Reality TV

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City hospitals will no longer allow the filming of reality TV in their wards without prior written consent. According to the New York Post, […]

Just a few years ago, underemployed TV writers were complaining that reality programming was taking over their industry. Now the scribes are having their revenge: Unscripted programming is mired in an unexpected slump. And what’s worse, no new hits are taking their place.

Breaking Greenville, is an eight-episode “character-driven docu-soap” scheduled to debut in December on Turner’s TruTV. It follows the people reporting and producing the news at co-owned ABC affiliate WABG and CBS affiliate WXVT in the country’s 190^th market, Greenville, Miss. While some observers are critical of the concept, producer Adam Paul says: “These are real people who value their jobs and go after them, and care about the people they’re serving.”

Behind every Kardashian and Honey Boo Boo, there’s the person who originally thought they could be a star.

MTV has not said whether cameras were rolling the night Buckwild star Shain Gandee, his uncle and a friend left a bar at 3 a.m. to go “muddin’.” But the line between television and real life blurred in one fatal moment when Gandee’s vehicle got stuck in a deep mudpit. He and two passengers were found dead of carbon monoxide poisoning.

Was 2012 a nadir for reality television? Can the offerings possibly get any worse? Has the genre become too ludicrous to parody?

Ford is launching a primetime reality TV show called Escape Routes that will promote the 2013 Escape crossover, which arrives in dealerships this spring. Starting March 31, the series will air for six consecutive weeks at 8 p.m. Saturday nights on NBC and at 11 p.m. on NBCU’s Hispanic cable network mun2.

The Kardashian and Jersey Shore clans aren’t the only reality show players reeling in lucrative endorsement deals. Even lesser-tier celebrities are cashing in on the marketing magic.

It probably had to happen at some point. Ratings for reality TV shows, so hot for so long, have cooled off this fall. Some of the biggest hits in the genre have fallen to new lows this fall, while Fox’s new reality show The X Factor got off to a slower-than-expected start.

Over the past five years, sports programming has climbed sharply among U.S. viewers — with reality TV programming maintaining its position at the most dominant TV genre, according to a Nielsen report. Reality’s share of U.S. TV viewing is 56.4% for the 2010-2011 season. Sports programming commanded 20% of the 187 million U.S. viewers ages 2 years and older.

Over the past 10 years, DVR, online streaming, digital cable, video on-demand and increased programming options have fundamentally changed the way Americans watch television. Yet, the audience size for broadcast primetime remains strong at just shy of 200 million viewers. What has changed, however, is the makeup of the programming in the popular 8-11 p.m. time block, according to Nielsen’s analysis of the top 10 primetime broadcast TV shows.

If reality television could be considered an economic indicator, perhaps the recovery is under way. Two networks are betting on shows based on entrepreneurs competing for seed money.

The hidden camera reality series will be available in syndication for fall 2011.