Things You Should Know About Reality TV
Some of the things we see on TV, we want to believe. But when a storyline that comes out of nowhere catches you by surprise, viewers do not know what to think. Recently, a rapper by the name of Peter Gunz that is best known for his hit “Deja Vu” from 1998, gave an interview on “Sway in the Morning” stating that is role on Love and Hip Hop New York is fake and that he only does it for the money. He even tells viewers to use common sense. On the show, he claims to have married his singing artist Amina while in a relationship with the mother of his child Tara. He posts on his @Iampetergunz twitter account, ” 4 cameras on me 2 sound men hair make up 10 secs shooting for vh1 but I’m creeping…Smh..Common sense people”.
Over the years, viewers have witnessed finding love, break-ups, bad girls, fights, pageantry, pastors, funerals, mobs, dancing, and etc. There have been several petitions on change.org signed by thousands of people asking for the cancellation of shows like,”All My Babies’ Mamas”, “Married to Medicine”, and “Preachers of LA”.
The petition for “All My Babies’ Mamas” stated, “…They feel that making a modern day minstrel show based on degrading women and blacks will bring the ratings that they need and they can care less about the people they target!”. With over 37,000 signatures, oxygen never aired it.
The medical students at the Historically Black College University, Howard University, started a petition that stated, “Married to Medicine not only exploits the 6 lives of it’s Black female cast members, but through its advertisements and commercials, heavily associates Black females in medicine with materialism, ‘cat fights’, and unprofessionalism…”. The petition only acquired 3,000 signatures and according to Sara bibel, delivered over 1.8 million total viewers, making it the network’s highest rated non-franchise/non-spin off freshman series since 2003-2004.
Over 1,000 signatures were unsuccessful in the cancellation of “Preachers of LA”. “…These preachers lifestyles are NOT promoting Christ ethos but rather their cars, homes, relationships, and their justification on why they want viewers to see them as having fleshly desires as everyone else does.” The show earned a season high among adults ages 18-49. It was the number one most social cable reality program in prime time that has been able to accumulate 2 million full episode streams.
It is human nature for people to indulge in guilty pleasures that involve drama, scandal, sex, and lies. Is it possible that some of those people who signed the petitions actually watched the shows? Even if it goes against everything they stand for, do you believe they allow themselves to satisfy the urge to live through other peoples “reality”?
But even with the knowledge that some or maybe all of reality TV is fake, are you going to stop watching? The reality is that even if it’s real, fake, moral, or immoral, it is still entertainment.
Sources:
“Petition for change”- Change.org
“Sways universe”- @NickeyGeezy
