1. Documentary-style: In many reality TV programs, the viewer and the camera are passive observers following people going about their daily personal and professional activities; this style of filming is often referred to as fly on the wall or factual television.
-Subcategories or variants:
Special living environment:
Celebrities: Another subset of fly-on-the-wall-style shows involves celebrities. Often these show a celebrity going about their everyday life: examples include The Anna Nicole Show, The Osbournes, Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica, Hey Paula!, Hammertime, Hogan Knows Best and now Brooke Knows Best.
Professional activities: Some documentary-style shows portray professionals either going about day-to-day business or performing an entire project over the course of a series. No outside experts are brought in (at least, none appear on screen) to either provide help or to judge results. The earliest example (and the longest running reality show of any genre) is COPS which has been airing since 1989, preceding by many years the current reality show phenomenon.
2. Competition/game shows: Another subgenre of reality TV is "reality competition" or so-called "reality game shows," which follow the format of a non-tournament elimination contests. Typically, participants are filmed competing to win a prize, often while living together in a confined environment. In many cases, participants are removed until only one person or team remains, who/which is then declared the winner. Examples: Idol series, America's Got Talent, Dancing with the Stars, and Celebrity Duets.
-Popular variants of the competition-based format include the following:
Dating-based competition: Dating-based competition shows follow a contestant choosing one out of a group of suitors. Over the course of either a single episode or an entire season, suitors are eliminated until only the contestant and the final suitor remains. More recent such shows include Flavor of Love and its spin-offs I Love New York, Rock of Love, and The Cougar.
Job search: In this category, the competition revolves around a skill that contestants were pre-screened for. Competitors perform a variety of tasks based on that skill, are judged, and are then kept or removed by a single expert or a panel of experts. The first job-search show which showed dramatic, unscripted situations may have been America's Next Top Model, which premiered in May 2003.
Sports: Most of these programs create a sporting competition among athletes attempting to establish their name in that sport. The Club, in 2002, was one of the first shows to immerse sport with reality TV.
3. Self-improvement/makeover: Some reality television shows cover a person or group of people improving their lives. Sometimes the same group of people are covered over an entire season, but usually there is a new target for improvement in each episode. Despite differences in the content, the format is usually the same: first the show introduces the subjects in their current, less-than-ideal environment. Then the subjects meet with a group of experts, who give the subjects instructions on how to improve things; they offer aid and encouragement along the way. Finally, the subjects are placed back in their environment and they, along with their friends and family and the experts, appraise the changes that have occurred.
4. Renovation: Some shows make over part or all of a person's living space, work space, or vehicle. The American show This Old House was the first such show, debuting in 1979.
5. Social experiment: Another type of reality program is the social experiment that produces drama, conflict, and sometimes transformation. Wife Swap which began in 2003 on Channel 4 and has aired for four seasons on ABC is a notable example.
6. Dating shows: Unlike the aforementioned dating competition shows, some shows feature all new contestants each episode. This format was first used in the 1960s show The Dating Game. Modern examples include Blind Date, Matchmaker, Room Raiders, Elimidate, Next, and Parental Control.
7. Talk shows: Though the traditional format of a talk show is that of a host interviewing a featured guest or discussing a chosen topic with a guest or panel of guests, the advent of trash TV shows has often made people group the entire category in with reality television. Programs like Ricki Lake, The Jerry Springer Show, Dr. Phil and others generally recruit guests by advertising a potential topic for a future program. Topics are frequently outrageous and are chosen in the interest of creating on-screen drama, tension or outrageous behaviour.
8. Hidden cameras: Another type of reality programming features hidden cameras rolling when random passers-by encounter a staged situation. Candid Camera, which first aired on television in 1948, pioneered the format. Modern variants of this type of production include Punk'd, "Trigger Happy TV, The Jamie Kennedy Experiment, Just For Laughs Gags", Howie Do It and Rio Ferdinands World Cup Windups.
9. Supernatural and paranormal: Started by MTV's Fear, supernatural and paranormal reality shows place participants into frightening situations which ostensibly involve the paranormal. In series such as Celebrity Paranormal Project, the stated aim is investigation, and some series like Scariest Places on Earth challenge participants to survive the investigation; whereas others such as Paranormal State and Ghost Hunters use a recurring crew of paranormal researchers.
10. Hoaxes
In hoax reality shows, the entire show is a prank played on one or more of the cast members, who think they are appearing in a legitimate reality show; the rest of the cast are actors who are in on the joke. These shows often served to parody the conventions of the reality TV genre. The first such show was 2003's The Joe Schmo Show.
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