Reality Bites!
The ever-increasing number of reality shows in television has been providing more than just entertainment for the masses. Now the dreams of ordinary people of making it ‘BIG’ someday, suddenly seems oh so easy! Right from music competitions to losing weight and even cramming up celebrities in a house for days, the list just goes on. All the participants of these shows are portrayed as extremely determined to win the first place for which the prize could be an unbelievable sum of money, an apartment, and a high-end model car! All this seems too rosy for anyone to resist. The quotient of reality in these “made to look so real” leaves the audiences puzzled. These shows hardly portray the true spirit of competition. They promote vandalism, backstabbing within the fellow participants. I always wonder what the audiences get to enjoy seeing someone using swear words to their fellow contestants. These are the sometimes the main objective of some shows. A wonderful example would be the recent “Big Brother” controversy. The whole concept of the show mainly revolves around the celebrities, who are obviously from different backgrounds sometimes even from a different race forced to live together for a month. Bear each other’s abusive language, erratic lifestyles, and deceit from fellow housemates and yet be patient and calm throughout this ordeal. What good does this show promote?
Lets consider another program aired in Star TV – Voice of India, the music competition claiming to search for the ultimate voice of India! The indifferent behavior of the judges towards the participants is really sad. In particular, the rude remarks made by singer Alka Yagnik to amateur singers are really discouraging and insulting. Every participant who has come to a certain level in that show has come across after competing with thousands and thousands of other equally capable participants. Each of them is a winner in someway. Rejection is an unavoidable element of life; it can be in two ways. If it is given in such a harsh manner it will leave a scar in people’s minds forever. Although some judges like Singer Chitra in Vijay TV’s Airtel Super Singer make the whole elimination process dignified, with her polite remarks on the flaws and how to work harder to correct them. Most of them, atleast one judge per show are atrocious and unfair
Elimination is a part of any competition, but in these reality shows the elimination of members are portrayed in the most dramatic manner as possible, just for the purpose of increasing the TRP’s. Mutual betrayal is an important element in most of the shows, where fellow participants usually vote out one person, sometimes for an unjustifiable reason. There is tears shed, sad background music; eliminated contestant is made to look victims, encouraging sympathy! While most of the eliminations in reality are well planned and well enacted. Oh I almost forgot, the SMS’s! The mobile service providers are probably the ones who are best benefited by these reality shows. Viewers are asked to be part of this elimination by voting for their favorite. The person who gets the least number of votes has to leave. But creditability of this voting still remains mysterious. There has been an incident in a popular dance competition “Nach Baliye” aired in Star Tv, where two participants were in trouble because they had acquired a large number of phone connections and handed it over to their relatives and friends to vote for them. And the rates of these SMS’s can be Rs.6 or more varying between service providers. Ardent fans of these shows don’t mind spending a few rupees as long as they see their favorite contestant winning the price money for himself of course!
Finally after numerous elimination rounds, training and grooming sessions, one participant gets to taste victory and get their ticket to fame. But how long? Most of the winners of these talent search shows are usually in news for their first break in the music scene. They might go on singing for a song or two, after that most perish. Their road to fame would have been easier, but staying in the limelight for long in the highly competitive industry is more difficult. Eventually most of these talented young lots get lost in this struggle. Their victory and rise to glory is forgotten. This proves that more than rising to fame; the difficult part is in sustaining it.
But as for now, Reality shows are a reality in our television world. And with more and more young talented people wanting to make it BIG at any cost! Reality shows are here to stay for long. But remember that reality bites as well!!!
Lets consider another program aired in Star TV – Voice of India, the music competition claiming to search for the ultimate voice of India! The indifferent behavior of the judges towards the participants is really sad. In particular, the rude remarks made by singer Alka Yagnik to amateur singers are really discouraging and insulting. Every participant who has come to a certain level in that show has come across after competing with thousands and thousands of other equally capable participants. Each of them is a winner in someway. Rejection is an unavoidable element of life; it can be in two ways. If it is given in such a harsh manner it will leave a scar in people’s minds forever. Although some judges like Singer Chitra in Vijay TV’s Airtel Super Singer make the whole elimination process dignified, with her polite remarks on the flaws and how to work harder to correct them. Most of them, atleast one judge per show are atrocious and unfair
Elimination is a part of any competition, but in these reality shows the elimination of members are portrayed in the most dramatic manner as possible, just for the purpose of increasing the TRP’s. Mutual betrayal is an important element in most of the shows, where fellow participants usually vote out one person, sometimes for an unjustifiable reason. There is tears shed, sad background music; eliminated contestant is made to look victims, encouraging sympathy! While most of the eliminations in reality are well planned and well enacted. Oh I almost forgot, the SMS’s! The mobile service providers are probably the ones who are best benefited by these reality shows. Viewers are asked to be part of this elimination by voting for their favorite. The person who gets the least number of votes has to leave. But creditability of this voting still remains mysterious. There has been an incident in a popular dance competition “Nach Baliye” aired in Star Tv, where two participants were in trouble because they had acquired a large number of phone connections and handed it over to their relatives and friends to vote for them. And the rates of these SMS’s can be Rs.6 or more varying between service providers. Ardent fans of these shows don’t mind spending a few rupees as long as they see their favorite contestant winning the price money for himself of course!
Finally after numerous elimination rounds, training and grooming sessions, one participant gets to taste victory and get their ticket to fame. But how long? Most of the winners of these talent search shows are usually in news for their first break in the music scene. They might go on singing for a song or two, after that most perish. Their road to fame would have been easier, but staying in the limelight for long in the highly competitive industry is more difficult. Eventually most of these talented young lots get lost in this struggle. Their victory and rise to glory is forgotten. This proves that more than rising to fame; the difficult part is in sustaining it.
But as for now, Reality shows are a reality in our television world. And with more and more young talented people wanting to make it BIG at any cost! Reality shows are here to stay for long. But remember that reality bites as well!!!
Comments
voyeurism at its extreme is the answer for the popularity shown to these shows
good work ujju
harimamma
Vijay TV’s junior singer invited lot of criticism from people who are concerned abt children. They show kids crying when they loose as u said with ‘sad background music’…it opens up a different kind of world to them, a world where winners are celebrated and losers are thrown out. I feel these programs tend to make both the viewers and the participants more materialistic.
One more point, if u see these kid’s parents, they show a killing attitude. They desperately want their wards to win. We need to blame this kind of parents for putting their kids in this tender age into high-pressure life style.
Keeping posting Ujwal…gr8!!!