A guilty pleasure for me and many others is reality television. In the past, shows like the Real World, The Real Housewives franchise, The Love & Hip Hop franchise, Little Women Atlanta and a few more had me in a chokehold but then I noticed a change.
This change has spread across all of the shows and it’s both unfortunate for the viewer but amazing for the cast, at least for a while.
Think back to the beginning of Love & Hip Hop. Take the season where Peter Gunz is juggling two relationships with one of the mothers of his ten thousand children, Tara and his wife Amina that he married while dating the girlfriend of 13 years. This was a really dramatic season of highs, lows, tears, and fights but it felt real. When we saw Peter’s dirty feet in their small basement apartment it felt real. When Tara cried out while on a romantic getaway before Amina literally gave birth, it felt authentic.
We won’t ever get those seasons back. We won’t get the bad weaves, small houses, money problems, and real life situations that were a part of the humble beginnings of these shows because once it’s over they blow up.
They can use their social media presence to leverage brand new careers. They move on to big houses, flashy jewelry, luxury vehicles and expensive vacations.
While we know as viewers most of this is rented and/or fake. It’s a real image for the view/follower to see, want and attempt to emulate.
The Kardashians for example began their show with money of course but not the wealth they amassed from their ability to create multiple streams of income from their exposure on the show that turned into the most followers on their respective platforms like Instagram.
Now, when we watch these shows, we know when the person is living like that or just in character and it feels wrong.
Martell Holt from Love & Marriage Huntsville recently broke the fourth wall while doing a tv interview where he says something to the effect of “killing his scenes” while making a guest appearance on The Real Housewives of Atlanta. When I saw that I said reality tv is really dead.
Don’t even get me started on Love Is Blind and The Ultimatum cast members tweeting and doing interviews before the damn finale. It’s ruining the vibes.
The only way that I see our favorite shows returning to glory is to stop attempting to look relatable and casting people who really are. Clout culture is coming to an end and we can thank our favorite influencers for stunting on us so hard we stopped caring.
What do you think? Is reality tv coming to an end? Let's chat about it!
Re-Kenya Roberson is an author, creative consultant, mom, and a bunch of other things that you won't actually remember later. Follow her on instagram @iamrekenya