What We All Think of Reality TV But Are Too Embarrassed To Share
'Humankind cannot bear too much reality,' wrote TS Eliot in 1942. Eight decades later, humankind is here to prove him wrong. Or rather we would do, if we could drag ourselves away from our screens for long enough.
How do you like yours? Hot and half-naked, like Love Island? Bitchy with a side of real estate, like Selling Sunset? Naughty and nautical, like Below Deck? Murderously machiavellian, like The Traitors? Those who’ve missed Claudia Winkleman giving side-eye dressed in black bovver boots and an oversized cable knit jumper will be delighted to learn that Season 3 of the psychologically tense game of wits has returned to our screens - for what better way to kick off the New Year than with 22 liars in a remote Scottish castle?
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If at this point, you’re minded to swipe away with a snooty 'I don’t watch reality TV', then more fool you. Are we really still doing the 'reality TV is only for stupid people' trope? Sure, at its worst it can be a load of tiresome, pointless cack. But at its best, it can be positively Shakespearean. On a recent podcast, some of Britain’s most lauded script writers detailed how they’d spend hours watching reality TV, and not just because they enjoyed it - it also informed and inspired the dialogue they wrote, as well as some of the narratives.
As revelations go, this one will come as no surprise to any diehard reality TV fan. I was too young to watch its genesis (the BBC’s seminal documentary series, The Family - one of the first fly-on-the-wall documentaries to air on British TV) in 1974, but my square eyes were fully dilated by the late 1990s, when docusoaps such as Airport and Driving School were aired. My favourite was Airline (1999), ITV’s fly-on-the-wall documentary about Easyjet, which by 2003 had become the channel’s most popular factual programme. It’s the first TV show I remember making mini-celebrities of its non-famous stars, although with no social media to amplify their popularity, these were no Kardashian-like levels of fame.
Still, these early examples were the start of a vast cultural shift that Andy Warhol predicted with stunning prescience. Of the myriad excellent things about reality TV, one of the nicest is how it gives a voice to everyday people, and a platform for talents that would otherwise remain unseen. Not everyone might use their fame for good (ahem, Andrew Tate), but the world would be a poorer place without Stacey Solomon and Rylan, Little Mix and Leona Lewis, Nadiya Hussain and Alison Hammond, and every single person who swallowed their fears to perform on The Piano, surely one of the most poignant and uplifting reality TV shows of recent times.
Or maybe it ties with Love On The Spectrum, a dating show that seems to have a particular hold on teenagers as they learn to navigate that world themselves. For generations growing up with reality TV, the genre often functions as a how-to (or how not-to) guide on love, sexuality and friendship, providing a world view that’s often wider and more tolerant than the one offered at home. It’s why Queer Eye and Drag Race are so important. For anyone feeling lonely, cast out or misunderstood, at its best, reality TV can offer hope, camaraderie and a hug. There’s a show for everyone, if you have the time to watch.
Where my love diminishes is when it encounters scripted reality TV, a viewing experience akin to being stuck with the dreariest person in the building at your office Christmas drinks. I’ve never thought they worked, but they certainly don’t in 2025, when audiences are freakishly media literate. With TikTok and Instagram throwing up endless unscripted, chaotic content showing the lives of ‘real people’, nobody needs to watch a carefully constructed TV plot with a denouement that you can see coming from a mile away.
Which is probably why The Traitors is such a hit. For all the talk of the genre’s demise (and viewing figures have certainly decreased), this is one reality TV show that’s bucking the trend: the audience for Season 2’s finale peaked at almost 7 million, making it the most-watched show on British TV that week. Drama, suspense and Diane: what more could a viewer ask for? Whatever this series brings, the surefire knowledge that it will bequeath us with another slew of real life legends is a reason to be cheerful.
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