What in the World: How have older reality tv shows aged?
The Documentary Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 2.6K Ratings
🗓️ 5 March 2025
⏱️ 22 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
America’s Next Top Model, the reality competition series hosted by Tyra Banks, continues to face criticism years after it stopped airing. And it is not the only reality show that critics say has not aged well. From Cops to The Swan to Mr Beast’s new show Beast Games, reality TV routinely courts controversy. We all know reality shows like The Traitors, Keeping Up with the Kardashians, The Real Housewives and Love Island. But how did the genre become so popular in the first place? We hear from Danielle Lindemann, a sociologist at Lehigh University and the author of True Story: What Reality TV Says About Us. She explains how shows like The Real World and Survivor helped define the genre and unpacks some of the biggest scandals from reality TV history.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is the documentary from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:04.0 | I'm William Lee Adams, and in this episode of What in the World, |
| 0:07.2 | we're looking at how older reality TV shows have aged. |
| 0:10.8 | We're a daily podcast that breaks down big news stories, |
| 0:13.7 | but we also chat about things like entertainment, music, and health. |
| 0:19.5 | If you're a reality TV show junkie like me, then you probably know your survivors from |
| 0:24.1 | your bachelors and your top models from your real housewives. |
| 0:28.3 | Those franchises have been stirring controversy for years, and now there's a new show in the |
| 0:33.7 | mix, Beast Games. |
| 0:36.1 | It comes from the YouTuber Mr. Beast. One thousand contestants |
| 0:39.8 | battled in physical, mental, and social challenges for $5 million. Now, some of these contestants |
| 0:47.2 | have complained that they didn't receive enough food and that they endured, in their words, |
| 0:52.5 | emotional distress. Now, Mr. Beasts, writing on social media, |
| 0:56.7 | he said that these claims are blown out of proportion. It's not exactly surprising that |
| 1:01.3 | scandal is surrounding another reality TV show. After all, controversy and reality TV, |
| 1:07.3 | they go together like a real housewife and lip filler, and let's just say not everything |
| 1:11.3 | ages well. So on today's episode, we're going behind the scenes of reality TV. We're going to |
| 1:17.1 | speak to an academic and author who focuses on reality TV, and we're going to speak to some former |
| 1:22.5 | contestants. All right, here to shake up your reality is Danielle Lindemann. |
| 1:31.3 | She is a professor at Lehigh University in the United States. |
| 1:35.0 | Danielle, hi. |
| 1:36.1 | Hi, thanks for having me on. |
... |
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