Reality Game Shows
Game shows have been around for nearly a century, but within the last 25 years, reality game shows have taken over some of those primetime spots on television, shows including Survivor, The Amazing Race and Big Brother.
The History of Game Shows
Quiz shows became popular through radio, but seamlessly transitioned to television in the 1940s. These shows ran during the television “primetime.” These shows were cheap to produce, had inexpensive sets and included non-actors as guests.
The Difference Between Game Shows and Reality Game Shows
The difference between game shows and reality game shows is the structure of the show. Regular game shows tend to be very structured and contained while reality game shows are more open to the elements of the unscripted-ness of the show.
Reality Game Shows
Reality game shows are primarily designed to provide entertainment to audiences. These shows are typically designed to showcase various competitions and challenges with the aim of keeping viewers engaged. However, these programs are often edited and presented in a way that tells a particular story that may not reflect reality accurately. As a result, some critics argue that these shows can be misleading and harmful to the participants and viewers alike.
Survivor is one of the longest-running reality game shows with over 40 seasons. The show follows a group of castaways as they survive, compete and vote each other out until one ultimate survivor is left.
With thousands of hours of footage to comb through within a three-day period that usually makes up an episode which is trimmed down to forty minutes is an enormous feat, but the Survivor editing team has kept this up for over two decades. Brian Barefoot, an editor says, “Everything is divided up on each episode. We have certain editors who cut the challenges. One editor cuts all the Tribals. Then we have four teams of reality editors and producers, and each team cuts one out of every four episodes. Every team has a Supervising Editor, a second editor, and sometimes an additional swing editor who primarily cuts the camp life/reality scenes.”
The Purple Edit
The Purple Edit is a phenomenon where essentially a castaway is hardly shown during their season. I think the best philosopher principle to apply to the purple edit is David Ross. He believed there is often more than one ethical value and you must choose depending on the circumstances. I believe this is the correct approach because the Survivor editing team could’ve chosen to do a lot with the footage that they had, but they believed it would be best to not show as much from these players who have been purple edited.
Breaking the Fourth Wall
During this scene, Jeff Probst, the host, calls for all the crew to assist three collapsed competitors. Over 70 members of the team jumped into action to help the situation. During the final edit you can see these members of the crew, essentially breaking television’s fourth wall. I believe the best principle to apply would be Immanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative. He believed that actions were all about doing what was right. In this situation if they were going to show the contestants in a medical situation at all, I think it was the right move to show how urgent the situation was by showing how many crew members were involved.
Keeping Things in the Final Edit
In this particular situation, a castaway outs another in front of the rest of the tribe at Tribal Council, in hopes to convince the rest of the tribe to vote with him instead of against him. This ultimately backfired and he was voted out without an official vote due to the situation. I think Sissela Bok has the best principle for this situation because the Survivor producers talked to both Zeke and Jeff about the situation, they got permission to run what happened in the final edit by victim, gave him resources to counseling/therapy, and ultimately the team did a really great job tackling this and making sure they did everything correctly.
The Purple Edit
Breaking Television’s Fourth Wall
Keeping Things in the Final Edit
The Purple Edit is a phenomenon where essentially a castaway is hardly shown during their season. I think the best philosopher principle to apply to the purple edit is David Ross. He believed there is often more than one ethical value and you must choose depending on the circumstances. I believe this is the correct approach because the Survivor editing team could’ve chosen to do a lot with the footage that they had, but they believed it would be best to not show as much from these players who have been purple edited.
During this scene, Jeff Probst, the host, calls for all the crew to assist three collapsed competitors. Over 70 members of the team jumped into action to help the situation. During the final edit you can see these members of the crew, essentially breaking television’s fourth wall. I believe the best principle to apply would be Immanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative. He believed that actions were all about doing what was right. In this situation if they were going to show the contestants in a medical situation at all, I think it was the right move to show how urgent the situation was by showing how many crew members were involved.
In this particular situation, a castaway outs another in front of the rest of the tribe at Tribal Council, in hopes to convince the rest of the tribe to vote with him instead of against him. This ultimately backfired and he was voted out without an official vote due to the situation. I think Sissela Bok has the best principle for this situation because the Survivor producers talked to both Zeke and Jeff about the situation, they got permission to run what happened in the final edit by victim, gave him resources to counseling/therapy, and ultimately the team did a really great job tackling this and making sure they did everything correctly.