I'd class a Reality show as a show where a very simple concept is made up, and the public, celebrities or whoever is involved in it make the script up as they go along.
An example is Big Brother. The concept is, a set of people get dumped in a house. The rest of the script is down to them. They make the drama, it's not set out for them.
In my mind there is nothing "real" about 12 people locked up in a house together, or in a kitchen serving celebrities or in the jungle, on a farm or otherwise.
Reality TV would be a programme following people go about their day to day business, but I guess that is classed as "fly on the wall". But by definition what became the docu-soap maybe should be "reality TV".
My take on reality TV: "the reality is that no-one's watching it as they're become bored with the format"!
The term didn't really exist five years ago. Airport and the fly-on-the-wall documentaries were more docu-soaps as they'd been filmed in advance of transmisson. BB pioneered the genre.
I'd always wondered this too...as I remember Big Brother was the first show to be so-described, but the term is now applied to what had been called "docusoaps" or just plain documentaries.
I've read more than one article which describe Airport, Driving School and so on as part of the Reality takeover of TV (though weren't there programmes like this over 30 years ago as well?)
Also programmes like Supernanny get thrown in the reality basket, aren't they just documentaries/factual? imo "reality tv" should be kept to the subset of the game show genre that Big Brother/Survivor occupy. There is more than a hint of snobbery in applying it to things like Wife Swap/Supernanny
For example Pop Idol and The X Factor are often called 'reality tv', but arn't they just talent shows?
Is 'Celebrity Wrestling' reality tv? does this mean Gladiators was?
How about 'Celebrity Fit Club?
The simple fact is - 'Reality Television' is a contradiction in terms.
There is nothing remotely 'real' about something you are watching that has been purposefully shot and edited by somebody for a specific purpose.
Even the most 'unscripted' of programming has intentions - Big Brother had ways of making the contestants earn their weekly food and talk to a so-called diary room for goodness sake. Pop Idol involves people preparing for a live talent contest, knowing that millions of people will be watching their every performance.
And do you really think that being dumped in the Australian jungle, surrounded by television cameras and knowing that every 24 hours they will be getting a visit from 2 Jordy lads is a reflection of 'Reality'?
I don't quite know who these production companies are trying to kid? These programmes are simply voyeuristic human experiments, labelled as 'reality TV' for the plethora of dumbed-down viewers who get off on thinking they are somehow invading on other people's privacy.