Survivor and the Ethics of Reality Television
Sarah Griggs
English 106
Survivor and the Ethics of
Reality Television
Have you ever snapped at someone? What if someone taped you for an entire month and the only clip that people saw was of you snapping at someone? Is this who you truly are? Of course not, but this is how Survivor portrays people. Is this fair? You have signed a contract and have given them editing rights, you have a chance to become famous and you have a chance to win “the big bucks.” On the other hand, is it exploiting people and lying on national television to portray people inaccurately? Do the rewards of being on reality television outweigh people’s new reaction to you? By looking at what goes into Survivor, one can see the behavior expected from both contestants and producers and what motivates these behaviors. In addition, what about these behaviors keeps audiences so interested and is it ethical for the producers to edit and manipulate footage to create interesting characters? This paper will describe what gets people “hooked” on reality television and explain why producers should have these editing rights.
Survivor is an archetype of most reality
programs. Although The Real World came first, Survivor
was the pilot for most reality shows that involve eliminating contestants and
having challenges. The documentary began
reality television by introducing the concept of basing television off real
life. Documentaries progressed to
programs “based on a true story” and the drama continues from there to what we
have now as reality television. The
attraction of reality television comes from real people as opposed to actors in
unreal situations. People like to see
emotion and Survivor is a
“situational drama” that creates emotion but putting people in different
situations (“Burnett like
The
producers of Survivor have certain
requirements they have to meet in order to choose contestants. Each contestant must sign a disclaimer giving
producers editing rights (Brenton and Cohen 96). A psychologist also must approve them to
protect them so that if they do have “problems” the network will not take
advantage of them on national television (Brenton and Cohen 92). The psychologist plays a double role. They act as the contestant’s caretaker and
friend, while they are letting producers know what kind of personalities these
contestants have and the kind of characters they will be on the show (Brenton
and Cohen 93). Producers need
conflict. Therefore, they need
conflicting personalities. They want a
bossy person that people will get frustrated with, they want the mother or
father figure everyone will trust, they want the provider everyone will depend
on, they need a quiet person that will “fly under the radar,” and 
they
need the backstabber that tells everybody a different story. One sees the bossy character in the picture (“Sean,
Susan and Stacey look at map). It is the
woman pointing to the map while it looks like she is yelling. She is taking charge of the situation and may
be offending some people, like the man with the skeptical look on his
face. The different characters add to
the show and help create drama on the island.
There is no drama when everyone’s personalities mesh. Differences create drama. A show like Survivor encourages the bad behavior. It rewards backstabbing and lying by calling
it “outwitting, outplaying and outlasting,” this is simply competition
(Poniewozik 72). Competition tends to
bring out negative qualities in people by putting so much emphasis on winning
the prize. Often time’s contestants will
disregard people and their feelings.
According to Nielsen Media Research reported by Lauren Hunter, the first season of Survivor had an audience of 15 million people and the audience increased to 51.7 million by the finale (Hunter). This shows that people watch Survivor so when they apply for the show they know what they are getting into thus ruling out producers tricking contestants; contestants should have an idea of what to expect. What motivates them to want to do it? Money is a large factor for most people. People like the idea of getting a lot of money in a short amount of time. People are also a fan of getting out of a rut and think Survivor would be something different and would be an experience. This is the reason Survivor contestant Kathy O’Brien shared with Good Housekeeping. She says, “I signed on to do Survivor because my life had been the same for too long…’Adventure’ meant taking a friend’s boat out on Lake Champlain”(Gosselin and O’Brien 104). Another appeal is one of the unknown. Not knowing the outcome of the show or the response you will have to the conditions on the island contributes to the uncertainty of the show. After the first season of Survivor, it was apparent that fame was a reward of being on Survivor. Some contestants received offer to do commercials, TV spots and even small parts or starring parts in movies. Therefore, in later seasons leaving the island was not as much of a loss because of all the other possible money. Many female contestants were also offered half a million dollars to pose nude for playboy.
People continue to watch Survivor because of the ability to relate to “real” people. An audience likes to see a normal person become a hero on the island. They also like to see people trying to “perform” for the camera and then slip and show their true self (Brenton and Cohen 51). Salman Rushdie says,
The television set, once so idealistically thought of as our window on the world, has become a dime-store mirror instead. Who needs images of the world’s rich otherness, when you can watch these half-familiar avatars of yourself – these half-attractive half-persons – enacting ordinary life under weird conditions? Who needs talent, when the unashamed self-display of the talentless is constantly on offer (qtd. in Brenton and Cohen 7)?
This describes the aspect of Survivor that focuses on everyday actives like cooking, getting along with people, and exercising (Brenton and Cohen 31). This type of television program does not provide a break from what is going on in the world. It just shows a different aspect of the types activities we participate in everyday. The quote also implies that everyday people are replacing actors. There is no need to pay for a celebrity when everyday people are making shows that are just as popular.
Television networks produce shows in order to make money. They do this by making television interesting and something people want to watch. Editing and even manipulating footage plays a part of making a popular television show. The producers are just doing their job. Contestants on Survivor are aware of this fact. They sign papers that tell them they edit the footage, but they would rather take the chance of being portrayed inaccurately for the chance to benefit from winning prize money and receiving fame from show; fame they never would have received if they had not been on the show.
Works Cited
Brenton, Sam and Reuben Cohen. Shooting
People.
“Burnett likes
Friedman, James. Reality
Squared.
Press, 2002.
Gosselin, Lisa and Kathy
O’Brien. “How I Survived ‘Suvivor.’” Good
Housekeeping
Nov. 2002:103-105
Hunter, Lauren. “After ‘Survivor’: A reality TV check.” 24 Aug. 2000. CNN. 21 Oct.
2003 <CNN.com>.
Poniewozik, James. “Virtuous Reality.” Time
Stengel, Richard. “’Survivor’ and ’60 Minutes’ – Reality Programming that’s not Really
Real.” Time (2001)
“Sean, Susan, and Stacey look at map.” No date. Online image. Survivor Slideshow. 22
Oct. 2003. <CBS.com/primetime/survivor/survivors>.