... American networks purchased some of these formats and brought them back to the United States. They also created some original formats themselves. Since the 1990's, reality TV has become a major phenomenon with most major networks screening some form of realty programming (Wells and Tibaldi, 2002). According to Mhando (2002:187), the supposed purpose of reality TV is to "place 'ordinary' people in 'extraordinary; situations and allows other people (including the crew) to watch them react". Wells and Tibaldi (2002:189) explain that this kind of programming differs from earlier so-called "reality programming such as Weddings and RPA which followed more of a socio-documentary model". I have chosen possibly two of the most influential reality television programs of which to base a discussion of this genre: Survivor and Big Brother. These two programs are the templates for which many copycat formats strive to imitate. Both have a multitude of successful seasons under their prospective ...

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