Is It Time For A New Formula: Reality Shows That Have Confusingly Similar Titles
March 8, 2013 by Hollywoodite
Reality television has axiomatically become stale and formulaic with confusingly-similar shows on competing networks finding evermore arcane subcultures to monetize. The trend was lampooned on The Simpsons as “reality shows about White trash skuzbags doing subhuman made-up jobs,” during last weekend’s episode that mocked the limited and absurd adjectives thrown together to form titles.
A few days ago, FunnyorDie.com mocked the same trend in a video called “I Can’t Believe These are All TV Shows.” That pointed out the overuse of words like “Wars,” “Bride” “Extreme” etc.
And TheWrap.com, making that the third time in a week, has also admonished the lazy formula.
War is hell… except for reality shows. Americans may be exhausted by the real wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. But we unwind with no fewer than 17 reality shows with “wars” in their titles. They depict so-called wars waged over whiskers, parking spots and cupcakes.
No one takes show titles lightly. Discovery, for example, which owns Animal Planet, bounces ideas off of an “influencer panel” of 15,000 viewers. Other networks combine research with discussions between producers and network executives.
Sometimes they opt for a new and unusual name, as in the case of A&E’s hit “Duck Dynasty.” But more often their titles include one of two reliable words: “War” or “wives.” (Although there are more “war” shows than “wives” shows, it’s close: Besides Bravo’s many “Real Housewives,” there are “Mob Wives,” “Sister Wives,” and “Prison Wives,” among others.)
Jonathan Nowzadaran, executive producer of “Shipping Wars,” said the word is so popular because it signals to viewers that a show involves conflict. ”The reference to wars in any show’s title is something the viewer interprets as a competition, and that’s what intrigues them,” he said.
Nowzadaran [also] says viewers have no trouble telling the difference between real and reality wars. The bigger problem, he says, is that a title with “wars” might seem played out. ”That conversation is inevitable because no one wants the viewer to assume it’s a rip-off or a clone of another show,” he said.
Even shows about children aren’t safe. OWN’s new “Blackboard Wars” is about a New Orleans charter school. ”We went through probably about 500 titles for the show, trying to find something that we felt was appropriate,” said executive producer Eddie Barbini. “Nobody could agree on anything. I mean, literally 500 titles, I think, we went through. There was a famous show years ago, ‘Blackboard Jungle,’ a movie. Sort of came out of that. And it is a bit of a war down there, actually. Maybe not the wars that we’re all familiar with, but there is a battle going on, for sure.”
Somehow, despite the popularity of the two words, no one has created “Wives Wars.” But OWN has come close with “Married to the Army: Alaska,” and Lifetime has the scripted series “Army Wives.” – via The Wrap.