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Primetime TV Book Reviews

Reality TV: An Insider's Guide to TV's Hottest Market

 Review by Suzanne

I don't watch reality shows generally. I just prefer regular fictional TV shows, where there are real actors and everything is scripted. To be fair, it's not just reality shows I don't watch. I don't watch news, sports, game shows, documentaries, etc. - anything that's non-fiction. The problem with reality shows is that they are sort of half-fiction and half-non-fiction. This book tells us exactly how they make reality shows and how much of them is real or not.

Even so, I found the book fascinating, being a TV fan. The man who wrote the book has written or produced many reality shows and knows the ins-and-outs of them well.

The book is not a tell-all. It's more of a primer. It's almost as if he wrote the book to be a textbook for some course about making reality TV shows. It even has exercises for each chapter.

I was hoping for more dirty and less textbook, so it was disappointing in that regard. It was more educational than it was a good read.

I'm not sure I entirely agree with some of the author's assertions, such as his classifications for reality shows, but then again, he's the expert, not me.

He does mention the 1988 Writer's Strike that led to reality shows booming, starting with Cops and The Real World, among others. It is an interesting part of our TV history.

If you love reality shows, you might enjoy the details of how they make reality shows. They are a lot more "scripted" than you might imagine.

If you want to break into the TV business, or the reality show business, then this book is probably a must-have.

PRESS RELEASE:

HOW REAL IS REALITY TV?
A producer behind Dancing with the Stars, The Surreal Life, and many other hit Reality TV shows answers the question we've all been asking
Love it or hate it, most of can't help but wonder how real Reality TV really is. Troy DeVolld, a producer behind some of the most successful Reality TV shows puts that question to rest in his new book REALITY TV: AN INSIDER'S GUIDE TO TV'S HOTTEST MARKET (Michael Wiese Productions, August 2011, paperback). "There's no reality show that I'm aware of where there isn't somebody pulling the strings behind the scenes to some extent. Some programs use writing and content manipulation sparingly. Others shred content like a salad shooter, stitching together bits of dialogue and action, repurposing scenes left and right," says DeVolld
Troy DeVolld will reveal some of the behind-the-scenes tricks of the Reality TV producer and writer.
Visit him at: www.realitytvbook.com

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