1. CHAPTER 3: “I THINK WE NEED
A NEW NAME FOR IT”
The Meeting of Documentary and RealityTV
Jocelyn Pimental & Justin Ernst

2. What this chapter teaches you…
 Ways to recognize the differences between a
documentary and a reality television show
 To explore how network’s interwork brand
image and marketing into these programs
 To look past the textual elements of
programs and focus more upon the
extratextual factors in order to better
understand what you’re watching

3. Documentaries at a glance…
 Educational
 Informative
 Authentic
 Ethical
 Social Engaging
 Independently Produced
 Serve Public Interest
 Focuses on the mundane

4. Reality TV at a glance…
 Commercial
 Sensational
 Popular
 Obsessive
 Exploitative
 Manipulative
 Focuses on entertainment

5. An American Family
Focused on the Loud family and aired on PBS
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6. Difficulty of classification
 “I do not think American Family should be
called a documentary. I think we need a new
name for it, a name would contrast it not only
with fiction, but with what we have exposed
to up until onTV.” –Anthropologist Margaret Mead
 Even today critics don’t know whether to
consider it an observational documentary or
an early form of reality tv.

7. Reality tv transformed to
documentary
 FOX vs PBS
-American High
-Different brand image
-Financing Structure
-TargetAudience
 Both networks aired American High, with
little success, but presented it differently

8. American High
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9. FOX VS PBS
 FOX- “Other shows are not real the way our
show is…. Our show is a drama series with real
characters and real stories that continue over the
course of the year.” –Director R.J. Cutler
 Adjective choice in promos:
real, bold, entertaining
 PBS- “An observational documentary in the
tradition of PBS.”- CEO of PBS Pat Mitchell
 Adjective choice in promos:
authentic, remarkable, meaningful

10. HBO: The documentary powerhouse
 HBO is not limited to censorship content like
FOX or PBS is victim to
 Most of documentary programming featured
adult oriented content
 HBO target audience is considered
“responsible, mature and tasteful”
 America Undercover

11. America Undercover
 Comprised of a series of investigative
documentaries focusing on labor struggles, racial
profiling, terrorism and sex
 Marketed in such way to intentionally blur
boundaries between reality tv and documentary
 “If you could see it on A&E, if an advertiser would
sponsor it, then I don’t want it put on
HBO, because people are paying to see
something a little spicier.” –HBO Head of Adult
Documentary Shelia Nevins

12. American Undercover
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13. In Conclusion
 The generic instability of shows like American
High and America Undercover demonstrate just
how difficult it is to define documentary and
reality tv outside of reception and content
 Networks are able to mold viewers perception of
a show based on their perceived values
 The distinctions made between these formats
are usually only based on our need to categorize
them into either entertainment or educational

14. Quiz
 Documentaries focus on what? _______
 Reality television focuses on what?_______
 American Family aired on which station? _______
 Which 3 adjectives were used to describe American
High by Fox? _____ _____ _____
 Which 3 adjectives were to describe American High
by PBS? _____ _____ _____
 Who said, “If you could see it on A&E, if an
advertiser would sponsor it, then I don’t want it put
on HBO, because people are paying to see
something a little spicier.”? _______