commitment as it’s traditionally understood.

Reality TV is not necessarily ‘good’ and perhaps that’s part of its continual appeal. In fact, Australia’s first Bachelorette, Sam Frost, was chosen primarily because of the drama created in the aftermath of last year’s The Bachelor – which garnered weeks of attention even after the finale ended.

This genre taps into the human need for convenience, available almost every day instead of airing new episodes weekly. The question remains, however, will reality television ever get to be too much?

With the growing popularity of online streaming services, such as Netflix and Stan, entertainment options have grown significantly in the last year.

The convenience of all kinds of television has improved, and since that seems like the most obvious reason for the success of reality television, it wouldn’t be surprising if this current king of genres was to slowly diminish over the years.

That said, the need to ‘hate-watch’ continues to exist – and reality television provides the easiest outlet for this. Maybe this will allow it to be successful for a longer period of time.

Different television genres provide different types of entertainment, and whilst reality TV is marred with an immense amount of controversy, it’s hard to fathom the notion of its failure, simply because no other genre would fill the gap that reality TV would leave behind.

Emily Lam is one of Student Edge’s student contributors. Learn more about the contributors program.