Reality TV's cult campus following

In recent months, it has become a common sight on the University campus: a gaggle of people strewn across a dorm room vying for the best view of the screen. What is this phenomenon that has so many Tufts students racing to gather and watch? Reality television.

"We're living in a time of very tense realities," Director of Communications Media Studies program Julie Dobrow of the ExCollege said commenting on reality television's tremendous appeal. "[L]ooming war, potential terrorist attacks, slumping economy: so-called reality TV, which we all know isn't so very real, provides a veneer of 'you and I' but in fantasy settings."

On any given night, a plethora of reality programs are available to television viewers on the five major antenna stations broadcast from Boston (ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC and the WB.) New shows and concepts seem to sprout up almost weekly: from FOX's Bridezillas to ABC's Are You Hot?: The Search for America's Sexiest People and MTV's The Osbournes to NBC's Fear Factor, millions of viewers have tuned in each week to watch these mostly hour-long shows that have gripped the nation.

Most students, however, think little of shows that seem to be in the game only to trump another station's idea. Students view copycat relationship shows such as BachelorettesinAlaska or MarriedByAmerica, both broadcast by FOX, as moral lows and blatant attempts to garner ratings.

"The people in those shows are not too intelligent, and they are too hopeful about relationships with people they've only known for a few months," junior Stacey Kokaram said.

"The divorce rate in the US is high enough without these shows contributing," she added.

Junior Kim Wong agrees that Reality TV shows are too strongly pushing the proverbial envelope. "Shows like Who Wants to Marry a Multimillionaire [FOX] are ridiculous and go too far," she said, citing that "marriage is a legal contract and should be taken more seriously."

"[Reality shows] are silly," senior Meghan Roessel said. "I mean, you can't have a group of people in front of a camera and expect them to act as they normally would... what looks like an intimate conversation on a bed is really taking place while surrounded by eight people with huge cameras and hanging microphones."

Regarding the deception of twenty-five women on FOX's Joe Millionaire, senior Nathan Machida said, "I think it's brilliant entertainment value while also the worst of American culture. [The show is so] horrible you just have to watch and see it."

Machida added that his favorite reality show is E!'s Anna Nicole Show on E! because it is "deliciously delectable." For the most part, however, the reality TV phenomenon seems to have a viewership dominated by females.

An inordinate number of female students have been tuning in to see which suitor Trista Rehn, from ABC's TheBachelorette, would choose. The revelatory show garnered 25.9 million viewers.

Though many students express reservations about the 'reality' and morality of reality television, they continue to watch the shows -- and, in some cases, to dream of being participants.

Freshman Sherese Harris admitted that she would love to be on the Bachelorette because it would be great "to have twenty five hot guys that want to marry [her]."

Wong said that she "wouldn't mind being on RealWorld because it would be a cool experience to live in an awesome house and meet new people, but the drama that would probably occur might get annoying."

According to the Nielsen ratings service, the average American spends 120 hours a month -- the equivalent of five complete days -- in front of the TV. In light of this, it is not surprising that the reality shows people watch on television have become a common cultural thread. But are these shows here to stay or just a passing phase?

"Most of what we see on TV is cyclical," Dobrow said. "Another genre, recycled from the past, will become popular as reality TV wanes."

But for now, reality TV shows continue to proliferate and students continue to tune in.

"The new show coming out, Married by America (FOX), is by far the most ridiculous of the reality TV shows," senior Thomas Dionne said, adding that he can't believe people are desperate enough to undergo such humiliation in front of an audience of millions.

"The fact that so many people will watch it doesn't say much for the American people," Dionne said. "But as hypocritical as this makes me, I will probably be watching it too_there's just something so addictive and satisfying about watching people making fools out of themselves."