FBoy Island NZ caused controversy before it had even debuted last year. Photo / TVNZ
The scandal we see in reality television programmes is always carefully curated to hype the drama.
What we don’t see on screen are the steps taken to up the ante and deliver as much chaos as possible.
Helen Wood, a professor of media and cultural studies at the UK’s University of Aston, has written extensively about reality TV and also served as a parliamentary advisor for an inquiry into what the industry needs to change.
She tells The Front Page podcast that in investigating this sector, she has heard no shortage of shocking stories about what happens outside the gaze of the camera.
“We’ve heard of bullying backstage and shouting,” she says.
“We’ve heard stories of a participant having an episode on set and being sent straight to a mental health facility. We’ve heard stories of alcohol being used to get reactions, and even drugs being supplied. I even heard a story about a water supply being turned off to generate more tension on set.”
On top of this, reality contestants are expected to deal with the consequences of what might happen during the show.
“They’re dealing with the ways in which they’re treated in the press, and then online abuse can also become a problem.”
Even the so-called villains in reality shows are made behind the scenes long before the camera starts rolling.
Recently, one contestant on House Rules Australia won a court case in which she claimed that she was harassed and bullied by producers into being more critical of other contestants – an approach that effectively framed her as the villain.
“I think one of the problems is that you don’t know the life of something after the event,” says Wood.
“A lot of the contracts that people sign when they go on these shows exist in perpetuity and across the universe. So something you do or say on a particular show could end up on YouTube being recycled and the impact of that can be really damaging. During the inquiry, we heard from a participant called Dwayne Davison, who had been framed as the most hated guest of the [Jeremy Kyle] show on YouTube. He said it simply ruined his life.”
We’ve also seen reality TV run awry with some awful casting decisions in New Zealand, with the local versions of Married at First Sight and FBOY Island casting men who had histories of domestic violence.
Despite these myriad problems, things are starting to change and there’s a growing movement to push that change through faster.
So what’s being done to fix this industry? And what processes should still be adopted to keep participants safe from harm?
Listen to the full episode of The Front Page podcast to hear Wood elaborate on why the reality TV machine is broken and some of the attempts to repair it.
The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. It is presented by Damien Venuto, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in business reporting who joined the Herald in 2017.
You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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