I can confess that I watch a good amount of reality television when I do get the chance to watch tv. From Top Chef to American Idol, it’s hard not to flip through the channel and watch someone else try to navigate through life. However, how much of reality tv is real?
There is no script and the stars of the show are just living their life, but how much of it is real when the producers can easily clear out an area at a local Los Angeles club for his stars to mingle while the cameras are rolling? 
The producers knows what makes good tv (arguably any drama between two co-stars), but is it considered reality tv if the producers tell the co-stars how the story should end?
For example, The Hills on MTV is spin off of a previous MTV reality show called Laguna Beach. The show centers around on of the star Lauren Conrad (aks LC) who at the start of the show had a internship at Teen Vogue. Of course, as a twenty-something aspiring fashion designer, LC has problems with staying on top of her job, boys, and going to school. [Enter the producer].
Imagine your are the producer and you decide to inject some drama into the show. “Let’s call your old flame from Laguna Beach, into your life.” (Yes, I know WAY too much about this show, but I blame my sister.) I don’t consider this ‘reality’ because, well, the story was altered. Come on, who actually would want an ‘ex’ to revisit their life unless you wanted drama?
Even famed American Idol is not totally immune from using drama to boost the show’s ratings. The recent stunt was one of the contestants actually has come experience and is on her way to Los Angeles, California after receiving a “golden ticket” from the judges. Now, I know there has got to be screening going on at American Idol, and I can see how they would let a nobody like William Hung on the show, but to have someone who has experience making a record might seem unfair to those contestants who are amateurs and are trying to use American Idol as their only starting point.
I guess there is just no escaping the drama of life. And watching fabricated drama in someone else’s life seems more managable then living the drama of your own life. It’s just too bad we don’t get paid for the drama in our lives. Oh, well.
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Getting paid to live your life, much less a life the would be better than if you weren’t on a reality show, now THAT would be great. Ironically, I have been told many times that when my friends and I get together, we seem a reality show in the making. Now if only we could get paid…