Keeping It Real Watching the World Watch TV Eric Hoyt
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THE GL•BAL CAN•N Eric Hoyt is a Ph.D. candidate in the Critical Studies Division of the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts. Keeping it Real Watching the World Watch TV Eric Hoyt Ewa Mularczyk remembers the electrify- 2001. To date, she has worked on “Hell’s ing first season of “Big Brother”—the Kitchen,” “Dr. 90210” and “I Survived a show that entombs ten strangers for three Japanese Game Show.” months in a house wired with hidden cam- Cultural critics and highbrow couch eras and microphones—in Poland. When surfers routinely deride reality (or unscript- a housemate on Polish “Big Brother” was ed) television. Reality TV is, the argument broadcast bathing nude, the nation reacted goes, shallow trash—a guilty pleasure at with horror and fascination. “It was the best. While shows like “Mad Men” or “The first time we ever saw anything on TV like Wire” are lauded for their depth, they that,” Mularczyk says. At that moment reinforce the notion that reality TV should she became, like millions of other viewers be viewed shallowly, or not at all. When watching their own country’s versions of it comes to the club of artistic, canonical the show across the world, a “Big Brother” works, reality television doesn’t make it addict. When it first premiered in the past the erudite bouncers at the door. But Netherlands, in 1999, the show gener- recall an older definition of the canon, be- ated many viewers and much controversy. fore it was a collection of essential works. Within three years its production com- A canon was a set of ecclesiastical laws, or pany, Endemol, had licensed or produced a secular set of codes and rules. Appropri- the format in 42 countries. But Mularczyk ately, the most important document that went further than most “Big Brother” fans. is exchanged between a reality TV-show’s She became a reality television producer, creator and its adapter is frequently re- moving from Poland to Los Angeles in ferred to as the “Format Bible.” The Bible © 2010 World Policy Institute 47 lays out the program’s structure, essential a barbie-que and a more laid back tone to elements and production timeline. The make it more Aussie. Unscripted formatted Bible’s writers try to anticipate and answer shows, then, react to global cultural and every question that a producer adapting a social realities while acting locally. format could imagine. Think of a format, It would be a mistake, however, to then, as an emerging Global Canon, one in praise reality television as some sort of which the meaning is generated through global utopia. Though the flow of televi- multiple levels of exchange and adaptation. sion formats is more multidirectional than It is unfair and shortsighted to write cinema, where Hollywood still dominates, off reality television as a vast cultural the titans of the trade are all based in wasteland, particularly when taking this Western Europe. The Dutch company En- canonical view. What if we went further, demol (“Big Brother,” “Deal or No Deal,” and explored reality shows not simply “Wipeout”) and the UK-based Fremantle in terms of what we saw on our own TV Media (“Family Feud,” “Pop Idol,” “[Insert set, but compared that to what viewers in Nation’s Name Here]’s Got Talent”) have other countries saw on their screens, and expanded into global media conglomerates examined what moves them? And what if with offices and production facilities across we looked past the screen itself, into the the continents. In the shows themselves, business and production models behind racial and gender stereotypes are often these shows? What we find is a window exploited as much as they are challenged. into the complexities and contradictions In 2007, British Channel 4’s “Celebrity of globalization. Mularczyk’s story is only Big Brother” created public uproars in the tip of the iceberg. Britain and India when multiple house- mates hurled racist insults at Indian actress Shilpa Shetty. Ultimately, taking stock Juggernaut of the global trade in television formats The format trade is a multi-billion dollar is about seeing the ways that a media (or global business. The Format Recognition medium) can reveal certain truths about and Protection Association [frapa] esti- culture and exchange. mates television shows like “Big Brother” generated some $12.3 billion in world- wide revenue from 2006 through 2008—a Big Brother’s Special Sauce lucrative industry by any standard. In some Formats are recipes. Jon Kroll, who execu- ways, buying and selling television formats tive produced “Big Brother” and “Amazing follows larger patterns in global produc- Race” in the United States, calls a format tion processes, such as the drive to reduce “a series of repeatable elements that were costs through hiring non-union labor and integral to a show’s success in one territory the rise of multinational corporations like and that can be exported and developed News Corp. and Telefónica, the telecom into another territory.” These “repeatable giant that owned Endemol from 2000 to elements” can range widely, encompass- 2007. Yet, on both economic and cultural ing everything from the show’s concept levels, the television format market has and rules to its characters and stories, as also resisted some of globalization’s key well as its visual design. Genres of format- features. Rather than leading to a homog- ted shows vary widely. Formats can be a enization of culture, formatted shows are scripted series, like the British comedy adapted to suit local tastes. The Australian “The Office” or Colombian telenovela “Big Brother,” for instance, gets a Jacuzzi, “Yo soy Betty, la Fea” (I am Betty, the 48 WORLD POLICY JOURNAL • FALL 2010 Ugly), which were adapted and remade for watch it in a foreign hotel room or at the American television. Formats can also be multiplex in “Slumdog Millionaire” (also unscripted. Game shows like “Wheel of co-produced by Celador). The language Fortune” were some of the earliest formats may not be recognizable, but the televisual to be traded and emulated worldwide. style is the same. Today, unscripted “real- ity television” dominates the global format trade in It is unfair and shortsighted to no small part because the write off reality television as a genre is so amorphous, combining elements of the vast cultural wasteland. game show, the soap opera, the talk show and the documentary. Above More often, licensees of TV formats all, reality TV tends to be cheap to make require some latitude in adaptation. The and easy to market. early licensees of “Big Brother” closely Formats exist to mitigate risk and adhered to Endemol’s original. For the most make money. In an uncertain marketplace, part, the strategy worked. “Big Brother” they add a degree of predictability. If a turned into a sensational hit during its format was a hit in Holland, it might be first seasons in Belgium, Britain, Ger- a hit in Germany, Turkey, New Zealand, many, Italy, Poland and dozens of other or anywhere. By licensing a format, Kroll nations. The original format appeared to be says that producers gain a sales tool to a universal blockbuster—until it reached pitch networks. They can show what a the United States. When the first season completed program from its country of of the American “Big Brother” generated origin looks like and how the series per- mediocre ratings, Endemol and CBS real- formed where it first aired. Producers and ized it needed to be revamped for American networks sometimes license formats even sensibilities. Kroll was part of the second when there is no legal obligation to do so. season production team that reshaped the Television formats are not copyrightable, show. “The idea was to make it much more since copyright does not protect ideas, only summer fun, more like ‘Melrose Place’,” the expression of ideas. he says. CBS and the American produc- Although formats include behind-the- tion team also sought to “make the show scenes expertise that goes beyond the shell more of a power struggle,” Kroll says, by of the show, most courts around the world changing the way housemates were evicted. have ruled against plaintiffs in copyright While the original format had viewers vote cases regarding unscripted formats. Still, on who they wanted evicted, the Ameri- since litigation is costly and reputations can team created a position called Head are at stake, many networks license formats of Household, which one contestant wins even with no legal imperative. And some each week. The Head of Household receives formats are stricter than others. U.K.-based immunity from eviction for the week, gets Celador Productions, for instance, requires to nominate two housemates to get kicked licensees of “Who Wants to be a Million- out, and spends the week sleeping in the aire?” to follow the format very closely. house’s most luxurious suite—sometimes The questions change depending on cul- snuggled up alongside a “showmance” (an ture, but the lighting, music, stage design on-show romance) companion. CBS went and lifelines (ask the audience, 50-50, even further, scaling “Big Brother” back phone a friend) remain the same. You can from five episodes per week to three, giving Keeping it Real 49 the producers more time to edit the enor- how these defenses, couched in economic mous pool of footage into dramatic, engag- rather than moralistic terms, are endemic ing story arcs. The American overhaul paid pieces of the political landscapes of Bah- off and ratings went up. Now in its 12th rain and the surrounding Arab states. Yet season, “Big Brother” routinely wins the the relationship between on-screen cultur- summer ratings for CBS.