MagneticMediaFed

Chances are no one is watching this show. Chances are the damage is already done. When there is the option of watching a group of rich, petty, semi-alcoholic non-actors bounce throughout the “hottest” clubs in southern California or seeing a collection of future Darwin Award winners vie for the love and admiration of a bisexual, anorexic* stripper, it’s probably pretty hard to care much about a collection of wholly average white kids attempting to put out a school paper. And that’s too bad, because MTV’s The Paper is not just solidly entertaining but paints one of the most realistic portraits of suburban high school ambition this side of Tracy Flick.

It’s the type of show MTV should have been making all along. Like the first incarnations of The Real World, The Paper doesn’t seem particularly interested in “producing-up” the action, and instead does what the reality genre was suppose to always be: documentaries with a hyper-kinetic visual style. That being said, this shouldn’t be mistaken for the early 90s alterna-rock-pesimsm from days of yore. The series is Gen-Y to the max, and perhaps that is also what makes it so relentlessly watchable. The tone of the show is super-upbeat, but the characters are just vicious. It’s packed with eye-rolls and secret-laughs and plotting and back-stabbing and ad sales and layout and editorials and sports coverage. I guess in other words, it’s just like a high school.

Check out the show while you can (there are still two episodes left and the first six are available online). Future seasons will suffer from the kids having seen the previous slowly morphing the drama from reality to “Reality.”

*speculative

I’m listening to a conference call right now with Jeff Probst, host of CBS’s reality-centerpiece Survivor. He’s on the line to address the show’s decision to split the new cast into racial “tribes.” His go-to line, and one I’ve read before, is that this is “the most ethnically diverse cast in the history of reality TV.” This may be true, though I feel like the first few seasons of The Real World would argue otherwise.

As expected, he’s 100% in favor of this decision and is certain it will revive the brand. He also calls out those who may criticize the decision without ever seeing the show– pretty standard responses whenever a show is confronted with controversy.

The series usually picks its contestants from videos mailed in by people who want to be on the show. It just so happens that the type of person who applies for a reality show in this manor is frequently white. Because of this, the casting for the new season was much more aggressive. They went out into the communities and sought out the contestants.

In response to questions about Mark Burnett’s sordid history with diversity and reality programming Probst argued that the apparent stereotypes seen in previous seasons (and shows), might have been caused by the overwhelming white presence these shows have had over the past six years. When there’s only one African-American on a show of sixteen people, anything they do that fits into a stereotype gets magnified.

It should also be noted that while various advertisers have dropped their spots from the show, in recent months (weeks?), Jeff Probst is just the show’s host and really doesn’t know all that much about the CBS balance sheet. Should he? Seems like a lot to ask from the guy.

This thing is now reaching the hour-mark, and I have to go to work. So I’m jumping ship…