· 29 comments · Save ·
Announcements Mar 24, 2026 at 6:47 PM

Reality TV Confronts a Harsh TV Reality

Posted by plutoglint


https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/24/business/media/reality-tv-era-ending.html

🚩 Report this post

29 Comments

Sign in to comment — or just click the box below.
🔒 Your email is never shown publicly.
longjumpingtote Mar 24, 2026 +37
This will be a popular "good" and "about time" but these shows employ a *lot* of people and it's how a lot of people get into the business, get experience, and then move up to bigger and better things. I know dozens of people on camera and lighting crews for these shows. Hollywood is already a bloodbath, fewer shows just means fewer jobs, it doesn't make content any better. It's nobody's fault, it's just sad to see a 60% job loss in the last ~5 years in any industry.
37
Sirwired Mar 24, 2026 +29
Television managed to exist as an industry before the plague of reality TV over-saturation, and it'll continue afterwards. There were far too many shows (scripted and unscripted), and the sheer quantity of output wasn't sustainable, and most of it won't be missed.
29
DCAbloob Mar 24, 2026 +4
It will but how many of the creative & technical jobs will be taken over by AI in the process.
4
CaptainBayouBilly Mar 25, 2026
Linear television is a soon to be extinct thing.  Just like the music industry, Hollywood will still exist, but it will be smaller.  This is the end stage of capitalism and consumerism alone cannot save it. 
0
bassa-m9ss Mar 25, 2026 +2
What the heck are you talking about? 🤨 
2
liquidmccartney8 Mar 24, 2026 +7
It would be different if this was happening because the public’s tastes were shifting away from dumb lowest common denominator entertainment and towards something better, but what’s really  happening is that *media companies’ tastes* are shifting towards even dumber forms of content that they don’t have to pay anyone to make. 
7
actuarally Mar 25, 2026 +1
I, for one, can't wait for TikTokTV.
1
BattlebornCrow Mar 24, 2026 +7
I think the argument is that these shows are taking the place of scripted stuff, which theoretically employ more people, since they have actors and writers.
7
Big-Soup7013 Mar 24, 2026 +3
Except we can tell from the last few years that’s not true at all
3
NatureTrailToHell3D Mar 24, 2026 +2
The article goes into it more, but it’s more of a general contraction of TV, but that the contraction on scripted shows is just talked about more.
2
grill_smoke Mar 24, 2026 +4
Personally I hard disagree. Brain rot television collapsing as an industry is a net positive, even if it means some of the crews will have to find different projects or work.
4
Fuck_You_Andrew Mar 24, 2026 +19
“Different projects” is a funny way to describe someone falling out of the industry entirely.
19
grill_smoke Mar 24, 2026 -11
Hence the addition of "or work" at the end of my sentence. Sorry, you're not going to get sympathy for me when it comes to this industry. In a better world where the US is investing properly in renewable energy sources, EXPONENTIALLY more people would be displaced from their jobs in the oil and gas industries. You won't find me shedding tears for them either.
-11
Fuck_You_Andrew Mar 24, 2026 +4
You can simultaneously applaud the end of something you dint like and acknowledge the human cost associated with it.  
4
grill_smoke Mar 24, 2026 -1
I am acknowledging it. This is a net positive for society despite the fact that some people will be displaced.
-1
Fuck_You_Andrew Mar 24, 2026 +3
Thats not acknowledging an impact on people, its just acknowledging that you care more about canceling TV shows you dont like more than you feel bad for people who cant feed their families. 
3
grill_smoke Mar 24, 2026 +1
I think you should look up what acknowledging means.
1
Fuck_You_Andrew Mar 24, 2026 +2
I think you should be nicer to your fellow humans. 
2
grill_smoke Mar 25, 2026 +1
Good for you!
1
MaybeNotTooDay Mar 25, 2026 -4
Not necessarily a bad thing. Some former coal miners might now be out in the sunshine maintaining wind turbines instead of trapped miles underground in a dark tunnel developing black lung disease. Or it is a terrible thing and they pick up the bottle and die of liver failure in a few years. Change.
-4
Fuck_You_Andrew Mar 25, 2026 +2
Coal miners are the perfect example of how compassion towards people’s problems would’ve benefited society.  Had we actually supported coal miners more than just telling them “learn to code” then Trump doesnt win in 2016.  We cant stop progress but we also dont have to let people wallow in its wake. 
2
actuarally Mar 25, 2026
Amen. I grew up in a coal mining family. Still live in the region, but moved to a big city to escape the fallout of mining towns being left to rot. Just as unhelpful as "learn to code" is its cousin comment: move to the big city. That isn't feasible for all 350 million of us, for starters... 90% of the US live outside the 20 largest metros and jamming an extra 300M bodies would be a logistics nightmare. At some point, people have to realize opportunity and careers have to be made available outside New York City, LA, San Fran, Chicago, & the Texas Triangle.
0
BramptonBatallion Mar 24, 2026 +2
Nobody is entitled to jobs in “the industry”. They’ll probably just move to YouTube production companies which are starting to get more and more like old tv.
2
jeremysbrain Mar 24, 2026 +1
Reality TV may be downsizing, but that genre seems to be getting replaced by a rise in game shows. So probably not a downsizing in the tv industry but just a change in the market. So hopefully most people will stay employed.
1
thehollyproblem Mar 24, 2026 -5
Yeah it's sad when people lose their jobs but when the thing they're doing is hurting more people I think that's a necessary trade-off. Like Asbestos/Coal mining, for instance. Bummer for them, but important for us. Edit: sometimes I come back to a comment that's been downvoted and change my mind, but y'all are just fully wrong XD
-5
EnderG60 Mar 24, 2026 -7
Its good for humanity as a whole. My sympathy for the front desk lady working for the company that keeps people stupid is VERY limited.
-7
[deleted] Mar 24, 2026 -2
[deleted]
-2
Big-Soup7013 Mar 24, 2026 +8
Ohmygod learn what a paragraph is please
8
E6350 Mar 25, 2026
Paywalls SUCK!
0
← Back to Board