reality TV Archives - Desperate Living

Popular Doesn’t Mean Interesting

News services need to focus on pushing stories that are actually important instead of celebrity trivia and sports results.

Behind the Scenes On Britain’s Got Talent

M.J. Simpson ventures forth as a contestant in Britain’s biggest TV talent show.

Video Vixens! Or If Howard Beale Was Horny As Hell

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A prophetic film about smut on TV.

Rocco Siffredi, Honorable Local Hero

Italy’s biggest cultural export is honoured by his local region.

Daytime TV’s Unreality Problem

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Why do TV game shows and documentaries insist on pretending that film crews don’t exist?

Don’t Have Nightmares, Do Sleep Well: Why 1980s Crimewatch Is A Slice Of Social History

The BBC’s crime investigation reality show re-examined.

Oh Brother!

Why the return of the reality TV flagship show is nothing to put the bunting out for.

You Are What You Watch: How ‘Diet Reality’ Gave Us Super-Sized Misery

Sickbags at the ready as we delve further into the world of hypocritical, exploitative and sensationalist ‘self-improvement’ television.

Shattered And The Rise Of Reality TV

As Channel 4 broadcasts hand-wringing documentaries about the mental health of reality stars, a reminder of how it has routinely made dangerous and exploitative TV shows for ratings and profit, fatuously disguised as ‘social experiments’.

Traingirl: the Awful Death Of Mary Wojtyla

The story behind one of the most notorious deaths ever to be caught on camera and its unexpected connections to an infamous adult video series.

This Was Their Lives: TV’s Sycophantic Celebrity Biographies

A selection of classic episodes from the UK edition of This Is Your Life.

We Don’t Need No Education

Melissa Todd makes the case against sending kids to school.