Everything is reality TV now

 Everything is reality TV now

Screenshot via @MrBeast/YouTube

The number of reality TV series may have dropped in recent years, but that’s not because there’s a shortage of Kardashians. Instead, much of that drama and unpredictability has moved to different platforms or bled into other aspects of our lives. Don’t forget to subscribe: It’s no secret that cable—the lifeblood of reality TV—is having connection issues. According to Business Insider and media advisory firm Madison and Wall: Nearly 90% of US households paid for a cable TV subscription in 2010. Now, that number is about 50%. Meanwhile, YouTube accounts for nearly 13% of viewing time in the US, the New York Times reported, citing Nielsen data. A lot of that content is unscripted, like the videos put out by Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson, who is basically a reality-TV/game-show host with more than 430 million YouTube subscribers (and who has successfully taken a show to Amazon Prime Video, too). Living the stream Livestreaming has also supplanted the more voyeuristic aspects of reality TV. And, like VH1’s run of reality shows in the 2000s, even celebrities are getting in on the action. Per Axios: Livestreaming platform Twitch has more than 21 million active streamers. Year over year, athlete and celebrity streams are up by nearly 20%. Social studies: Social media and the influencer economy are carrying on the spirit of reality TV. Audiences used to watch strangers cook, lose weight, and find love on 30- or 60-minute episodes. Now, that’s five minutes on Instagram. Politics has had a distinctly reality-TV flavor, too: Lawmakers have firmly joined in the influencer space, starting podcasts and getting major exposure through short, fiery clips, sufficiently Jersey Shore-ifying our social feeds. And, back in 2017, the New York Times reported that President Trump (himself a former reality TV star thanks to The Apprentice) instructed aides to think of each day as an episode of a TV show.