What the host of “For Real: The Story of Reality TV” is really selling
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No one ever
believed that reality television was totally real. Thirty-one days before
The
Real World premiered on MTV in 1992 a one-off about eight young strangers
living together in a New York City apartment that ignited the entire genre a
New
York Times critic sneered that “when television programmers talk about
reality, prepare for a classic lesson in language debasement.” In 2000, the
year
Survivor debuted,
Timereported that reality shows were
“edited” and that “subjects adopt false faces,” practices “widely acknowledged
by viewers and many participants alike.”