Below is an excerpt from the book "1,001 Things They Won't Tell You," which was published in May 2009 and highlights popular columns from SmartMoney's long-running "10 Things" feature.
1. “Step aside, crime dramas. There’s a new sheriff in town.”In case you haven’t noticed, reality shows are staking out more and more space in network lineups. In 2001, according to Ted Magder, chair of NYU’s Department of Media, Culture, and Communications, major networks devoted three hours a week of their prime-time schedule to reality TV and “challenge” game shows. The number increased to eight in 2002 and jumped to more than 20 in 2007. Today, reality TV accounts for 20 percent of prime-time programming on network television.
Fueling the trend is the format’s comparatively low production costs: typically less than a third of what it takes to produce hour-long dramas. But the bottom line behind the reality boom is ratings. In a Nielsen report for the 2006- 07 season, reality shows accounted for 6 of the top 10 most-watched programs, including all of the top five.
What’s behind our fascination with reality TV? Robert Thompson, a Syracuse University communications professor, says that an “evolutionary quirk” compels our curiosity about how others live and function. “It’s why we peer into other people’s medicine cabinets,” he says. “We can’t help it; we’re naturally voyeuristic.”
I've been to two showings of Dancing With the Stars. The show is indeed broadcast live to the east coast, complete with the dancing couples who make mistakes that show up and stage workers scurrying out of the way, which you can see at the edges. The only part during the show that is taped is the rehearsal footage.
Before the show begins, during the warm up, they take three audience applause shots to be able to cut away in case something horrible happens on the dance floor (like someone's head cut open). They explain that at the beginning.
The article implies that the entire show is taped which is a lie. It is broadcast live, warts and all.