Because reality tv is no such thing?
It is edited, trimmed, re-shot and reworked until it is interesting. You need conflict, drama, surprise twists.
People in their natural state are not that interesting.
Mr Hitchcock said that movies were life with all the boring parts cut out and that was why we liked them. He was correct.
H. Allen Smith, in one of his books, tells a story about his father. The elder Smith lived way out in the sticks, and had reached the age of 60-something without ever having seen a television set (this was sometime in the early 50s). He came to visit H. Allen and spent several days just glued to the set, watching everything he could. At the end of that, he said, “That ain’t the way people act,” and never looked at a TV again.
Old man Smith was onto something.
It is edited, trimmed, re-shot and reworked until it is interesting. You need conflict, drama, surprise twists
I maybe wrong, but with the classic 39 Honeymooners episodes, everyone was given a script and there was no rehearsal, so everything was spontaneous, and thus they are still watched today.
“Mr Hitchcock said that movies were life with all the boring parts cut out”
I would modify that to read “boring to a mass audience”.
Regarding American Idol and shows like them, why not just have musical variety shows like TV once had plenty of?