The woke police are coming for television’s least moral corner: reality TV.
Crusades to forge reality star unions, expunge casts of morally “problematic” characters, and even reckon with sensitive cultural issues like race have taken over the world of unscripted television.
It seems the PC police have left no stone unturned in their crusade to create a world free of offense. But they’ve forgotten what reality TV is meant to be — bold, brash and trash.
It’s not made to highlight cultural nuances, and it’s no secret that reality show producers create villains, spin salacious narratives, and exploit cast members’ eccentricities for views. That’s their job. But in return, cast members get fame in the form of social media followers and fortune in the form of brand deals.
There’s no reason to infuse morals into the transaction from the outside.
Nonetheless, in a recent article, the pearl-clutchers over at the Los Angeles Times launched into a frenzy over the Bachelor franchise’s supposed “racial issues.”
The article excoriates the show for casting an inadequate number of Black male bachelors, cherrypicks complaints from alums, and blames the show for nasty comments made about contestants on social media.
“Whether the franchise can establish credibility and get beyond its toxic past remains an open question,” Greg Braxton, writing for the Times, wonders.
Hey, Greg, what even is a “credible” reality television show? And isn’t the whole franchise kinda toxic… by design? Since when are we taking The Bachelor — a show in which one dopey hunk dates dozens of spray tanned women simultaneously — so seriously?
Are we really going to scrutinize that show for its standards of morality? Apparently so. In fact, the moral outrage mob has been on it for a while.
When photos emerged in 2020 of Bachelor contestant Rachael Kirkconnell as a college student at an antebellum-themed sorority party, Twitter went on the war path to tear her down.
But it wasn’t Kirkconnell who took the heat. It was The Bachelor’s host of 19 years, Chris Harrison, who got canceled for merely attempting to cool things down
“This is where we need to have a little grace,” he told EXTRA at the time. “Because I have seen some stuff online — this judge, jury, executioner thing — where they’re just tearing this girl’s life apart… It’s unbelievably alarming to watch this.”
For just daring to advocate forgiveness, Harrison was forced to unceremoniously step down from the franchise.
Why exactly does our culture care so much about what reality TV show hosts and contestants have to say? They’re supposed to be normal, everyday people. We’re in a pretty rough place if they’re to become our arbiters of justice and morality.
Even when shows attempt to be moral, they can fail dismally — like when Brittany Cartwright and Jax Taylor were booted from “Vanderpump Rules” for being “problematic,” but were ultimately brought back to reality TV because they were the real ratings winners after all.
But now even stars themselves are attempting to strip trash TV of its trashiness and hold it up to new “standards.”
In a new push for a reality TV union, activist stars are demanding more royalties, advocating “ethical” production, and decrying “manipulation” by producers looking to stir drama.
It’s a complicated and messy proposal that, so far, has failed dismally.
Nonetheless, “Real Housewives of New York” alum Bethany Frankel — who earned fame and fortune thanks to that platform — has thrown her weight behind the unionization push and even recently urged reality stars to strike.
But she’s pulling up the ladder behind her. She hasn’t appeared in a reality show for five years. And let’s be real, who would watch a watered-down, union-run version of Real Housewives? Who would have bought Frankel’s Skinny Girl popcorn and margarita mix if not for her reality show fame?
Some entertainment television stars have, to their credit, pushed back, like Andy Cohen who pointed out that it’s a straight up crazy proposition.
“You don’t go to school to be a reality star,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “Look, you’re not drafted into the ‘Real Housewives.’ You either want to be on the show or not, and you either see it as having some greater benefit for you or not.”
He’s right.
Of course, there are legitimate scandals in the world of reality TV, even on supposedly progressive shows like “Drag Race,” which was rocked by a series of sexual assault allegations made against one of its stars. And it goes without saying that no star should be overtly manipulated or abused.
But, when you sign up to be a contestant on a reality show, you surrender yourself to becoming an on-screen persona, usually an exaggerated version of your true self.
Some reality stars who were practically plucked from obscurity regularly make seven figures on brand deals and become nouveau celebrities thanks to their cameos.
It’s a give and take, and the ultimate product is cheap, easily digestible entertainment — not moral clarity.
If woke warriors have such a problem with what is said, who is cast, and how shows are made, they should turn off the television and go touch some grass. There are better culture wars to wage.
