The Beginning of Reality TV

Hey everyone! This is the first blog ever from Behind the Reality.

Today, this blog will be talking about the first ever reality television show to go on air in the world. Nowadays, many teenagers, college-aged people, young adults and older enjoy watching reality television as a source of entertainment. Reality TV shows became more popular and reached a larger audience in the early 2000’s when shows such as The Bachelor and Big Brother first aired.

Candid Camera is the First Reality TV Show

However, reality television has been around for many decades. The first reality radio show was called “Candid Microphone” in 1947 which eventually led to a visual aspect along with the auditory aspect. In August 1948, the reality-based comedy program premiered on ABC 10 under the original title of “Candid Microphone”. The show was renamed Candid Camera in 1949 when it moved to NBC. Eventually, it moved to CBS under Bob Banner Associates and ran multiple versions of the show until 2014.

The show has hidden cameras that capture people in everyday life reacting and dealing with Allen Funt, the original host, playing pranks and tricks on them. Funt and his crew would design scenarios that were about five minutes long to record reactions of human nature. Some of the ideas they had were to reverse normal situations and procedures, expose human weaknesses, surprising them, and weirding them out by an out of place object or situation.

In the beginning of the show, there were challenges Funt and his crew faced with censorship and technical issues. Some of the scenes were extremely staged and took many hours to plan and were difficult to execute. The filming equipment was difficult to hide since back then technology was larger and bulkier back then in the 1940’s. Often, lights would be needed for better quality of the production which sometimes took away from the secret of the hidden cameras.

The first season of Candid Camera introduced the juxtaposition between a manipulated environment and authentic human reaction. This aspect is now shown in other shows such as Punk’d, Just For Laughs, and Old Enough. These series followed Candid Camera’s “genuine cluelessness” of those being pranked with dry commentary.

Funt also brought in guest co-hosts every now and then. Arthur Godfrey (1960-61); Durward Kirby (1961-66); Bess Myerson (1966-67); and his son, Peter Funt (1990), were all co-hosts throughout the initial first few decades of the show.

Leading Way for Reality TV

Candid Camera opened the doors for a new genre of "reality programming" including such shows as America's Funniest Home Videos and Totally Hidden Video. Candid Camera was one of the first reality TV shows to debut, but there are plenty of other early reality TV shows that debuted soon after.

Debutting after Candid Camera, there were a bunch of shows including The American Sportsman (1965), An American Family (1973), Real People (1979), Cops (1989), The Real World (1992), Eco-Challenge (1995), Road Rules (1995), A Baby Story (1998), FANatic (1998), Emergency Vets (1998), Big Brother (1999), and Survivor (2000).

Reality TV seems to be a popular genre of television series among the general public. These type of television series have a different environment than scripted television shows.

See you next week!

Next week, the upcoming blog will focus on the many genres of reality television including dating and romance, construction, daily life, etc. We will talk more about the differences between all of the reality TV shows!

Stay tuned and follow our social media on Instagram (@behindrealityblog) and Twitter (@behindrealityb). See you next week!