Really? no, Really?

Reality TV is Dead! …or is it?

Jan 21, 2025

56:03

Survivor: Borneo – the very first season of Survivor, debuted on Network Television in the year 2000. And with it, reality TV began to transform America’s television industry.

25 years later the Hollywood Reporter proclaims that “Reality TV is on Life Support.

Sure, shows like Love is Blind, Real Housewives and new, up-and-comers like The Traitors are still very popular. But at the same time, more and more reality shows are being canceled, less episodes are being produced, and dramatically smaller budgets are being offered for any of it - indicating to both audiences and industry leaders alike that reality shows may be becoming extinct. Really, no Really!

Today, the guys will be talking to Emily Nussbaum, a Pulitzer Prize winning television critic and the author of: Cue The Sun!: The Invention of Reality TV. She’ll reveal some of the reality behind reality television and how much of it isn’t reality at all. Plus, she’ll discuss the long history of the genre, and the practicalities and impracticalities of its success and possible failure. Which leads me to say this episode of our show should be called: Reality. No Reality!

In 2014 she won a National Magazine Award for Columns and Commentary and in 2016 she won thePulitzer Prize for criticism. She’s written for The New Yorker, New York Magazine, Slate and The New York Times.

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IN THIS EPISODE: