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Reality TV
Not long after Sept. 11, Bruce Nash, producer of such groundbreaking diversions as ''When Good Pets Go Bad,'' was preparing to tape ''The Glutton Bowl: The World's Greatest Eating Competition'' for Fox. The mood was somber. ''A lot of the competitive eaters were from the New York area,'' he remembers. ''I put up a giant American flag. I played 'God Bless America' and 'The Star-Spangled Banner.' And then for the next two days all of us had a good time.''
That's all very well for the bingeing masses, but make no mistake: A purge is coming to reality TV. An Oct. 10 poll by Initiative Media claims 83 percent of Americans are ''less interested'' in reality programming since the attacks. Ratings are down for both proven fare (''Friends'' beat ''Survivor: Africa''? Unthinkable!) and upstarts like CBS' ''The Amazing Race'' and Fox's ''Love Cruise: The Maiden Voyage.'' And on Oct. 19, ABC benched its real-life manhunt ''The Runner''.
But long before Sept. 11, the genre was losing its immunity idol. The heavily hyped ''Amazing Race'' kicked off Sept. 5 with 11.8 million viewers and a 13 share. ''Everyone was expecting a 19 or a 21, minimum,'' says one rival network exec. Even ''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire'' and ''Weakest Link'' are no longer top 10 staples.
Why is the genre on the ropes? Most industry insiders blame oversaturation that came when a white-hot trend coincided with a network buying frenzy -- on the eve of a threatened strike by writers and actors. Poor scheduling hasn't helped: How many advertiser-coveted young adults stayed home Friday nights to watch ABC's just-yanked ''Mole 2''?
''[Reality] seemed to be a magic bullet,'' says NBC programming exec Jeff Gaspin, whose network pitted ''Lost'' against ''Race'' and watched both sink. ''The audience is figuring out that it's like any other television genre. If everyone is expecting reality shows to shoot to the top 10 for half the price of scripted shows, yeah, that balloon has been deflated.''
But lowered expectations don't mean the networks are abandoning reality shows altogether. After all, ''Race'' posts better demographics than the movies CBS aired in its Wednesday time slot last year. And since game shows like ''Weakest Link'' cost only $500,000 per episode to produce (compared with the $9 million NBC pays for one hour of ''ER''), Gaspin notes, ''The economics of it are incredible -- it can sustain a lower rating.''
As for ''Survivor,'' CBS doesn't seem distressed by the show's slowing -- but still strong -- momentum. ''Eventually, any show has to cool down,'' says Kelly Kahl, CBS executive VP of program planning. ''But if we're cooling down to 20 million viewers, that's a great place to cool down to.''
Even so, some reality series in development pre-9/11 have been voted out of the tribe. Gone is a show in which contestants would goof around in an airplane. So, too, is one challenging average folks to break into L.A.'s Getty Museum -- without telling the guards. ''We usually stop at felonies,'' says LMNO Productions CEO Eric Schotz, who was approached by a major network to produce the latter show. ''The Glutton Bowl,'' however, will probably air by the end of the year.
But the real taste test may come with the return of more aggressive shows like NBC's ''Fear Factor.'' ''Reckless formats seem inappropriate in such an anxious era,'' says Matthew Felling of the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Media and Public Affairs, noting that MTV's ''Jackass'' had called it quits in August. ''When you factor fear into daily life, there's no need for Fear Factor.'' Naturally, Gaspin disagrees. ''I find it empowering,'' he says, adding that a 2002 return for both ''Fear'' and ''Spy TV'' is likely. Viewers' tastes haven't fundamentally shifted, maintains Mike Darnell, exec VP of alternative programming and specials at Fox. ''I love 'God Bless the USA.' It's a great song,'' he says. ''But I'm not changing over to country music.''
Despite the national mood, TV's basic rules remain the same. ''People look at a show like 'Survivor' and say, 'Are these events going on out in the jungle particularly relevant in today's society?''' says Kahl. ''Well, no, they're not. But many of us were mistaken to think that they ever really were.''
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