WEBVTT

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Welcome to Spotlight. I'm Liz Wade
and I'm Adam Novice. Spotlight uses a

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special English method of broadcasting. It
is easier for people to understand no matter

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where in the world they live.
A man jumps across a broken bridge.

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Under him, there is a small
pool of brown water. On the other

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side, there is a long rope
hanging above the water. Will he be

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able to climb the rope? Why
a crowd cheers him on. He is

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a contestant on the Japanese reality television
program Sasuke. If he falls, the

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man will lose and leave in shame. But if he continues on, he

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could achieve something few people have before. Only three other people in the world

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have completed every part of this competition. He will be a hero. Sasuke

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is a popular reality television program around
the world. There are thousands of reality

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television programs. Over a billion people
watch them every week. All of the

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programs follow the same basic idea.
They show real people in strange situations.

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But why are reality television programs so
popular? Why do people watch them?

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Are they really real? Today's Spotlight
is on reality television. There are many

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different kinds of reality television programs.
Some reality television programs follow wealthy women through

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their strange lives. Some show people
competing to cook the best food, try

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to make a man and woman fall
in love. Others show people in situations

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that are not usually found in real
life. Big Brother is a reality television

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program from the Netherlands. In it, people watch what happens when a group

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of strangers live together. The people
have never met before, but for the

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program, they live together for three
months and they cannot leave the house.

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Many other countries have their own version
of the program Big Brother. The program

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follows the same general rules in every
place, but parts of it change to

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make it better for one culture or
another. But not all reality programs are

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meaningful in every country. National Firewood
Night was a program produced in Norway.

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It was about cutting, storing,
and drying wood. The program was twelve

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hours long. Almost twenty percent of
Norway's population watched the program. In other

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countries, people may not be very
interested in how to cut wood, but

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Norway is a very cold place and
many people burn wood to heat their homes.

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The program was about the importance and
meaning of making wood fires in Norway,

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a country of woodcutters. Derek Miller
is an author who lives in Norway.

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In an interview with The New York
Times, he said, the sense

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of creating warmth, to share ideas, to share food, to share silence

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is a very big part of what
it is to be Norwegian. But across

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countries and cultures, reality television is
very popular and there are a lot of

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different, diferent programs available. One
reason for this is that reality television programs

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are easy to make. A traditional
television program tells a written story. Each

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program requires writers, actors, set
designers, and many other people to create

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it. It takes many months to
make. Making reality television is still a

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creative process, but each program requires
fewer people and less time to produce,

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and many of these programs run for
years without much change. Often they are

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the same except for the people involved. Reality television also costs less money to

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make than scripted or written television.
Professional writers and actors are expensive, but

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reality programs do not need either,
and the people involved will often accept less

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money than professionals who work in television. But the people on reality television are

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often a big reason why people watch
programs. These people are not acting out

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apart, they are regular, normal
people. They are just being themselves.

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But reality programs often put people in
strange situations. Sometimes these situations change the

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way people act. To see how
a person changes is very interesting, but

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it also lets the people watching wonder
how they would react. Watching reality programs

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lets people imagine they are in them. One of the reasons reality programs are

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so successful is because they are about
real, normal life. But many people

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do not believe that they tell the
truth. They hear stories from people who

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have competed in reality television. They
say some of the results are not true,

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or that the programs show people differently
than they are. So how real

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is reality television? Troy de Volde
is an editor and producer for many reality

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programs. In an interview with the
television website The av Club, he explained

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that there are two stories in every
reality television program. The first is the

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simple idea that the program is based
on. A good example is a cooking

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show where ten people compete to start
their own business. The second is the

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story of what happens to those people. It is the story of how they

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relate to each other. For this
second story, producers need a lot of

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film footage. They film for many
months. The producers then decide what will

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be on television. This means that
they can choose how to show what happened.

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Devold says, like with any news
story, it is about choosing what

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film to use. You choose what
to throw away. You also choose what

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events to change. Timing of when
things happen is a big thing in reality

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TV. Over four months, you
are trying to find six or eight scenes

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that relate to each other. You
make a program out of that. The

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word real may not be the best
way to describe reality television, but for

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many people who watch reality programs,
how truly real they are does not matter.

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These programs are just good television.
Lynette Rice is a reporter for the

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magazine Entertainment Weekly. She says reality
programs remain more popular than ever because no

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one makes anything better. A lot
of traditional television is just not as entertaining.

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No one has created a program that
makes me laugh harder than I do

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at The Bachelor, so I will
keep watching every time. Are there reality

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television programs in your country? What
programs do you like to watch? Tell

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us what you think. You can
leave a comment on our website or email

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us at Radio at Radio English dot
net and find us on Facebook at Facebook

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dot com slash Spotlight Radio. The
writer of this program was Dan Chrisman,

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the producer was Bruce gulland the voices
you heard were from the United Kingdom and

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the United States. All quotes were
adapted for this program and voiced by Spotlight.

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This program is called reality television.
You can also get our programs delivered

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directly to your Android or Apple device
through our free official Spotlight English app.

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We hope you can join us again
for the next Spotlight program. Goodbye,