ABSTRACT
Reality TV, as Turner (2010: 32) states, is ‘the most exorbitantly “noticed” form of programming in television history’. This form of programming has been widely discussed in the media, where it has faced massive criticism from media commentators who associate reality TV with humiliation and bullying and who see it as morally degrading. Reality TV has been discussed as low-culture, a form of cheap, trivial and more or less empty entertainment. It has also been immensely discussed by scholars. A rich variety of reality programming has been critically explored from numerous theoretical and methodological perspectives (see, e.g., Hill 2005; Kavka 2008; Ouellette and Hey 2008; Skeggs and Wood 2011, 2012). Despite all the criticism (or perhaps due to it) reality TV has attracted huge audiences and become a natural part of today’s television schedules, often with a prominent position in prime time. It has somehow become a taken-for-granted phenomenon and a natural part of many people’s everyday lives (Hill 2015).
