It’s been almost two decades since the modern day reality shows started in India. And the nature of these reality shows has changed drastically during this time. “Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC)” is no longer a show just about knowledge, “Indian Idol” and “Sa Re Ga Ma Pa” are no longer just singing shows. They all have become entertainment shows. This post is an attempt to find out the reasons of this transition, analyze the current nature of these shows and assess their impact.

Reasons of this change

Competition from TV Serials / Soap Opera

TV serials or Soap Opera as it is commonly known is very popular among the Indian masses. India being a country where family ties are very strong, for a long time, the main theme in most popular TV shows has been “family drama”. Additionally, there is no dearth of TV channels, actors, producers and the crew. TV show and film production is a major employment generator in India. And so the episodes of serials are shown daily, week-after-week, year-after-year. Many of the shows have crossed 1000 episodes in the past.

Over the years though, the stories of these TV serials have become repetitive, slow and increasingly more dramatic. There is an attempt to fit as short a story as possible with as much drama as possible in as many episodes as possible. This coupled with the relatively better content and focus of early reality shows allowed these shows to grab a significant viewership away from the TV serials.

However, the explosion of reality shows in the subsequent years meant that all the reality shows were competing for the same limited audience that was not interested in the Soap Opera. This was never going to work if all the reality shows were to survive. They had to attract more viewers from the Soap Opera segment.

Preferences of Audience

The Soap Opera segment being primarily interested in family drama, what possible ways would there be to attract those viewers? Simple, give screen time to the families of the participants. If you observe, now-a-days, every reality show allots a significant amount of time and resources to make a short film or segment on the family background of all the participants.

Additionally, people also like to know about the personal lives of the participants, their studies, aspirations, hobbies, etc. Many participants are also eager to share their personal lives in this world of social media and so it becomes a win-win for the show makers.

Emergence of Social Media and OTT platforms

Social media has come as the latest technology disruptor to the reality shows. Social media has given the power to the potential reality show participants to showcase their talents on their own terms and with significant income opportunities. This means that the talent is not readily available and forthcoming to the reality shows. This has probably had the biggest impact on the current nature of reality shows which will be discussed ahead.

Over The Top (OTT) internet streaming platforms with their new-age content are also giving tough competition to the traditional reality shows. Quality and variety of content, fast paced stories and on-demand nature means that many of the early viewers of reality shows have moved to OTT platforms. The reality shows are facing the greatest need to attract the family drama loving TV viewers. And they have veered away more from their core objectives to becoming pure entertainment shows.

Voting and Data Analysis

Voting and elimination has been a part of all major reality shows for a long time. Every 1-2 weeks, people vote for their favourite participants and whoever gets the least votes, gets eliminated from the show. While this was a good indicator of the popularity and ability of the participants in the singing and dancing shows, it has become much more than that. As the personal, family and social lives of contestants are taking centre stage on the shows, the voting patterns give insights into the behaviour of the audience. It shows what the audience likes about the personal lives of each of the contestants and the show-makers focus on those aspects to promote the show to attract maximum viewership.

Entertainment, Entertainment, Entertainment

The Soap opera / family drama loving viewers are not concerned about how one answers the questions on KBC. They are not concerned about who sings correctly or dances without any mistakes. They are concerned about who entertains them more than the TV serials. They are interested in empathising with the participants who have faced hardships in the past probably just like them. They are interested in watching big celebrity hosts and guests live on the show. They enjoy watching performances that entertain them and not something that is just “technically correct”. Entertainment is the name of the game!

###

Current Nature

Role reversal

Earlier reality shows were the primary and probably the only destination for the participants to showcase their talent in front of a nationwide audience. In a way, the talent was dependent on the show.

Today, social media has become the go to destination to showcase talent. Contestants are no longer dependent on the reality shows to get audience.

On the contrary, in their quest to survive and to attract the most viewership, the reality shows have become dependent on the social media reach and influence of their contestants. The participant who brings in the most viewers is the most important for the show and hence gets relatively more screen time.

Celebrity Guests and Themes

Viewers often like to see how celebrity guests actually are and how they behave outside of their work i.e. acting, dancing, singing, etc. Therefore, in order to increase engagement and entertain the drama loving traditional viewers, the shows invite celebrity guests and frequently organize some theme based episodes on the occasion of festivals or important events. This has massively increased the production costs of the reality shows.

Participant is the Product

Reality show participants have become the products that the show makers are trying to sell to the general public. Public sympathy is the value of this product. The participant who has come from the poorest background or the one who has faced the most hardships is the one endearing to the public. So even if there is no such participant, stories are manufactured to fit this template.

Revenue and the incessant hunt for TRP

Increased production costs mean that the revenue and the return on investment has become the most important criteria in the reality shows. There are three major sources of revenue: Advertising, Sponsorships and Distribution Rights.

Sponsorships and mid-episode advertising are the biggest sources of revenue. Both these are dependent on the popularity of the shows. The popularity of the TV based reality shows is judged by Television Rating Points (TRP) given to the shows based on viewership data. More the viewers, more the TRP. More the TRP, more sponsorship and advertising revenue to the show.

Distribution rights have also become a major source of revenue today. Channels and OTT services bid to get exclusive distribution rights to the shows because they get part of the advertising revenue from running the show on their network. This also depends on the TRP of the show. More viewership means more people subscribing to the paid TV channels or paid OTT services to watch the show.

The hunt for revenue has in turn made this a hunt for TRP and viewership. The focus has decisively shifted to entertainment.

Impact

Judgement and Performance Assessment

The first and foremost impact of this rat race can be seen in the judgement and performance assessment of the contestants. The shows have become dependent on the popularity of their contestants. Any criticism of the contestants may decrease their popularity and in turn the viewership of the show. So, there is generally no criticism or negative performance assessment of the contestants from the side of judges. Excessive appreciation and hype is the norm irrespective of how the contestant has performed. This takes away the possible learning opportunities for the participants as well as the few viewers trying to learn from them.

Repeat Talent and Lack of Opportunities

The search for popular and influential participants often leads the shows to recruit talent that has already appeared on other reality shows. One can often see the same participants on different reality shows albeit with a gap of a few years. New talent hardly gets any opportunities on the traditional shows.

Conclusion

Modern reality shows have become entertainment businesses with participants as their main product and the family drama loving population their target audience. The shows have become increasingly dependent on the social media influence of the participants to reach a larger audience. A larger audience gives them more TRP and in turn more revenue. In all this mess, fair judgement and performance assessment has suffered while there is almost no chance of any unknown raw talent making it big in the reality shows.