Emphasis on concocted ‘image’

HILTON. Acute appeal to “electronic Peeping Toms.”

ON US TV, “reality” shows rule. Producers like them because they’re relatively inexpensive to produce, and viewers dote on them because they share glimpses of how people, especially celebrities, live, behave and misbehave, so their appeal to “electronic Peeping Toms” is acute.

Reality TV shows have become hits in the States—even if many of them aren’t as authentically “real” as they pretend to be—there’s actually a lot of clever manipulation and hyping-up going on behind the scenes.

Local TV loves to copy what’s been proven to succeed in the US. Curiously, however, the reality TV trend hasn’t really caught on in these parts, especially if you exclude “reality” competitions and challenges like “Pinoy Big Brother” and “The Biggest Loser.”

Activities

Noncompetition reality shows are relatively rare on local TV. We don’t have our versions of celebrity “peekaboo” shows like US programs about the day-to-day activities and proclivities of the exhibitionistic likes of Paris Hilton, the Kardashians, Hugh Hefner and other low- and middle-range luminaries.

We figure that our really popular stars balk at having intrusive, see-all and show-all TV cameras poking into their private activities and hush-hush affairs. There’s much more emphasis here on manufactured and concocted “image,” which is precisely what reality shows are designed to belie!