Staging of unscripted series doesn't deter auds
It has been more than two years since the Time magazine expose “How Reality Fakes It” officially entered the term “frankenbiting” into the broader national lexicon.
Still, reports of unscripted series allegedly including sequences that unfold less than organically continued to receive big media attention over the last year.
Following headline-grabbing allegations that scenes are scripted on “The Hills,” the star of “Man vs. Wild” really whiles his nights away in cushy motels, and a winner on “America’s Next Top Model” had an “in” with host Tyra Banks, for example, reports surfaced in April that producers of Discovery’s “Deadliest Catch” baited the editing a bit to better hook the drama of Alaskan crab fishing.
The response from the series’ creator and exec producer, cable nonfiction guru Thom Beers: “Who cares?”
His shows’ stories, he insists, are essentially accurate, even if some of the transition sequences are presented out of their true context — which is “a common practice,” Beers claims.
“We could be true journalists, that would be the easiest thing in the world,” he adds. “Just give me 28 (film) crews for 140 days. But I don’t have that, and I’ve got about a million square miles of ocean to cover. If I got a great pan shot but it was shot the week after, does it matter? I’m not a journalist, I’m a storyteller. We never fabricate a story, but, geez, I’ll use crayons if I have to in order to illustrate that story. We should be able to use the entire palette.”
“Nobody’s confusing these shows with documentaries,” agrees Mark Koops, exec producer of NBC’s “The Biggest Loser.” “We’re definitely producing entertainment, not news.”
Of course, within the broad spectrum of nonfiction series, there are skeins such as FX’s “30 Days” that do seem to abide by legit documentary standards, and there are those working in the realm of reality who don’t accept that even a little fudging is OK.
“I would never say there’s a certain amount of manipulation that’s endemic to the process,” says Nancy Dubuc, exec VP and general manager of the History Channel, home to several other Beers-created nonfiction series, “Ice Road Truckers” and “Ax Men.” “We take ourselves very seriously on that front — what we say happened happened.”
Koops claims the majority of the unscripted fare on TV today abides by varying levels of “hyper-produced” reality, with syndicated dating shows and celebrity-focused cable verite skeins possessing the most emphasis on the “hyper” part.
“On our show, it’s a competition, and we’re just the officials. We set up the game, (the contestants) are there to play the game, and we don’t overtly influence things at that point,” Koops contends. “But everyone draws their own line.”
So what’s over the line in terms of cheating? And is there some informal peer consensus among reality producers that calls out offenders?
Answers: Who knows? And not really.
“I’ve done sitcoms all my life, so I’m not really in that club,” says Peter Engel, creator and exec producer of NBC’s “Last Comic Standing,” when asked if he ever dishes with other reality producers regarding the authenticity of other unscripted skeins.
Likewise, Jim Milio, exec producer of National Geographic Channel’s “Dog Whisperer With Cesar Millan,” doesn’t identify himself in any kind of peer group that would pass such judgment either. “I live reality at work, and I have reality in my home life, so I don’t watch reality on TV,” he says. “I think you have to judge things on a case-by-case basis.”
In the absence of any peer review, the sustained ratings popularity enjoyed by the broader reality genre suggests audiences aren’t turning away in droves due to any kind of trust issue.
“I think audiences are looking to be entertained, and that’s why they tune in,” Koops says. “They’re not imposing any kind of formal judgment about how they’re entertained. When they watch (“Keeping Up With the Kardashians”), for example, I think they’re tuning in to watch the characters. I don’t think they’re looking to see a documentary about Kim Kardashian.
“I personally think audiences should watch all TV with a grain of salt because there is almost no way to know,” Koops adds.
