Riya Patel, avid reality television viewer and sophomore, admits that she finds the genre to be quite entertaining. She said the producers and people who create these programs are well-aware that content produced on these shows can make millions in profit because of how entertaining and addicting they are in nature.

Patel said, “I know that it’s not entirely ethical to be profiting off of somebody’s real-life,  but you have to admit, the payoff is almost worth it. And besides, the entertainment industry as a whole is flawed.” 

The debate about the morality of reality television is convoluted and controversial, as there are many factors at play.

Michael O’Toole, sociology and psychology teacher, said that naturally, people do not consider the risk related to those reality show participants.

 “Psychologically speaking, people aren’t as good at risk-assessment or understanding how they think they’ll react to things,” he said. [Reality television participants] can sit down with the producers, the writers, everybody, and they can say, ‘I’m fine with my life being put out there,’ but there’s no way to know what that’ll actually feel until they’re in that situation.”

O’Toole continued, “From that standpoint you can’t even blame the participants. The producers know what they’re doing. They don’t necessarily script the show, but they definitely try to influence how they behave There’s definitely a lot of manipulation involved.”

According to CHTV advisor Brandy Ostojic, everyone is well aware that reality television willingly breaches the personal privacy of thousands of people to garner attention and revenue, the participants themselves agree to sacrificing this luxury. However, Ostojic said this doesn’t justify the practice.

“People watching TV love drama,” Ostojic said. “They love conflict, and I think people who are signing up for these shows and the producers producing these shows are savvy enough to know that we need to cause some stuff, we need to dig, we need to find some relationship drama or whatever because that’s going to get us ratings. It’s all super unethical, but we’re all ingesting it and until we quit watching stuff like that, they’re going to keep doing it.

Patel said she acknowledged the controversial nature of reality television, however she said that the participants should be well-aware of the consequences when choosing to be a part of such productions. Given reality television’s long history of altering the lives of certain individuals, any person who chooses to pursue this, Patel said, is undoubtedly responsible for it. 

Many reality television programs create a “villain” for the purposes of enhancing the plot. But, of course this, is all at the expense of a real person.

O’Toole said, “[Producers] will find people that fit a certain moral ambiguity, but then again, it’s not necessarily scripted, but they will put them in situations that they know will cause that person’s personality to come out more so than it probably would have under different circumstances. So again, it’s a lot of manipulation.” 

Patel reiterated this and said, “The villain on these shows are definitely somewhat fake. The producer, and even the villain themselves, understand what they’re trying to achieve.”

In addition to that, Patel said the villain, in reality, may even start to internalize the persona created on camera, often mirroring the character created during public appearances or dramatized scandals.

However, Ostojic said she believes the villain persona strictly remains on the screen. 

She said, “There was a show called ‘The Apprentice’, and there was a villain character. And she came back and said, ‘I totally, I was playing a character like that’s not me.’”

Unfortunately, Patel said when the “villains” try to alter their personas, oftentimes the public doesn’t handle it very well, as the character created remains set in stone in people’s minds.

O’Toole said he believes the public’s reaction to a villain changing can have a range of different reactions.

“It just depends on how believable that is and how hated that character was and what their like redemption is,” O’Toole said. “If they were too far gone, they were too much a villain or almost too cartoonish, people don’t really don’t really buy into them changing. But if it’s someone who feels human and they can almost identify with that person and then they see that they are making up for it or almost apologizing on camera or have a slight personality shift, they’re willing to accept that. But if it’s completely polar opposite, the public can reject that.”

At the end of the day, Ostojic said she acknowledges reality television is still television, and though it may incorporate the lives of real people, the content isn’t incredibly different from regular television shows. 

Ostojic said, “The nighttime dramas, the cop shows, tend to be very formulaic. We have the bad guys and we have the good guys. I think [producers] definitely exploit this for reality television, so you have to be wary of what you’re watching.”