PBS News Hour | The history of reality TV is chronicled in new book, ‘Cue the Sun!’ | Season 2024

AMNA NAWAZ: Reality TV dominates television today.

It is estimated that nearly 80 percent of adult television viewers watch reality TV shows.

But how did we get here?

As part of our arts and culture series Canvas, I spoke to the author of a new book that traces the rise of reality TV and its broader impact on society.

MAN: This is a bowling ball and this is a cake.

AMNA NAWAZ: From elaborate cake decorating to the antics of the crew of a luxury yacht in the Mediterranean, so-called reality TV today captures and stages a seemingly endless range of topics.

Although it is often derided as trivial by critics and even fans, its cultural influence is undeniable.

WOMAN: And would you stop taking pictures of yourself?

Your sister is going to prison.

AMNA NAWAZ: It has created multibillion-dollar dynasties, revamped cable television networks… DONALD TRUMP, former President of the United States (R) and current U.S. presidential candidate: You’re fired.

AMNA NAWAZ: …and arguably reshaped American politics.

A new book by New Yorker editor and Pulitzer Prize winner Emily Nussbaum: “Cue the Sun!”

: The Invention of Reality TV” traces the history of this now ubiquitous genre.

I recently met with Nussbaum and asked her why she started thinking about writing this book 20 years ago.

EMILY NUSSBAUM, author, “Cue the Sun!”

: The Invention of Reality TV”: The reason was my obsession with watching the first season of “Big Brother” in the USA via video streaming, which was still very new at the time.

I was also very interested in “The Real World” and was fascinated by what was emerging like a completely new genre, like a new industry.

That’s why I wanted to write a nonfiction book about this kind of growth of a new Hollywood.

When I looked into it years later, I began to look into the history of the genre and, to be honest, assumed, as I did then, that it was a modern phenomenon.

And it wasn’t until I started researching that I realized there was a real history to reality TV, and that’s where this book came from.

It is an origin story.

AMNA NAWAZ: You trace these very deep roots in the American media that I didn’t know about.

We go back to the radio shows of the 1920s and 1930s, game shows and prank shows with ordinary people.

But how did the dynamic change when the format actually moved from radio to television?

What did this achieve?

EMILY NUSSBAUM: In the late 1940s there was a boom in shows called “audience participation shows.”

And they sparked the same kind of moral backlash that reality TV did at the turn of the century.

There was outrage over the tastelessness and narcissism of this action.

There was a show that people probably know: “Candid Camera.”

It started as a radio show.

And if you play a prank on someone on the radio, you are relatively anonymous.

When you prank someone on television, you can see the person looking humiliated, surprised, angry, sad, overwhelmed, and giggling.

It’s like a much more intense experience.

So I would say the biggest change has been that the meaning of these types of shows has changed for the audience and that the audience feels swept up in the emotions but also sometimes feels guilty and a little bit – like they were complicit in the pranks that were being played there.

AMNA NAWAZ: I was fascinated to learn in your book that it was PBS that created America’s first reality TV family, which was part of a documentary series on our member station WNET in New York, which essentially documented the lives of the Loud family in Santa Barbara, California, for seven months for a series called “An American Family” in 1973.

This is a moment between mother Pat and one of her sons, Lance, while walking through New York, where he lives.

LANCE LOUD, son: I keep my distance from everyone I can imagine.

PAT LOUD, mother: Yes?

LANCE LOUD: For example, when I was 13, I dyed my hair silver.

And I just think it was a waste of energy because, I don’t know, it was like being a little mouse trapped in a box.

AMNA NAWAZ: Why were such moments so revolutionary for the format?

EMILY NUSSBAUM: This episode is about Pat’s relationship with Lance, who is gay. It’s about their intimate relationship and her love for him and her fears for him.

And the reason this scared people so much was partly because of Lance.

There has never been an openly gay man on television before.

And that was like a scandal for people.

The film was shot as a documentary, but when it came out, it was shot as a reality TV show, meaning people were shocked when they got a glimpse into the family.

And as time went on, Pat, who appears in this clip, asked her husband for a divorce.

Her divorce and Lance’s homosexuality became the subject of three million opinion pieces.

It made, as you said, the Louds themselves the first reality stars.

AMNA NAWAZ: You write extensively about the CBS show “Survivor,” in which the contestants essentially fight to be the last one standing in a remote situation.

And that moment in the finale of the very first season was ultimately seen by more than 57 million people.

Take a quick look at it.

JEFF PROBST, host, “Survivor”: The winner of the first “Survivor” competition is Rich.

Congratulations, Rich.

AMNA NAWAZ: You say Survivor is reality TV with super powers.

How?

EMILY NUSSBAUM: I think it happened for many different reasons, but one of them was electrifying moments like that finale.

When I wrote this book, I interviewed more than 300 people.

One of my favorite interviews was with Ramona, who was part of that cast.

And she left the show relatively early, but stayed on the island so she was with the camera crew while we watched.

And she had this description where she just described everyone’s inner thoughts, basically like, “Who would have thought that it could ever happen that the villain on the show ends up winning?”

This established a format that had never been seen before, combining soap operas, game shows and prank shows into a lasting and unbeatable format.

There was simply a huge range of reality shows that not only created the aftermath but also contributed to the creation of the industry.

AMNA NAWAZ: I think it’s fair to say that viewers are aware that what they’re seeing is not just reality, that a lot of it is manufactured and manipulated. But what about the people who are taking part in it?

What do they have to pay in return for having their lives filmed in this way?

EMILY NUSSBAUM: It’s complex because I would say for both the cast and crew members, there are a number of experiences, including some extremely traumatic experiences, in which they were misrepresented and traumatized.

But I don’t want to simplify it and say it’s just one thing.

In a normal scripted show, people write the show, people act the show, and then you watch the show.

But a reality show is essentially this invisible collaboration between the members of the crew, which includes the show’s field producers and editors, and the cast.

When you see the results, they seem like a kind of reflection of real life, but in reality they are the remnants of that working relationship.

AMNA NAWAZ: You end the book with “The Apprentice”… EMILY NUSSBAUM: Yes.

AMNA NAWAZ: …the NBC show launched in 2004 and made Donald Trump a television star and a household name.

Why stop here?

EMILY NUSSBAUM: For me, The Apprentice marked the end of something and had an incredibly big impact.

Donald Trump was renamed.

It made him president.

So this is the point where the genre proved that it would impact – for better or for worse – everything from people’s personal relationships to government.

On the other hand, there are actually a lot of negative things to say about The Apprentice, but it is a wonderfully made series of television, and it was made by experienced, accomplished professionals, because by that time it was already an industry.

As if people knew what they were doing.

It was no longer like the spaghetti-on-the-wall era of reality TV, where everyone made something up out of nothing.

And it was one of the most successful marketing concepts of all time.

They took an extremely bad product, polished it up and sold it to the world.

AMNA NAWAZ: The book is called “Cue the Sun!”

: The invention of reality TV.”

The author is Emily Nussbaum.

Emily, thank you for being here.

EMILY NUSSBAUM: Thank you for having me here.