Word: survivor
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Thus far, though, TV's voyeurism has not met the organized moral outcry that European groups--religious, political, psychological--have directed toward the Continent's reality freak shows. (Although People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has protested against CBS because the Survivor contestants monstrously killed animals in order to eat them.) But Americans have not yet met Big Brother...
...windows and wonder who is living there," says Romer. "That curiosity is completely satisfied by these shows." The residents will, barring emergencies, have no outside contact, except with the producers. They will harvest eggs from chickens, grow their own veggies and wash their clothes on washboards. And unlike on Survivor, they will be voted off by viewers (the last standing wins $500,000). They will be rejected by America...
...abstract and worrisome is the overall message the shows send: that life is an elimination contest, that difference means discord. The Real World is a sort of teen-friendly Adam-and-Eve story--seven young people, set up in a coolly furnished paradise, are bound to screw it up. Survivor and Big Brother change the reference from Genesis to Lord of the Flies and No Exit. But if what they show can be ugly, it's insulting to the audience to assume viewers must take this as a model for life--that's like saying Chinatown is an immoral movie...
...survive. In fact, viewers may reject VTV altogether before long. In Holland, Big Brother's follow-up, De Bus, drew just 5.7% of viewers, compared with 53% for its predecessor, even though its pretty young contestants all shared the same 5-m-wide bed on their communal-living bus. Survivor, gripping as it may currently be, seems like it should be in the dictionary under novelty. And Big Brother, with its less exotic setting and nightly schedule, may prove a Big Bore once viewers sample it. Not that you're the sort of person who would ever watch Big Brother...
When the cast of Survivor began feasting on a bowl of squirming larvae a few weeks ago, the first thing I did--after gagging--was call my friend Daniel to dish about it. But he didn't answer. So I tried a couple other friends, who weren't around either. Finally, I had to settle for reveling in this classic moment of gross-out TV all by myself...