this post was submitted on 01 Sep 2023
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[–] pjhenry1216@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If you were objectively correct and that folks didn't find them entertaining, there wouldn't be the industry and they wouldn't have their followers. It's the same phenomenon that makes reality TV such a big money maker.

[–] dragontamer@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Reality TV is a money maker because you barely need any writers.

Reality TV was a reaction to the (repeated) writers strikes. Content, no matter the quality, sells eyeballs. Quality almost doesn't matter in practice. As such, shitty TV that is poorly written makes money because their costs are so low. Not necessarily because people find them entertaining.

They're the McDonalds of Hollywood. Low effort, low cost content designed to fill up televisions but keep audiences with "something" between the major shows people watch.


And no. Reality TV isn't "real" either, its just unscripted, low effort television. Its roughly WWE where characters (and their actors) are given much leeway into the shots / script because they don't want to pay real writers to make an actual script.

[–] pjhenry1216@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It has a lot of eyeballs. That's the whole point. They were extremely popular shows. I don't understand how you're just swiping that part under the rug as if it didn't matter. If no one watched them, they'd stop. They watch them because many people found it entertaining to watch. I can't believe you're trying to create a conspiracy that a bunch of people watched a show because they... didn't enjoy it?

[–] dragontamer@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Dude, this is well known Hollywood information.

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2023-04-10/writers-strike-reality-tv-unions

Most of the producers who craft reality TV story lines are not affiliated with a union and will not be affected by a strike. The genre also tends to be cheaper and less time-consuming to produce than scripted TV, making it an ideal alternative during past work stoppages.

Hardly a conspiracy theory. Reality TV is about cheapness, getting non-union work, fewer writers (or even no writers at all), and having far cheaper production.

[–] CarlsIII@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

Both things can be true

[–] Uranium3006@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

Most TV screen hours are in the background so a lot of shows are just filler to keep the schedule full