The ugly side of reality TV: The shows that make you cringe

THE ugly side of reality television seems to be getting worse. Whether it’s about cooking, dating, singing, or even business, public confrontations on reality TV have become the rule rather than the exception.

GAME on mole. This was the off-the-cuff phrase, delivered on Big Brother in 2006, that heralded a new course for reality TV.

Fast forward a decade and the saucy one-liner has become a battle cry for on-screen showdowns.

Whether it’s about cooking, dating, singing, or even business, public confrontations on reality TV have become the rule rather than the exception, sparking some to label the fly-on-the-wall genre mean TV.

The 2016 season of The Bachelor led to the birth of one of Australia’s most derided reality TV villains in Keira Maguire.

Social media opinion focused on the Sydney account manager whose confrontational antics saw her pick fights with several fellow bachelorettes during season four.

MKR contestants Josh and Amy Meeuwissen. Picture: Channel 7

Earlier this year My Kitchen Rules contestant Josh Meeuwissen from Broome was slammed online for his scathing critiques of fellow contestants’ food and one incident in which he said “thanks slut” when served a meal by a female contestant.

But no one was prepared for the behaviour of the Real Housewives Of Sydney — in particular Lisa Oldfield and Athena X — who name-called, shoved, swore and backstabbed their way through their first season.

Real Housewives at of Sydney stars Athena X and Lisa Oldfield.

So bad was the behaviour on the show, US networks have claimed it’s “too extreme” to air and Foxtel executive director of television Brian Walsh says a second season would only go ahead if the cast was overhauled.

“A lot of the women in this show were nasty for nasty’s sake and have no redeeming features,” Walsh said.

“I particularly felt Lisa Oldfield and Athena X Levendi were driving their own agendas. I felt the bad language and behaviour throughout the series did go too far.”

Sean Redmond, associate professor in screen studies at Deakin University, says showing a nasty side of contestants or judges on reality TV is not new.

Former Australian Idol judges Kyle Sandilands (left), Marcia Hines and Ian 'Dicko' Dickson. The show was one of the first reality talent programs on Australian TV.

Who can forget Dicko’s cruel gibe to Paulini to “choose more appropriate clothes or shed pounds” in the first season of Australian Idol in 2003? But Professor Redmond says the nastiness has been turned up a notch in recent years.

“In the continued race for ratings, and to try to offer viewers something newly dramatic, reality TV shows seem to be excessively built on nastiness and loathing, and on a pretence of primal authenticity — suggesting that this is what people are really like — horrible, cheating, violent beings,” Prof Redmond says.

Keira Maguire is best known as one of The Bachelor’s ‘villains’. Picture: Richard Dobson

“The problem with much, if not all, of reality TV is that it isn’t about real people or reality at all. These are highly scripted, performed shows, ‘written’ like a piece of fiction and as such they need the classic conflict-driven characters and soap opera melodrama.

“In fact, there is very little difference between something like Home and Away and The Bachelor. They are both fiction.”

Professor Redmond says the worst of the bunch at the moment are the relationship shows, such as Seven Year Switch, a show populated with fights, ultimatums, tantrums and showdowns.

However, not all reality television relies on fights and name-calling. MasterChef and The Amazing Race are longstanding examples of programs that rely on drama created as a byproduct of the situation contestants find themselves in.

Prof Redmond says documentary television is an example of shows based on real life that don’t rely on drama between people.

“Documentary television can certainly capture the minutia of everyday life without
the need for overblown, nasty or vulgar stage-managed conflicts,” he says.

“The great shame in contemporary television is that we don’t get enough of this type of programming because it doesn’t always capture the same audience share and can be more expensive to make.”

Mediaweek deputy editor Kruti Joshi says a show’s format is important. “You can have a long-running reality show in its 10th season, but if no changes have been made viewers are likely to drop away.”