When I started watching The Bachelor franchise in 2018, I initially wanted to go back and watch Rachel Lindsay's season. This season is notable because Lindsay became the first (and still only) Black person to be the central figure of a season. The season, however, was nowhere to be found on streaming platforms or ABC's own website. As Raphael notes in his chapter tracing the political economy of Reali-TV, networks have found that reality television series do not always have the best record in syndication because "the genre's topicality and timeliness made it less attractive to audiences the second time around" (137).
I think a central question for scholars, especially those interested in studying reality television, is where do these shows go after they air? Very few make it to streaming and few are available on DVD. Further, networks might decide not to provide access to a past season or cancelled series for a variety of reasons.
Increasingly, it looks like scholars and viewers need to rely on YouTube for this kind of content. But what are the implications and potential consequences of this?
My roommate and I recently went in search of old episodes of TLC's very classic "A Makeover Story" and were only able to find two (poor quality) rips posted by former stars onto YouTube. I wonder, firstly, about the rights to content of those who appear on these kinds of shows and what forms of documentation they can access and, secondly, about the copyright claims involved in posting to places like YouTube by stars of the shows themselves - especially in situations wherein networks decide not to provide access as you mention.
ReplyDeleteI thought Raphael's note about the syndication opportunities of reali-tv was interesting since, for me, it was one of the original binges. Before the technology was there to really control when you were watching (let alone what you watched), my sisters and I would happen upon an "America's Next Top Model" marathon, and that would be our Saturday. And almost everyone I knew had similar stories; very few watched the show as it aired, but if there was a "marathon-viewing" opportunity we would find ourselves sucked in, even if meant we only got to watch half a season in a day.
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