Open House shows multi-person orgies on TV. scream back. Eight «hot moms» between the ages of 40 and 60 travel to a luxury mansion in Mexico where they are cared for by young men. Although all these young men are actually the sons of the mentioned «hot moms». Thus, mothers are courted by each other's sons through games such as «pin the donkey's tail,» where blindfolded mothers run their hands over the torsos of eight young people to identify their offspring. This paper described it as an «Oedipal Nightmare».
Or how about Naked and Afraid on the Discovery Channel, where two naked strangers — one man and one woman — must survive in the desert with nothing more than a Firestarter and one tool, in which one participant almost died after being bitten by a venomous centipede. Or Channel 4's «Open House: The Great Sex Experiment» where a couple go on a sex retreat to a country house where they can choose single people who all want to have sex with them — the season's most popular reason. orgy for 15 people. Then there's «Nude Attraction» on Channel 4, as is «Blind Date,» but the picker has to pick from a queue of naked people covered in paper that's slowly peeled off their feet, which has generated 1,297 complaints to Ofcom to date.
Of course, the series about sex famously upset the Wicked of Tunbridge Wells. But it seems like every reality show has started to seriously up the ante, competing to shock at any ethical cost. Where is the line?
For example, Squid Game: The Challenge launches on Netflix in November, and real-life British contestants take part in an almost completely accurate version of the killer Korean death game that inspired Netflix's 2021 viral drama series. The key difference is that no one is actually killed, although Red Light, Green Light British Bulldog-style shooting in sub-zero temperatures in January meant some players had to stretch out.
Producers don't just push their physical limits to the limit — they also play with increased mental pressure. The popular Amazon/Freevee show «Jury Duty» is basically one big prank played on one man, Ronald Gladden, who is the only one on set who doesn't know that the trial he's involved in is a massive fake — with actors who see how far they can use their tomfoolery to make him look stupid. He later said that it took him «months» to figure out what was and was not true after three weeks of filming.
And while the BBC's addictive mind game «Traitors» couldn't be safer — everyone is in a comfortable home, traitors are knocking rather than bursting into balaclavas, and only Claudia Winkleman's costumes are truly menacing — the mood is unnerving. The guests/victims seem genuinely scared and half of them cry half the time. Of course, we're only playing murder, but it seems like we're getting closer to Gong Show creator Chuck Barris' prediction that «the end game show will be one in which the losing contestant gets killed.»
“The bigger the stakes, the more convincing the show,” says Peter Hamilton, senior consultant for US Fact and Script Television. “In the states, we have Intervention, in which the family of a drug addict tries to send him to rehab to save his life, and Deadly Catch, about crab fishers, which is so popular because the job is so dangerous.
< p>“Right now, the shows have to really cut through like this, just to get a meeting. The golden age of unrecorded television is over — fewer cable networks in the US, streamers who don't have to replace shows so quickly… fewer shows means your presentation has to shock the commissioner in the first place, and that has serious implications for everyone in the business. .”
Viral drama «The Squid Game» will soon become a reality show. Photo: Youngkyu Park
American reality shows have always been a bit edgier than British ones — for example, in 2004's The Littlest Groom, 23-year-old Glen Foster, the little man, chose from 12 little women before the big reveal — having chosen his bride, he now has a choice there were 12 medium sized models. The show was quickly cancelled. In 2004, there was the highly controversial show «Something About Miriam» in which a group of men fought for Miriam only to be told on camera that she was transgender. Miriam committed suicide in 2019.
But UK shows are picking up steam, says Ed Waller, editorial director of industry bible C21 Media: “They're really hitting 1,000 now, and one of the reasons is the economy. They can't afford to put on a lot of shows, so they need fewer impressive shows — the more the better. They used to have a lot of mediocre reality shows that worked for different demographics. Now they have to make a huge splash. Viewers are just the beginning — they need headlines, scandals, social media interactions to reach everyone. So you can't buy and sell houses for more than 20 hours — they have to do it on Mars. And I'm not kidding — Fox in the US is shaping the Australian outback to look like Mars for a show called Stars on Mars.
Speaking to one former British production company producer without a script, the pressure associated with a one-line sentence is overwhelming. “Essentially, you need to mix what is already a hit for the channel with another hit,” they explained. “Look at Love Island and say: sexy young people sleeping with each other are working. What is so good about it? This is the moment when hot guys and girls seduce couples. Okay, so maybe you'll do a show dedicated to just that. Is it possible to make couples jealous. And put it on the farm. Farms are popular. Call it a sex farm. Anything to get attention.»
Nude attraction shocked viewers Photo: Channel 4
“Before, the networks had briefs that they sent out to fill the slots,” says another. “Now they may have one slot or not even, but they will see you from the old memory. The networks have tons of stuff in the bank because they stockpiled ahead of the writers' strike, so there's no point in promoting a dating show unless it's extreme. You have to sell them something they can sell to their boss and it has to be brand new. This can make development meetings tense, but also a little fun when you're brainstorming Monkey Tennis ideas.»
But there are still some ethical restrictions. Following an increased focus on the mental health of contestants, the reality show Love Island introduced a two-drink limit in 2012 while providing therapy and other support to contestants. And in 2022, still in pre-production, Channel 4 wisely shut down its Lord of the Flies-inspired show Kids in the Wild, where a group of 9-11-year-olds were dumped in the middle of nowhere. and they were expected to learn how to cook, camp and sleep in communal bunks.
Tim Hinks, who directed Big Brother when he directed Endemol and is now co-director of Waiting, which makes Clarkson's Farm for Amazon, says the latest ethical rules mean the show's delivery is usually more dramatic than what it is. what you end up seeing on the screen. Not always though — we currently have Awakening: The Million Dollar Game on Netflix, where the contestants stay up for 24 hours before the game starts and then face physical and mental challenges. The only finalist has one last chance to determine the prize pool. Guess wrong and they'll walk away with nothing… It's described as a «comedy game show».
The boundaries between reality and fiction have always been fragile. Topic Studios is currently preparing Cancellation Island, an eight-part event where a team of Gen Z wellness experts will lead a rigorous program to bring canceled white men back into society, including Harass the Harasser, Bad Touch Football, Anti-Racism Spin Class and obligatory ayahuasca ceremony. Unfortunately, this is a scripted podcast, a fake reality show. But of course, it's just a matter of time…
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