There's little doubt that television in the past 15 years or so has been dominated by the various forms of reality television, be it the talent show (X Factor, The Voice, Britain's Got Talent), the skill based (Strictly, Dancing On Ice) or the 'celebrity' format (I'm A Celeb, CBB). But recently, the popularity of some of these shows has been waning. X Factor's popularity, although still steady, is nowhere near what it once was, The Voice's first 2 series (in the UK) started off really strongly but interest declined at a rapid rate, Dancing on Ice is on it's last series ever and Big Brother still pulls in some decent viewers for the celebrity version but regular BB struggles to even get half of that (this is all, of course, trying to be as objective as possible, the question of the relative quality of these shows is not for me to judge).

 

Knowing this, do you think we're witnessing the fall of 'Reality TV' as the dominant mainstream television format and are in an 'Interregnum' before the next 'big thing' takes a rise in popularity? Or is this just a momentary blipp and reality shows will be on the saturday night tv listings forever?

 

(all of these refernce points are UK based, enlighten me if the situation in the US is any different!)

The genre is definitely tiring, I stopped watching all the shows you mentioned a long time ago. It's a bit of a grey area as to what the 'Next big thing' will be really, Reality has been a ratings and press winner for years and I think if the 'downfall' were to happen, it would be a great massive hole to fill. Just where can television go where it hasn't been before? It's something that intrigues me, but also somehow scares me (I've been watching too much Charlie Brooker clearly)

 

That said, I think the big guns like X Factor and Strictly still get good ratings for their respective channels so I'm not sure they'll be going anywhere for a while yet, even the likes of Big Brother still has its fanbase.

Reality is popular in the United States, from a network point of view, because it is very cheap to produce and gets good ratings.

 

Ratings in the US have been on the decline in general but reality remains popular relatively speaking. In this country, I think that the traditional talent show may be in decline from over exposure and over manipulation but the rise of scripted reality hasn't yet seen it's peak imo. I think there will always be a market for Reality TV but yes I think the 'traditional' format will decline.

 

However, with the celebrity culture and rise of sites like TMZ I don't think this is something that we will ever vanish from our screens. It will continue to evolve and adapt to the demands of the market.

in my view, reality tv has a long way to go (an extremely long way to go) before it dies

 

it's a 2 sided argument

 

1 side say, oh.. i stop watching the reality tv series because they get old and boring, yet the other side say.. well, look. why can't the shows find new ways to atract their audiences (and that is exactly what they are doing)

 

look at all the new stuff added to big brother since it moved to channel 5. all the new twists and stuff

 

okay, the voice, the X factor, maybe. but that's not stopping shows like big brother, the apprentice, the taste, all those from evolving

 

the thing with reality tv, their is always a new idea- and it's real. that's what people like about it