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American Morning
Reality Shows or Silliness?
Aired January 23, 2002 - 08:22 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: All right, onto other things. Television programs like "SURVIVOR", "BIG BROTHER", they all shook up the world of TV ratings when they skyrocketed to the top of the charts. I wrote this myself.
What's come to be called reality television is something we've grown accustomed to, and because of its past successes, producers now are becoming silly in their efforts to come up with more reality TV shows.
We have things like this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Red or white, Chardonnay wine?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Red.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Incorrect. The correct response is white. Answer the next question incorrectly, and the chamber will stop.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAFFERTY: All right, that's "THE CHAMBER". Not your mother's quiz show, not "THE $64,000 QUESTION, not "NAME THAT TUNE".
Joining us now from New York to talk about this show and some others, Ken Tucker of "Entertainment Weekly" Magazine, and Robert Thompson of Syracuse University.
Gentlemen, it's nice to have you with us. That was "THE CHAMBER." The other one that I saw the other night was this goofy thing that John McEnroe is hosting called "THE CHAIR"...
KEN TUCKER, "ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY": Yes.
CAFFERTY: ... where they put this woman in a chair, they wire her up to a heart monitor, they lowered this alligator with a diaper on out of the sea. It was all very frightening to me. I couldn't watch all of it because it was near my bedtime.
(CROSSTALK)
CAFFERTY: Frightening stuff. TUCKER: It's frightening and stupid. I mean ...
CAFFERTY: Yes.
TUCKER: ... it's like being in amusement park rides. "THE CHAIR" is like this big barcolounger with fire coming up at you. "THE CHAMBER" is like taking an MRI test in something designed by Dr. Evil.
CAFFERTY: That's a very good way to put it.
TUCKER: It ...
CAFFERTY: What's the attraction? I know for the networks these are very cheap to do, so the attraction for the networks, as opposed to doing a prime time dramatic series, for example, this is a few cents on the dollar cost-wise. But what is it the audience gets out of these?
TUCKER: It's like watching an amusement park ride, and then they ask you silly little questions. I mean the questions are on the level of "Jackson Pollock, painter or banker?"
CAFFERTY: Now what about this feud? There's apparently a court case pending with "The Chamber" and "The Chair", one claiming the other has stolen all these really cool ideas.
TUCKER: Yes, "The Chair" has sued "The Chamber", claiming that "The Chamber's" producers snuck in, stole some of the items from "The Chair's" ideas. So it's -- I don't know, I guess they stole the idea of using arm rests or straps or something. I don't know. It seems ridiculous. There's actually ...
CAFFERTY: Robert ...
TUCKER: There's actually ...
CAFFERTY: Go ahead.
TUCKER: There's an artistic crime being committed here, actually, because "The Chair" on ABC is replacing one of the best shows on television "Once and Again". And I think it's a real crime that this kind of junk show ...
CAFFERTY: What show is that?
TUCKER: "Once and Again" is a terrific show.
CAFFERTY: Oh "Once and Again".
TUCKER: Yes, with Sela Ward -- won an Emmy last year. I think it's terrible that "The Chair" should replace this.
ROBERT THOMPSON, SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY: You know we should remember, though, that when "SURVIVOR" and the first "TEMPTATION ISLAND" were coming along, these things really were being watched by a lot of people. "THE CHAIR", I think, last week got a 4.1 rating compared to -- or 4.9 maybe, compared to "AMERICA'S FUNNIEST HOME VIDEOS." Let's remember this is an 11-year old show ...
CAFFERTY: Right.
THOMPSON: ... which the main thing it does is have babies falling into birthday cakes and ...
CAFFERTY: Sure.
THOMPSON: ... people getting hit by sports equipment. That got a 6.5. "FRIENDS" last week quadrupled exactly the ratings of "THE CHAIR". So ...
CAFFERTY: So these things might be short-lived, in other words.
THOMPSON: Yes. They're ...
CAFFERTY: If the ratings don't improve, they're not going to be on. What about "SURVIVOR"? Now that's a show, as you mentioned, that's been around awhile and continues to be pretty popular, but there's a little more to it. I mean there's a little more meat on the bone there.
THOMPSON: It's the gold ...
(CROSSTALK)
TUCKER: More strategy. There's more -- there's more -- just the location, the locale. I mean this idea of being strapped into some chair in the middle of a studio and having, you know, fire and lights go at you, it's just silly stuff.
(CROSSTALK)
CAFFERTY: Well if you're going to encounter an alligator wearing a diaper, you don't want to do it on television. You know ...
TUCKER: Exactly. You want to do that in the privacy of your own home.
CAFFERTY: Absolutely. Yes.
(CROSSTALK)
CAFFERTY: Where do these things go? Is there an illogical extension of these kind of bizarre ideas for TV shows? I mean if you sat down and let your imagination run a muck, where do these things wind up?
THOMPSON: I think eventually "SURVIVOR", which is the gold standard of this, is going to be the kind of thing that we're going to see. Well what happens with something like "THE CHAIR" and "THE CHAMBER" is it's so strange. It's this weird ...
CAFFERTY: Yes.
THOMPSON: ... combination of things, and it's interesting for about the first two times, but your heart is about as in much danger in the chair as if ...
CAFFERTY: All right.
THOMPSON: ... you were eating a pork chop, and I think we'll see a lot less of it.
CAFFERTY: Good. I hope so. I agree with you guys. Ken, good to see you. Ken Tucker of "Entertainment Weekly" ...
TUCKER: Thanks.
CAFFERTY: ... Robert Thompson of Syracuse University on the future of reality television.
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