10. A Format In Crisis & The Future of Reality TV: Love Island, Part 2
Sirin Kale and Pandora Sykes look at how one of TV’s most popular shows became mired in tragedy and controversy. Where did it all go wrong?...
Radio and PodcastLive Radio & PodcastsSociety & Culture
Unreal: A Critical History of Reality TV
Journalists Pandora Sykes and Sirin Kale explore how reality TV shapes our lives and the ethical questions raised by the format, featuring iconic shows and stars.
Episodes
11 episodes9. The Influencer Sausage Factory: Love Island, Part 1
Pandora Sykes and Sirin Kale analyse how Love Island became a finishing school for influencers and a commercial juggernaut through its assoc...
8. Lifestyles of The Mega-Rich: The Real Housewives & Selling Sunset
Sirin Kale and Pandora Sykes slip into the moneyed world of the Californian 0.01% with the help of a Real Housewife and a Selling Sunset rea...
7. The British Docusoap: The Only Way Is Essex & Made In Chelsea
Pandora Sykes and Sirin Kale look at how these BAFTA-winning reality shows became national treasures and explore why the ingredients for a g...
6. Climbing The Ladder: Keeping Up With The Kardashians
Sirin Kale and Pandora Sykes delve into the story of America’s First Family, the Kardashian-Jenners, and how they leveraged reality tv to re...
5. The Birth of Scripted Reality: Laguna Beach & The Hills
Pandora Sykes and Sirin Kale tread a nostalgic path back to their teenage years and The Hills, which birthed reality’s first wave of lifesty...
4. The Makeover Era: The Swan and What Not To Wear
Sirin Kale and Pandora Sykes explore how the rise in cosmetic surgery collided with reality TV, and laid the foundations for our current pre...
3. The Wild West Years: There’s Something About Miriam and Who’s Your Daddy
Pandora Sykes and Sirin Kale deep-dive into some of reality TV’s most controversial shows in the early 2000s, exploring how the explosion in...
2. The Talent Show Boom: Pop Idol and The X Factor
Sirin Kale and Pandora Sykes look at how three men called Simon are responsible for the gold rush of talent shows in the early noughties and...
1. The Social Experiment: Big Brother Is Watching You
Pandora Sykes and Sirin Kale wind back to Britain's first ‘official’ reality show, to look at how it became a global phenomenon, the importa...
Introducing Unreal: A Critical History of Reality TV
The dumbest genre in entertainment, or the one that tells us the most about ourselves? Since its conception, reality TV has divided its view...