When do you think reality TV will start to decline? I'm guessing '08.

It already is.

I agree that it already is declining but I think that the networks will start to lose faith in '07. For some reason 2007 just seems like its gonna be a year of huge change. I have both rap and reality t.v. declining in popularity that year.

I agree that it already is declining but I think that the networks will start to lose faith in '07. For some reason 2007 just seems like its gonna be a year of huge change. I have both rap and reality t.v. declining in popularity that year.


Yea reality is nowhere near as big as it was around 2003 or so, all the Joe Millionaires, Mr. Personalitys, My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiances are long gone. Apprentice is fading quickly, Survivor isn't as big as it once was. Only Idol has really maintained the popularity.

Yea reality is nowhere near as big as it was around 2003 or so, all the Joe Millionaires, Mr. Personalitys, My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiances are long gone. Apprentice is fading quickly, Survivor isn't as big as it once was. Only Idol has really maintained the popularity.



Yeah reality shows were all over the place in '03 much less so than now. And even though I think 2007 will be maybe the last year for reality t.v. its been declining for years.

Yeah, I think reality TV is fading out already, but in 07-08 probably the networks won't renew alot of them or will stop trying to push it on us. The bachelor/Temptation Island shows are still out there but they're amazingly, amazingly sleazy and not even "trashy fun" anymore to watch. The Apprentice and Survivor aren't anywhere near as big as they used to be, and American Idol is the only show from the early days that's maintained its popularity, definitely. What seems to be the only trend that's continued to be popular without hilt is the "process show", about modeling, cheerleading, fashion designing, cooking, building houses and the sort of show about changing people's lives and their tragedies, which I find particularly exploitative and disgusting. Reality TV show trends come and go pretty quickly, in '05 wife-swapping and nanny shows were in but even those are going out of style. I think the whole genre is running its gamut pretty quickly into just receding into the background pretty quickly and running out of steam. Most genres in TV go in and out. The "fantasy" sitcom and horror sitcom (a la Bewitched and The Munsters in the '60s and then Sabrina the Teenage Witch in the '90s), TV westerns (Gunsmoke and then Everwood), primetime soaps, sci-fi, political dramas, medical dramas and crime process shows (came back big time in the '90s), and even the sitcom have gone in and out of style, though styles of sitcoms vary. The only type that seems to maintain ratings nowadays is the very family-oriented, clean sitcom, the rest are just so abominably unfunny, and the sitcom was out except for Cheers, The Golden Girls, and The Cosby Show in the '80s, largely, as for adult-oriented sitcoms. I think the sitcom backlash this decade was due to sitcom overload in the '90s, and the one in the '80s due to '70s overload, though it was far less extreme than this one. I just think reality TV isn't good in the long term-people very rarely stick with it for multiple seasons, it's mediocre and they're all the same, it's incredibly crass, exploitative, and in bad taste about half the time (though networks have been trying to make reality classier, it doesn't really work except in process shows.) Also, every sitcom debuting nowaday fails and is all about sex. Glossy primetime soaps of every stripe can do well, but sitcoms just don't fly nowadays. I blame bad writing and the misconceptions of studio execs that everything has to have sex and violence in non-witty ways to get ratings, I think people actuall underestimate the American public.

I thought part of the reason is that they've taken the 'Reality' out of 'Reality TV.'

Pretty soon, hopefully.  ;D

I hope reality TV becomes a lot like Disco.

I hope reality TV becomes a lot like Disco.


You mean die off, then sort of return years later in some other form?  ;D

I thought part of the reason is that they've taken the 'Reality' out of 'Reality TV.'



I know what you mean. Somehow the've actually managed to come up with stupider and stupider shows every season for the last 5 years.

As long as we have the news and 60 Minutes, never. However, Survivor does show signs of slipping, so I have my fingers crossed on that.