POSSIBLE SPOILERS WITHIN
In recent years Reality TV shows have swept the globe and proved to be a very popular way to fill up air time and also more importantly hook viewers, and make money. Everyone seems to be a sucker for them, Big Brother, X-Factor, Britain’s Got Talent (or your American version).
The fact of the matter is, most reality TV shows are scripted to some extent. Ben Elton in his book Chart Throb, which satires shows like X-Factor and the then Pop Idol. He brings the point that all the music reality TV shows are staged from day one and the watching public are conned into who to vote for, and most importantly the winner who is practically chosen before the show even begins airing has been decided. It’s the producer’s job to make that happen.
Siberia, however, is a fictional Reality TV show set in an old Siberian base camp for travelers, and the winner is the last one standing, there are essentially no rules except if you cross the line and press the button you are out. NBC and the producers are trying their darnedest to make us all think that it is Real, and to be fair they are doing a good job at that…..despite the Sci-Fi element of the show which is a dead give away that this is not Real.
But they are sure doing there best to make us think otherwise, the cast is pretty much a complete list of unheardof’s, and any Google search directs you to some sort of Siberia related page. What they have done is keep the first names of all the cast correct as per there real names but modified the surnames and they don’t give a proper credit list and the end of each episode. So for all intents and purposes if you were to tune in late, not see any of the Sci-Fi, blood and guts part you would in fact think you have just witnessed the latest hit Reality TV show.
The creators have even nodded to the fact that these shows are scripted in Episode 4 – Fire in the Sky, it is reveled that one of the contestants is in fact an actress who is in the show just to push things along and in the direction that the producers want it. Something that was also done in the current season of Big Brother in the UK, which went down a treat with the real contestants.
What they are lacking from the show is a fake phone in for evictions and a potential winner, if they wanted to really get the Nation hooked that would be one way of doing it. Make people think they have a say, even though this is the MOST scripted reality show that they will watch, even more so then the regular ones.
There has been no news from NBC as to whether they will be picking this up for a second season, and with ratings going the way they have been for it seems unlikely that they will be, but only time will tell.
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