Herald on Sunday editorial: Real life on TV

Who would or wouldn't want to be placed in a tropical island resort to fall in love?

Watching reality TV (and who has not?) the question that probably comes to most viewer's minds is, "How do they find these people?"

Who would volunteer to be put in a situation of some sort of stress and have a camera follow you closely at every turn, recording your every word, every facial tremor?

Well, the answer is, thousands would. Thousands do. More than 8000 people have applied to be in the next season of Mediaworks' The Block, we report today. More than 4000 wanted to be in Three's Married at First Sight.

More than 2000 hopefuls have put their hand up for the New Zealand version of the latest UK reality hit, Love Island, where 20 singles are placed in a tropical island resort to see if any of them will fall in love.

Why do they volunteer to do this in front of TV cameras, knowing their vulnerabilities and embarrassments will be watched by hundreds of thousands of strangers?

The simple dream of fame may be the explanation for many, but for others the quest is genuine, the broadcasters' content directors say. They really do welcome the opportunity to win some money, acquire some equity in a house, meet the love of their life. And with so many answering the invitation, there must be plenty of genuine applicants for the programme directors to select.

Television is no place for fakes, it projects facial and body language so well that viewers could instantly tell if somebody was acting. Or if a line was scripted. Reality TV succeeds because it is real. It offers studies of authentic human nature no matter how contrived and unrealistic the situations may be.

So we owe some appreciation to those willing to live in front of a lens for our observation, dissection and discussion. No matter how willing they were to be exposed, they probably do not realise what exposure on television really means until the programme starts screening and perfect strangers hail them by name and talk to them like familiar friends.
And sometimes the reality stars really do find what they hoped. Art Green and Matilda Rice, winners of The Bachelor NZ in season one, got engaged last month.

When we report the numbers who apply for these shows it is clear that everyone selected for them is a winner. They have usually undergone a rigorous examination of their personality, aptitude and ability to ignore a camera in their face. It cannot be easy, it cannot always be fun, but it is damned fascinating.