TV needs a reality check before it’s too late

As network television becomes more competitive than ever, it seems producers will do just about anything to win the ratings race. But for Johanna Griggs, it seems the price may be too high, writes Colin Vickery.

It is time to sound the alarm.

How long will it be until an Aussie reality show ends in tragedy?

That is a question I’ve been pondering after Johanna Griggs announced that she was stepping down as host of House Rules.

According to reports, Griggs quit the show after seven seasons because she was shocked by the tricks used to create drama on the Channel 7 home renovation program.

Griggs is a board member of Beyond Blue, which works to address issues related to suicide, depression and anxiety.

If reports are to be believed, the enormous pressures placed on contestants for the sake of entertainment didn’t sit well with the popular presenter.

“Reality TV production has been an eye opener, they are such enormous beasts with so many people involved,” Griggs told her fans on Instagram.

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An insider explained that “as the pursuit for ratings gets more intense, producers are pushing participants to the brink as they try to manufacture dramatic television.”

It isn’t hard to share Griggs’ concerns and here is why. Two former contestants of the UK version of Love Island, Sophie Gradon and Mike Thalassitis have committed suicide.

Johanna Griggs has announced that she will leave House Rules. Picture: Channel 7

Also in Britain, Steve Dymond was found dead from a suspected suicide after failing a “love rat” lie detector test on The Jeremy Kyle Show.

House Rules winners Pete and Courtney Tserbis recently claimed that producers on the show “were trying to make us fight from the beginning” but that “it goes against everything we are”.

My Kitchen Rules — another Channel 7 show — is famous for trying to cook up drama. Time and again contestants have complained about being portrayed as villains because of selective editing.

In 2014, Cairns couple David Kirk and Corinne Wieland were the show’s baddies with Kirk labelled “the smiling assassin”.

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According to Kirk, it was all a set-up. “Corinne has not got a nasty bone in her body,” Kirk said. “The editing is very, very clever.”

Things turned toxic during last year’s My Kitchen Rules when Sonya Mefaddi and Hadil Faiza were dumped from the show after a nasty verbal stoush with Jess Avial and Emma Byron.

Afterwards, Mefaddi and Faiza lashed out at Seven saying that “what the network has done to us has been extremely disappointing and a complete nightmare”.

UK Love Island contestant Mike Thalassitis took his own life after being on the show. Picture: supplied

“Why do you think that we are mentally OK with what this circus of a cooking show has created out of us?”, the pair wrote on Instagram.

Married At First Sight contestants have also talked about the negative impact that appearing on the program has had on their mental health.

Getting hitched to a complete stranger is stressful enough but these singles also have to endure an avalanche of abuse on social media.

Tracey Jewell, who was paired with Dean Wells last year opened up about the impact of bullying and cyber-trolling on her self-esteem.

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“I’m not someone who has a history of depression, but I started getting help,” Jewell said. “The psychologist said I might have post traumatic stress disorder because of everything I’ve been through.”

Dymond’s death has been a wake-up call for the UK television industry. The Jeremy Kyle Show was axed and media regulator Ofcom proposed tougher rules to safeguard the welfare of reality show participants.

You would want to hope it doesn’t take a similar calamity here for the local industry to take a good hard look at itself.

Tracey Jewell suffered severely after her season of Married At First Sight. Picture: supplied

Aussie networks and producers insist they take their duty of care seriously and that counselling is available for participants.

But the real pressure comes when filming has finished and the show airs. By then it usually publicists who are left to deal with the emotional fallout on contestants.

The networks will also say that they are just giving viewers what they want. The more hyped-up the drama is, the more people want to watch.

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Hard to argue with that point when the Married At First Sight finale averages more than 2 million people across the five metro markets.

That means viewers are also implicated. Wittingly or not they are a party to what is happening and have to accept some of the blame if things go wrong.

With so much fierce competition between the networks in the 7.30pm reality show space, ethics are likely to get blurred and lines are bound to get crossed.

Now is the time for members of the Aussie television industry as well as viewers to ask themselves whether reality shows have gone too far.

We need to think deeply about the mental health impact on those taking part. If we don’t and tragedy strikes we will all have blood on our hands.

Colin Vickery is an Australian TV columnist.