Reality television is one of the more popular types of shows today. We enjoy them because there is just so much drama all the time. From The Real World where random people are put in a house and told to live together, to a dating show where the contenders are bad-mouthing there competition, reality shows don’t disappoint. Is there a reason for all head butts that go on in reality shows? Are the enemies really random?
In many reality shows we always see all of the different personalities. The casters say that its random, but for some reason everyone always has a problem with someone. The casters don’t make it random. They “type cast”. Type casting is finding someone that will fulfill a certain role in the show, or stereotype. In the NY Times article “Reality T.V. Becomes a Science“, David Carr shows us what casters try to do. Since drama is the only way to make a show entertaining, they try to find people that will bring the most drama. If they do that then ratings will go up.
Type casting is the way that reality shows make money. We, as the audience, only want to see people fighting because thats entertaining to us. If we saw order, we wouldn’t watch, but fighting=chaos, so we want to watch. Reality T.V. will always type cast because we want it.
