This week’s blog I have decided to talk a little more about Jade Goody. Some of you may know who she is and some may not. She appeared on Big Brother season 3 becoming a star in reality television. Jade Goody has recently passed away Sunday March 22nd, 2009. "She will be remembered fondly by all who knew her and her family can be extremely proud of the work she has done to raise awareness of cervical cancer, which will benefit thousands of women across the UK." This was a direct quote from the BBC News online. Jade Goody is one of those stars that has been had a huge impact during and after her time on reality TV. She was actually diagnosed with cervical cancer while on the show in 2002. The disease had spread to her liver, groin and bowel when she was told it was very terminal February 2009. All she had wanted to do after hearing the terrible news was spend all the time she could with her husband Jack Tweed and her two boys, Bobby and Freddy. Goody died peacefully at home with all her family and close friends. Goody was in high hopes of educating our world about the risks of cancer and I think she has done a fantastic job. Cancer Research UK chief executive Harpal Kumar said: "Her brave battle with an aggressive form of cervical cancer has received widespread public attention and encouraged thousands of women to seek advice on how to prevent the disease. Here is a video clip of Goody talking and people talking about her. This is a true amazing story although it ended in grief I believe Goody is truly an inspirational person. It seems crazy just to think she only became famous and her story would have gone unnoticed if she had not appeared on season 3 of Big Brother.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7925719.stm

This week’s blog I have decided to talk about the reality TV contestants that have made their life famous after appearing on these shows. It is really amazing to see how many people are appearing in magazines as news goes on in their life, you always hear things such as, remember the girl that was on the bachelorette or remember the guy that was in survivor doing this.
Recent news shows that Mike who is also known as “The Miz” from the Real World: Back to New York almost became the most successfully former reality TV cast member in terms of money. Mike was in the contest by WWE’s named “Tough Enough” and lost in the finals for a grand prize of one million dollars and a four year contract but he had lost. Although this is not the point, I wanted to just show you that if this guy was just any regular guy it wouldn’t have been a big deal. Many people become more famous after their reality TV time while many of the others fail at doing so. Just by appearing on reality television does not give you a guarantee of success. There are many other reality television contestants that have become famous such as, Richard Hatch, Kyle Brandt, Jacinda Barrett and our famous bachelorette winner Trista Rehn Sutter and Ryan Sutter.
Let’s look at our famous American Idol winners. Kelly Clarkson, one of the most famous pop singers today, started out with a simple tryout. We also have Kellie Pickler, Josh Gracin who are both famous country singer and Chris Daughtry who signs alternative rock. I also found a interesting fact that, Colbie Caillat who sings “Bubbly” and “Realize” had once tried out for American Idol but did not make it past the first round.
This just goes to show that you can become famous quite easily from appearing reality television, if you got some sort of talent or a good personality for these reality television shows you are pretty well shoe in. All you got to do is stand out among the crowd in auditions.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081021113924AA7s3Cx
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6707368/

This week I have decided to blog about the recently heard news involving reality TV. There are always new “gossip” and rumors going around when it comes to reality television. I don’t know if any of you have heard yet but Nancy O’Dell and Jewell were suppose to be competing in Dancing with the Stars season 8 but has recently been suffering from a knee injury. A couple days ago it was reported that CMT’s “Hope and Faith” Kelly Ripa was going to O’Dell’s replacement for the show but now the rumor has already changed. Melissa Rycroft from the Bachelor who was recently dumped after being proposed to on national television by Jason Mesnick is now said to be one of the replacements due to O’Dell’s and Jewell’s knee injuries. Jewell’s replacement as the moment is former Playboy model and “Girls next door” star Holly Madison.
American Idol 8 decided to have a top 13 instead of the usual top 12 finalists. The judges decided to have a “Wild Card Round” to give the show a bit of a twist when they had surprised Ryan Anoop. You can find more information on the episode revealing the top 13 finalists of American Idol season 8.
The Hill’s star Lauren Conrad told US Weekly that she will be leaving the show. Conrad quoted in the magazine. “I've spent the last five years making every decision be about the show. People I date have to be able to film, the places I work have to let us film and the places I live have to have set lighting. I'm ready to do things on my own. I loved doing it and had so much fun, but it came to a point where I had done it long enough." This interview really explains just how much reality TV can affect your life and decisions you make. I respect Conrad’s decision to leave the show, if you read more on what she said in her interview I believe that would have been a very tough life, so we may sometimes need to stop and think about what those reality television people have to deal with.
http://www.realitytvworld.com/news/american-idol-picks-remaining-finalists-and-reveals-top-13-twist-8564.php.
http://realitytvcalendar.com/shows/dwts-8/news/mk030909.html
http://www.realitytvworld.com/news/lauren-conrad-the-hills-producer-confirm-she-leaving-show-8561.php

This week’s blog I have decided to talk about the cost of producing reality TV shows and also more information on the audiences of certain types of reality shows. Some shows can be quit costly to produce such as Paramount’s Entertainment Tonight. This show has one of the highest weekly budgets with an amount of $500,000 to $600,000 each week. The production cost usually tends to be on a lower budget with reality television shows based on crime and rescue series. These shows are usually anywhere from $150,000 to $250,000 dollars on a weekly basis. This becomes a big factor in Canada because we have both public and private broadcasters and have always depended on the inexpensive American showing schedules. People argue that reality shows are more eye-catching in countries outside of the United States. This may be in result of the other countries creating their own “Cheaper” reality television shows. Some examples of this would be the program “Battle Against Crime” which is produced in Canada and the higher end show of that is the Barbour-Langley’s Cops. Being able to roll the cameras just about on any location is cheaper in the end, there is no props needed to be bought everything is pretty much all there. Some shows can become a bit ridiculous such as Big Brother and the Bachelor/Bachelorette. These shows have very nice and expensive houses making the production of the show to increase very easily and quickly. The highest production cost I found was just under 2 million dollars with the show The Apprentice. Here is a link of listed reality television shows and their costs.
The audiences for reality television shows expectations are fit to the types of genders of the show such as males targeted at 18-49 are most likely interested in watching crime and rescue mean while woman ages 18-49 are more interested in tabloid shows. A good example of a tabloid show is Oprah Winfrey Show which is primarily aired during the day. The show America’s Funniest Home Video’s is a show that can be defined as a family show but it tends to grab men and children’s attention more than women’s.
And as you can see I believe that the costs and work put in to the production pays off for the result of the ratings. Hope you enjoyed reading about the production and costs of reality TV, I believe that its becoming a little too expensive, but hey when you make it all back it works back for your company right?
http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/R/htmlR/realityprogr/realityprogr.htm
http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/tv-production1.htm
http://www.realityblurred.com/realitytv/archives/related_news/2004_Jul_28_costs_rising