Word: worlding
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Like the tetragrammatic name of God, the moniker Jwoww has encoded in it everything you need to understand the world we live in today. The idea that an unknown 23-year-old from Long Island would come equipped with a tabloid-ready exclamatory nickname, like J. Lo or P. Diddy, might, in a more self-effacing era, have seemed presumptuous. Now it's just commonsense branding. If you might be on a reality show, you may as well have a name that pops and precedes you like a well-positioned set of silicone implants. (Oh, also: you should...
...cast of Jersey Shore - gearing up to shoot Season 2 in the next few months - camera-readiness is second nature. These are the children of reality TV. In February 1992 - literally a generation ago - The Real World introduced MTV's viewers to living in public. Ten years ago, Survivor - now in its 20th season - mainstreamed the idea for older viewers. The Jersey Shore-ites have never known a world in which hooking up drunk in a house paid for by a Viacom network was not an option. This year in the coveted post-Super Bowl time slot, CBS showcased...
...other type of reality show descends from The Real World's naked voyeurism. Some of these shows are about celebrities, former celebrities or pseudo celebrities. Some are about therapy, about work or about parenting. And many are just about life. Bravo's Real Housewives series is still spreading across the country like Cheesecake Factory franchises. (The Salahis snuggled up to the President as candidates for The Real Housewives of D.C.) When Jon and Kate Gosselin drew 10 million viewers to watch their marriage end on TLC, reality TV proved it wasn't going into middle age quietly...
...have to be to break out. Nadya Suleman, or Octomom, parlayed a horrifyingly dangerous multiple birth into a reality special, ending up - like her apparent model, Angelina Jolie - on the cover of Star magazine, showing off "My New Bikini Body! How I Did It!" Richard Heene convinced the world that his 6-year-old son was hurtling toward his death in a balloon. But as the veteran of ABC's Wife Swap knew, the show he was pitching - eccentric storm-chasing scientist and his wacky family - wouldn't even raise an eyebrow on a cable schedule...
...worries 10 years ago, reality TV hasn't crowded "quality shows" off the air. The past 10 years of scripted shows - The Wire, Battlestar Galactica, The Office, Mad Men - are the strongest TV has ever had. (One genre that reality may be crowding out is soap operas. As the World Turns is ending, as did Guiding Light, their appeal supplanted by the immersive serial dramas of Jon & Kate, among others...