Reality Bullying

With this year's crop of reality television shows the current trend seems to be stepping up the amount of bullying the contestants. But should the public sit back and take in the public humiliation when quality programmes are hit by budgets?

Possibly shows like Big Brother prepare the contestants, who are generally young and naive, for the toughness of life. Many of them appear to be ill equipped to deal with the pressures of a full time job preferring to opt for a Summer locked in a house with strangers. So more social interaction and heavy workload tasks should instil more discipline.

The trials used in I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, are probably more justified to meet the public desire to see those presumably better off punished. It can in certain circumstances help the contestants to conquer fears and phobias in forcing them to face them under extreme circumstances.

We have to assume that the judges on shows like Strictly Come Dancing, X-Factor and Britains Got Talent, know the industries well and that the criticism they offer is beneficial to the contestants even though sometimes harsh.

But the tendency of these shows is to increase the torture every year and the danger that things could get out of hand. The last two series of Big Brother have shown contestants getting punished with electricity and water when another contestant gets a question wrong. Perhaps this is good television but it has developed from the innocent naked body painting in the first series to a more sinister torture.

The trials on I'm a Celebrity have seemed to get worse every year. Where contestants used to be forced to conquer a fear of rats, they now face fears of spiders, snakes, rats and other bugs, while in the dark or locked in a coffin. The torture has become more and more noticeable and it is not clear if this provides any better entertainment.

Now the contestants of X-Factor and Britains Got Talent are torn apart if their vocals do not match the superiority of a Leona Lewis. The comments have gone over the mark of not being good enough to suggestions they give up singing or dancing. The judges preach about what it takes to become a star but they cannot take away a persons desire to sing or dance.

In Britain Got Talent Susan Boyle proved you can be a star without an airbrushed image and the public loved her for it. But she paid the price in her health and because she did not fit the mould maybe she was treated different. When the dancer Aiden Davies, an 11 year old from Birmingham was criticised in the final it felt the line had been crossed and along with the tears of Hollie Steel from Acrington in the semi final, made a good case for children not to be allowed on the show or for the judges to lighten up.

There will always be bullies in the world but when it becomes popular on mainstream television then we need to stop and think what we are doing.