To think that reality tv has had its day?

[AlternativePerspective]

This isn’t directly about Caroline Flack,but about the fact that her’s is just one in a long succession of contestants on a multitude of reality tv shows have ended up resorting to suicide.

While I don’t think it could necessarily be said that reality tv is responsible for people’s mental health, I think it is fairly evident that people with fragile MH are the people these shows attract, and as such it stands to reason that contestants who have appeared on these shows will b affected by both their appearances and the comments of outsiders.

And love island isn’t the first show. The Jeremy Kyle show was axed last year after a guest committed suicide,

Susan Boyle from BGT had a breakdown and had to spend time in a MH facility,

There have been three love island suicides.

Clearly while these shows are a bit of fun to those who watch them, we should be questioning the kinds of people these shows attract, and asking whether this is really an appropriate way to entertain the public, with people who clearly have MH struggles, many of whom will be pushed to the edge and beyond while the “fans” look on and express horror even though many of them will have been avid viewers.

Reality TV when it first started provided an interesting and entertaining insight into human nature (when it was just Big Brother and that Osborne show) but now it is simply used as a fast track to fame. The problem with that being that a) fame no longer comes with fortune which a lot of people don’t realise, so they have to keep going on more and more reality tv shows to make a living or suffer the humiliation of failure and having to go back to a day job and b) what it does come with in the era of unregulated social media is the opinions and scrutiny of the general public in a far more personal way than it used to. The people who are chasing fame these days don’t seem to take that side of it into account, they want the glitz and glamour but not the negative stuff that unfortunately goes with it.

I hope it has - I HATE reality TV with a passion.

@AlternativePerspective

Who are the 'multitude' of people?

The 2 from Love Island.

The 1 from The Jeremy Kyle Show

Caroline Flack's tragic death was nothing to do with Love Island.

I have never watched love island, it's not the kind of TV that interests me. I think there are questions to be asked about whether broadcasters are doing enough to safeguard the mental health of their participants, and perhaps of their presenters and other staff. They do have a duty of care and if they are not fulfilling that, then they need to be held to account.

However, I think we should not rush to judgment about what was going on for Caroline Flack, nor jump to conclusions about the role of reality TV in her struggles. She clearly had some other complex issues going on, and I would not presume to say that any one thing was the cause of her death.

What I do know is that we have a very intrusive press culture in this country, and that there is a tendency for ordinary people to be extraordinarily vicious on social media towards anyone in the public eye. I don't know if either of these factors contributed to Flack's death, but they cannot have helped.

It will never leave TV until there are financial repercussions to broadcasters that make reality TV unprofitable to air.

It is extremely cheap to create a reality TV programme in comparison to paying famous people / celebrities / figures of authority, and production costs of reality TV are much much lower.

While ever they pull in viewing figures and profit, from cheap costs / advertising slots that are premium spaces because if the high viewing figures the programs generate / spin off programs (again cheap TV) merchandise that the city many get a cut of, reality TV won't be going anywhere.

If they weren't watched they'd fizzle out but sadly this won't happen.

@AlternativePerspective

Multitude = a large number of people or things.

So who were all the MANY others???

YANBU. I think the world is waking up to the cruelty of reality TV. It's hard to believe that, not that long ago, X factor would openly make fun of it's shittest singers (some so clearly had MH issues or learning difficulties) audition, and the they'd bring them back on the finale to take the piss one last time!! I didn't dream that did I? They actually did that to human beings?

Sorry, merchandise that the companies (broadcaster, production etc) may / will get a cut of

It's never appealed to me. I don't think it's healthy. Watching gorgeous people fight over the opposite sex. Watching rich Essex girls bitch and argue. Reality shows and social media is destroying so many people in so many ways. It makes people feel they should have it all. It makes people feel like failures. Even something positive like Mrs hinch can make you feel rubbish about your own life. People thinking they must clean and have their lives perfectly in order. When really we should be saying it's ok to have fingerprints in your house and clutter in the corner. We've become such a fake filtered generation. I do feel for celebrities now. They can't get away from people. The media. Their personal social media too. Constantly got people telling them what they think of them.

You have celebrities like Tom hardy, Charlie Hunnam and Cillian Murphy who have choosen to keep off social media. They don't get anywhere near as much bad press as the ones who try and interact.

I also can't see any benefits of these reality programs.. the audience are young people who will think it's all about money and looks. We all know these people on love island could pull any day of the week. They are so good looking. No cellulite. Perfect boob to hip ratio. But that's not reality for the best of us. Why can't they have real shapes on there? It's just depressing and I hope my daughter never feels the pressure that comes along these days. Perfect houses, bodies, lives and children. People are so materilstic now too. I've got a young 21 year old mum of two on my FB. Nice lass. She's obsessed with cleaning though. She spends ridiculous amounts of money on clothes for her kids. I can see she does it all for social media. At 21 she shouldn't be obsessed with zoflora.

Feel I've gone off subject in places. It's just the state of things in general are concerning.

As a previous poster has asked, what reality shows should be cancelled?

Love Island
BGT
X Factor
Jeremy Kyle

These are the main culprits, but look back at how TV about ordinary people has been around for a while...

Supernanny
Rich house poor house
DIY SOS
Wife swap
Wanted down under
Changing rooms
Made in Chelsea
Four in a bed
Come dine with me
24 hours in a and e
Say yes to the dress
My 600lb life
Embarrassing bodies

Reality TV has become more intrusive, it respects less boundaries, and combined with social media and the vicious nature it often displays and encourages with a herd mentality, it is a very unpleasant phenomenon. But, sadly, a very lucrative one.

I think the reality shows that flaunt looks sex shopping and money should be taken of the screens.

I think reality programs like 24 hours in a&e are a complete different kettle of fish.

Television companies will only stop producing these programmes when the viewing figures drop and the advertising revenue does likewise.

The issue is in the hands of the people who watch the stuff.

I don’t watch any of them, I would be happy for them to Axe everything from BGT to LI

HOWEVER, 2 things

1. I watch a different type of ‘Reality Tv’ that a LOT of other people think is absolute crap (master chef/DIY/property buying/selling renovating) and so I think it’s not for me to criticise others viewing pleasures🤣

And secondly I don’t think the TV programs are the problem, it’s SM. Axing the TV shows won’t change that, it’ll just drive more ‘online’ media.

You linking CF’s tragic suicide to LI is 🤨 her suicide really had NOTHING to do with LI

that her’s is just one in a long succession of contestants on a multitude of reality tv shows have ended up resorting to suicide

Is just bullshit

Call it out for what it is (brain rotting garbage IMO) but don’t make crap up

I feel that three suicides linked with one show is significant enough for it to be looked into.
Participants are put into an artificial reality. Made to compete for popularity. It’s also all really quite shallow too.
No ethics based approval, which would be required if this artificial reality was a psychological experiment.
Caroline was not a participant but she was part of this bubble. And competition for popularity.

I wouldn’t like to say love island caused these suicides. Definitely not.
But could the experiences that love island created have increased these individuals risk of suicide. I would hazard a guess and say quite possibly. I think it needs to be looked into.

Not all reality tv is the same.

Some attract a lot of trolling - Love Island, poverty porn and TOWIE sort of programmes. They are harmful to the participants but the trolls probably think that they should be sucking it up for the money and it's not a big deal to troll anonymously when I suspect that it's no different to face to face trolling.

Some reality tv is more innocent. I briefly saw one about GPs (GPs begins closed doors?) and another about people being matched up with dogs at a dog shelter. Some are quite "educational" - you can see a glimpse into the working life of teachers, zookeepers, traffic cops, bailiffs, airport workers...

I don't see the trend stopping. It's cheap to make as the participants are relatively poor and there's so many channels and only so many repeats that people will watch. I suspect that TV companies are also well aware that there future is uncertain. Young people watch tv on other devices and are happy to watch content via streaming services like Netflix rather than watch live tv. When the current teens are our age, will people even have TVs in their house unless they want to game? Will they go for projectors on walls for special occasions to save space and allow bigger crowd to watch?

@dustibooks has summed it up. If people didn't watch it in their millions there'd be no point in producing it. Reality TV isn't going anywhere while people find it entertaining and are invested in it.

I don’t think reality tv played a part in particular tragedy.

I think social media and the actual media are not helpful to look to when people already have issues they are dealing with.

The constant scrutiny celebrities must be under must be awful. I can see a point in having social to keep their profile out there etc but you’d have to not read all the negative stuff that is written. It must be so hard to get away from it.

The contestants sure need looking after even they come out of the show etc but I really don’t think that’s the issue here

I wonder if Caroline Flack's family and friends would be pissed off about her being lumped into the same category as reality TV contestants?

You know, considering she was a professional actress and radio and TV presenter and all that?

The programmes themselves are not the problem. it is us - the viewers and the commentators who are the problem.

While we continue to watch, to judge, to comment. Even to lurk on threads like these, then we are the problem. The programme makers, the paparazzi et al,they just provide what we insatiably demand. To blame them is just hypocritical

I don’t think reality tv played any part in this particular instance.

CF was clearly a deeply unhappy person going through some serious issues. She was also (rightly) facing court for her appalling behaviour which can’t really be excused by any MH issues.

Due to these issues the media (mainstream and SM) have hounded her and piled on the pressure and scrutinised her to an unfair degree when she was clearly already going through a difficult time. That, to me, is the problem and the media should be held to account. The same news outlets that were slating her in recent weeks are now profiting from her death and spewing out faux sympathy and sadness. The same applies to the other LI suicides.

That being said, if it was a male celebrity I think there would be far less sympathy under the circumstances and in light of the charges she was facing.

There have been 187 love island contestants in total. 2 committed suicide.
According to the suicide statistics it is predicted that 1 in 20 people will commit suicide in 2020. So I don't think Love Island is to blame for 2 people out of all of those who took part killing themselves.
There were 3320 Jeremy Kyle episodes. 1 person committed suicide following appearing on the show.

Are you really trying to say that ALL reality tv should be axed because of this?

I'm loving the documentary series on Netflix, those type of reality style shows I'd rather watch.

I've never watched love island and I never will. I stopped watching XFactor etc 5 years ago.

It's just not gripping and people aren't "real"

Ofcom have specifically made rules due to reality show participants’ mental health issues. So it’s not just he OP ‘speculating’ it’s an actual issue that’s been around as long as these stupid shows have.
Reality tv is not the same as what the fuck is on our TVs now, people being forced to do things against their will and being vilified at the hands of however the producers want to air it, add that to social media and it’s a recipe for absolute disaster. As has been shown time and time again

According to the suicide statistics it is predicted that 1 in 20 people will commit suicide in 2020.

Really? Link? That's 3 million suicides in uk this year? Think you've got your numbers wrong

@BrokenWing apologies I skim read the article. Should have read 1 suicide every 20 seconds in 2020 not 1 in 20 people!