Propp and the Folktale of “ Reality ” Television : Toward a Structure of Reality Shows

The beautiful, the savvy, the romantic, the fit. These are the heroes of television's new obsession, reality television. For the past five years, world television audiences have been deluged by these unlikely heroes and their so-called " reality shows, " each equipped with its own drama, challenge, and reward. In the United States, it truly takes serious effort to avoid a reality program during primetime hours. The same is true in other nations with well-developed television industries. England's top channel, BBC, is a renowned creator of reality shows, while Australia's Seven is set to produce 15 reality shows in the coming seasons (David Dale, 2004). These reality programs, however, are nothing more than a new type of narrative, a new type of storytelling that aims to mimic reality. Much like any folktale or myth, or like any soap opera or sitcom, reality shows are fantastic tales with fantastic heroes. Reality television then, should be treated not as a modern documentary of human behavior, but rather as a new genre of storytelling. And in treating these shows as stories, I argue that these contemporary tales, as do the folktales described by Vladimir Propp (1968) and Benjamin Colby (1973), invariably follow a simple, yet well-defined structure – a " magic formula " for reality television. This analysis provides a brief outline of this magic formula and illustrates it through four well-known (seemingly different) reality shows: Average Joe, Survivor, The Apprentice, and The Swan. Many types of reality shows exist. While some simply follow humans on their daily routines, most are competitive in nature. This analysis focuses primarily on the competitive genre, and recognizes that this structure may not apply to all other genres. The competitive show