Reality Television Stats

I have found some statistiscal research that gives you an overview of the what the general population enjoy to watch. The information that I will be using is from writter, Courtney Hazlett, of Today Entertainment. In her research that she has conducted was a survey of who exactly watch certain reality shows. Hazlett’s purpose was just based on curiousity; she wanted to know who was the average viewer for the show and why. As the study continued to survey over 19,000 she began catergorizing the results based on age. For example she stated that, “Women are more likely than men to watch reality programming (49 percent of women versus 24 percent of men.) Courtney Hazlett did a trememndous job on this study. To follow more of her research I will be leaving the link to the article below. 

http://www.today.com/entertainment/reality-check-reality-tv-fans-youre-more-neurotic-1C7320186

In our society we control ourselves. We monitor each other’s appearance, hobbies, and in this case our entertainment.  As literary critic, Michel Foucault, would state that we live in a Panopticon society; whereas we are always watched by someone, therefore we must be careful on our actions. A way that panopticism works is by “policing” each other. This term is a way to give either positive or negative feedback to someone’s actions which is rewarding or punishing in Focault’s writing. An example would be Hip Hop and R&B artist, Drake and his new single “Days in the East”. According to website Hotnewhiphop.com it is the number two popular song in the top one hundred charts (as of today). This may seem to be a positive outcome; however when scrolling down to the comments you would find negative comments that would confuse the viewer whether or not it is popular for the song being good or as a downbeat lesson not to listen to it. We “police” each other as way of control for reasons that can not be explained. It might be just a habit that a few of us have or other explanations of why we do this.

In the view of reality television is another subject that our society polices. Since reality television is popular for some; viewers are policing it to be overrated. They feel that it is predicable and now to be considered staged. The audience ratings are decreasing according to writer Dustin Rowles’ article, “Numbers Don’t Lie, Network Reality Television Is FINALLY Dying” who calculated the ratings of a few popular shows that lost some viewers:

Celebrity Apprentice: 5.3 million for the season finale, less than half the 11 million viewers the first Celebrity Appearance received.
American Idol: 14 million for the season finale, down from a series high in 2003 of 38 million.
Dancing with the Star: 13.8 million for the season finale, down from 25 million just three years ago.
Survivor: 8.3 million for the season finale, down from 36 million in its first season.
Splash: 5.2 million
The Voice: 14.6 million viewers for the most recent episode (up from 12.6 million in its first season premiere).
The Bachelor: 10.8 million viewers for March’s season finale, down from 15 million in 2010.
The Amazing Race: 9.3 million viewers for this year’s season finale, a steady decline from its high, in season seven, of 13 million.
X-Factor: 12 million for last year’s season finale; 9 million for this year’s season finale.
(http://www.uproxx.com/tv/2013/05/numbers-dont-lie-network-reality-television-is-finally-dying/)