Reality Television: Term Paper #3

Reality Television: Big Brother and America's Got Talent

 

Reality Television has been a very popular format of watching television for multiple years now, but throughout the years, it has become more common than most forms of television. Reality Television is based on showing the audience a diverse view of various individuals and multiple different groups of people. Most people enjoy watching Reality Television because it shows real experiences and environments that allow real choices play out in an unscripted manner. Two Popular reality tv shows that I find myself enjoying very much are, Big Brother and America's Got Talent. These two shows represent how socializing and experienced reality television really is. While One of the shows focuses on social dynamics, strategy, and competition among houseguests. The other focuses on showcasing real talents that people perform with, and how far it will get them. Both of the shows create a competition between the other people attending, and leaves their audiences with the urge of finding out who ends up going home with a victory. 

Big Brother is a reality television gameshow series that has been airing since 2000. The show follows a group of people living together in a house outfitted with dozens of high-definition cameras and microphones recording their every move, 24 hours a day. Each week, the houseguests will vote someone out of the house, while at the same time competing against each other is competition games that are set up. At the end, the last remaining houseguest will receive the grand prize of $500,000. The show consists of usually 16 new contestants, with the addition of a sometimes "mystery" 17th houseguests added later, as well as one host, Julie Chen Moonves, who is the long-time host of the U.S. version of Big Brother. The seasons of Big Brother usually last within 10-14 weeks, the most recent season lasted 83 days.

Big Brother features various competitions, such as those testing memory (before or after the game), physical challenges, and strategic social games involving alliances and nominations. Some key game concepts include the "Head of Household" (HoH) competition, The winner of this competition earns safety from eviction for the week and the power to nominate two other houseguests for eviction. And then the "Power of Veto" (POV) competition, This is usually played by six houseguests: the Hoh, the two nominees, and three other chosen by random draw. The winner can choose to either use the veto to save one of the nominees from the block or not use it at all. "Nomination": The HoH nominates two houseguests for eviction. Sometimes, a "pawn" is nominated as a less-threatening target, while the "target" is the person the HoH truly wants to see leave the house. The "Veto Ceremony": If the POV winner decides to use the veto, they will remove a nominee from the block. This forces the HoH to nominate a new replacement for the person who was saved. And finally "Voting": All remaining houseguests (excluding the two nominees) vote to evict one of the two players on the block. In case of a tie, the HoH breaks the tie. 

Video Link in Photo (Season 26 - Spelling Bee competition)

Before I moved to Arkansas, I used to love watching Big Brother with my family. I don't necessarily watch Big Brother as much as I did anymore because I don't find it as enjoyable without watching it with my family around. Big brother is most common is the U.S, but it actually originated in the Netherlands. The show is also hosted in other countries, such as: Australia, the united kingdom, Brazil, and India. Many celebrities from around the world have competed on big brother and have gained more popularity from doing so. Some of the celebrities who competed are: Kirstie Alley, Mickey Rourke, Jack P. Shepard, Patsy Palmer, Sarah Harding, JoJo Siwa, Ricky Williams, and more! Some of the games that the houseguests compete in include: Otev: a robot animal sings riddles, and the first houseguest to solve the riddle each round wins, and the last person is eliminated. Memorization: Houseguests must determine whether a statement or event happened before or after a specific point in time. and then "Counting", and "Face-morph". 

Big Brothers main demographic is focused mainly on young adults, particularly those in the 18-49 age range, who are a key demographic for advertisers. The reason for the show to focus mainly on young adults is because it is more common in that age group, for the viewers to really enjoy the show. Big Brother is on multiple different social medias to advertise the show, some include: X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. The social media names for each of the social media platforms are, X: @CBSBigBrother, Facebook: Facebook.com/BigBrother, Instagram: @bigbrothercbs, TikTok: @bigbrothercbs, Youtube: @BigBrother, and then the official show website is hosted on CBS.com.

America's Got Talent is one of my all time favorite Reality Television shows, I have watched AGT ever since I was a little girl, and I still love watching it to this day. Growing up, when my family and I would gather around the tv for dinner, Me and my siblings would always recommend AGT. It was our favorite. America's Got Talent (AGT) began on June 21, 2006, which is the month and year of my birth. America's Got talent's main demographic is targeted towards older-middle-aged viewers, with some sources identifying middle-aged white women as the most common group, many of which watch the reality show with their families. The reason that AGT focus more towards older-middle-aged viewers, and middle-aged white women, is because it is very common within that age group and gender to lean more towards an audience like AGT. 

America's Got Talent is a reality television series, which is based on competition, where performers of all ages and types compete for a $1 million prize and a Las Vegas stage show. The concept is to find a variety of talents, such as dancing, singing, magic, comedy, and novelty acts, by having them audition in front of celebrity judges who decide which acts advance through the competition. A key part of the format is the "Golden Buzzer", which allows a judge to automatically send an act to the live shows. AGT is very known by the celebrities who judge the performances in the show. The current judges of AGT right now, are: Howie Mandel, Sofia Vergara, Heidi Klum, and most popular- Simon Cowell. And then the wonderful host, Terry Crews.

Other celebrities have also been the judges before, including: Mel B, Howard Stern, Julianne Hough, Piers Morgan, Gabrielle Union, Sharon Osbourne, David Hasselhoff, Brandy, Nick Cannon, Jerry Springer, Tyra Banks, and Regis Philbin. Performers who come on AGT sometimes even mention before they perform how much they have wanted to meet the judges, or will even sometimes interact with the judges in their performances. One example is from Season 16 with Klek Entos. This was a mysterious, masked magician character. The judges were included in the creation of the character as part of an act, as Klek uses his Magician skill to terrify the judges with his performance. 

(link to video) 

("Klek Entos: Scary Magician Makes a Spider Disappear and the Judges Running Off!")

America's Got Talent is on various different social media platforms including: Youtube (@AGT), X (@AGT), Facebook (@Americ's Got Talent), TikTok (@agt), and instagram (@agt). People all around the world, Love watching America's Got Talent. Some watch for the excitement in the acts, some watch as they dream to one day perform along the others, and some watch merely to support the celebrities and/or family/friends who may be performing. While AGT streams on Peacock, Hulu, Sling TV, and YouTube Tv, I also love to watch recap videos from different seasons on youtube and other social medias. Many people will take their favorite clips from different episodes, and put them into youtube videos and I find myself watching those more than the actual show itself. 

America's Got Talent is predominantly filmed in Pasadena, California, at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. But over the years, other America's Got Talent seasons have held initial auditions or live shows in cities like Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta, Chicago, and Dallas, wit the live shows currently being centered in Pasadena. Although America isn't the only "Got Talent" franchise in the world. There are also other variations including, Britain's Got Talent, Asia's Got Talent, Dominicana's Got Talent, Das Supertalent, Italia's Got Talent, Got Talent Espana: All-Stars, Central Asia Got Talent, Japan's Got Talent, China's Got Talent, and East Africa's Got Talent. The Format has been adapted in over 77 countries, making it the most successful talent show format in the world, broadcast in numerous languages and formats. 

My Reality television series

Although, both of these reality television shows are each very entertaining, There's always that feeling of wanting something more, or something new to watch. So therefore, If I had the opportunity to create my very own Reality television series I think I would create something that would never make the audience watching, want something new.

My Reality television series would be about traveling the world and finding people who want to compete in competitions around the world to win a big reward. The End reward would have different options based on who the winner is. For example, if one of the components is someone who struggles in finding someone to use there Talent, Then I would either, reward this person if they win, with A Career based on their Talents, Or I would allow them to continue traveling and competing in various different competitions, and possibly raise there reward if they win again to something much more higher than the original prize. 

My Reality television series would be called: The Big Reward. I would stream (The Big Reward) on multiple platforms, including: HBO Max, Netflix, Youtube TV, Disney plus, and more! I would have various of celebrities on my show including: Bill Murray, John Legend, and Chrissy Teigen, because they each have separate amazing personalities that would motivate various different competitors. And they each love to travel!