there are too many reality shows on tv essay

We Ruined Reality TV

H eather Gay is standing on the beach, her long blonde hair and pale yellow-caped dress blowing gingerly in the wind with the green-tinted waves behind her. The sky in Bermuda—or, perhaps, the filter chosen by editors to emulate the look of a Christopher Nolan film—is gray, an indicator of the storm about to crash down onto the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City . Lisa Barlow, Meredith Marks, and Whitney Rose (all cast members since the first season, which debuted in 2020) descend onto the beach to join Gay, who drops the bombshell about newbie housewife Monica Garcia while the show’s signature chorus sings a tune more dramatic than “Carol of the Bells.” This is cinema.

“Monica is not who she says she is. She’s not our friend,” Gay says. “She’s someone that has schemed and worked to infiltrate our friend group. And the name that you all know her as, is Reality von Tease.”

Reality von Tease is not a name even the most-engaged consumer of Bravo’s programming would know, but it is a name that is “triggering” for the cast, to use an overused word in the Real Housewives universe. Garcia was outed as the anonymous user behind the Instagram account named which has been responsible for spreading gossip and rumors about the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City since 2021. When confronted at the reunion, Garcia said she started the account to expose the “truth” about Jen Shah.“I honestly feel like that page did not come for any of [the other cast members],” Garcia explained. Gay quickly chimed in, citing cruel names that the page has posted about her. “Every person on this couch can go through that page and give you 10 personal examples," Gay said. Host Andy Cohen sided with the other housewives, stating that Garcia would’ve never been cast if production had known she was running a burner account. Garcia has since been let go from the series.

While the season finale, cheekily titled “Mysteries, Revealed?,” was riveting thanks to clever non-linear editing that built up to the plan to expose Garcia combined with Gay’s committed self-aware performance (Oscar-winner Jennifer Lawrence quoted, “Receipts! Timeline! Screenshots!” on the Golden Globes red carpet), it’s also an indicator of an inflection point: Reality television is broken. And it’s because the fourth wall—which exists for a reason—has been shattered by not only too much self-awareness by its cast members but also, frankly, too much information.

More From TIME

Read More : Every Unanswered Question We Have About That Real Housewives of Salt Lake City Bombshell

The Real Housewives shows , in particular, have morphed from frivolous farce about delusional but entertaining women who contain multitudes into shows that demand sincerity and gravitas (the delusion remains). Cast members’ have learned how to self-produce, how to be the favorite (Beverly Hills’ Sutton Stracke’s “name em!” is a perfect example) and over time, storylines have become more about being a reality star than being a person.

The most obvious influence of the state of reality television is the overflow of information from an insurmountable level of sources. There are rumor accounts such as Reality von Tease, whose rise can be linked to the rise of the blind celebrity gossip accounts like DeuxMoi. These accounts run by anybody (even an actual cast member like Garcia) eliminate the element of surprise within the shows themselves.

Scandal, rumors, and gossip have always been the building blocks for storylines on shows like Real Housewives or even their spin-offs like Vanderpump Rules . It keeps things interesting. It starts fights. It creates a narrative—who to root for and who to despise. But with an array of gossip readily available any time of day at the tip of your fingers, the shows seem to find themselves in a perpetual game of catch up. The element is no longer surprising because once it airs, it feels like old news. Imagine how inconsequential Teresa Giudice’s table flip in the Real Housewives of New Jersey would have been if we knew it happened months before it aired? It wouldn’t be the same, because we would have already seen it unfold online, commented on it, and overanalyzed it to death.

This is a primary problem that’s made Hulu’s The Kardashians , essentially a behind the scenes show about the family’s Instagram grids, a well-produced bore. The third season of the series was defined by a fight between sisters Kim Kardashian and Kourtney Kardashian about Dolce & Gabbana. Kourtney claims that Kim, who collaborated with the Italian fashion house and walked the runway for its Spring/Summer 2023 show, stole her “dolce vita lifestyle.” Kourtney’s claim to the lifestyle: her wedding in Portofino, Italy. The conflict inspired the most authentic drama seen on the show in years, but something was missing: At this point, the Kardashians loom so large that they can have relationships with brands like Dolce, and despite even their best attempts, they don’t discuss the complexities of “the business” on camera. And, in Kim and Kourtney’s case, with each other. In the new age of reality TV, the subjects, more hyper aware of their audience than ever before, decide what the audience sees and how much or, more significantly, how little it sees.

Reality TV has always been loosely scripted, but now, it makes The Hills look like a documentary. And while social media shapes the lives of everyone who exists today, it rules supreme in reality TV. Bravo’s Summer House , a series that follows a group of New Yorkers in their 20s and 30s every weekend when they rent a house in the Hamptons, used to have natural conflict and interesting cast members who actually worked full-time jobs in Manhattan. Now, the show primarily revolves around whether or not the cast follows each other on Instagram, rumors they get in their DMs, what they discuss on their reality TV podcast, or if they even liked each other’s Instagram posts. Any real-life conflict created off-camera is never really explained. Stars avoid the true stories at the heart of their conflicts to preserve their reputation.

Although the fourth season of Real Housewives of Salt Lake City was successful in its conceit, it revolved around rumors we now know came from Garcia (though, generally speaking, the cast refused to acknowledge or even say what the rumors were on camera). Competition shows are a different beast than Real Housewives , but Survivor —which one could argue has social strategy in common with the Real Housewives franchise — has a similar problem: it is so studied by its superfan cast members that the game feels hacked, with winners more impressive for luck or finding advantages than for their gameplay.

Social media participation—both from talent and audience—has also contributed to this, with too many explanations, too many complaints, and, particularly in Bravo’s case, too much listening to its audience. Outrage on social media led to the dissolution of the original cast of the Real Housewives of New York after its first and only bad season (a reboot, featuring Jenna Lyons , premiered in 2023), and has created a blueprint for the Housewives universe where slow-burn cast members don't get a renewed contract. Then, there is the abysmal hate Vanderpump Rules’ Rachel Levis got during “Scandoval,” resulting in her opting out of coming back on the show, which proves that the audience can get too involved. If the stars of a show like Vanderpump Rules —which revolves around sloppy people who lie and cheat—are morally policed, do they even have a show? Or, at least, a compelling one?

The internet is oftentimes an easy thing to blame, but in this case, it’s true: the dissolution of reality TV as we know it is the result of an overflow of information. We simply know too much now, and casts are in turn too aware of how these shows work. What used to be a necessary separation between audience and cast feels snapped in two, and Bravo has mended it with Scotch tape.

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Reality Shows: Advantages and Disadvantages of TV

Table of contents

Advantages of reality shows, disadvantages of reality tv shows, solutions to overcome the addiction of reality shows.

• Andrejevic, M. (2004). Reality TV: The work of being watched. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
• Bell, M. (2015). Reality TV and class. In A. Hill (Ed.), Reality TV: Key ideas (pp. 135-150). Routledge.
• Choueiti, M., Khanduri, R., & Pieper, K. (2019). Inequality in 1,200 popular films: Examining portrayals of gender, race/ethnicity, LGBTQ, and disability from 2007-2018. USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative.
• Hill, A. (2015). Introduction. In A. Hill (Ed.), Reality TV: Key ideas (pp. 1-10). Routledge.
• Holmes, S. (2004). Reality TV: Audiences and popular factual television. Routledge.
• Mastro, D. E., & Kopacz, M. A. (2016). Race, reality television, and stereotypes: Examining the content of network and cable reality series. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 60(2), 208-227.

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Does Reality TV Deserve Its Bad Rap?

Is reality television valuable or a waste of time? What messages have you gotten from these kinds of shows?

By Callie Holtermann

Students in U.S. high schools can get free digital access to The New York Times until Sept. 1, 2021.

Do you watch any reality television shows? If so, what are your favorites? What do you like about them?

Do you think of reality television as a time-waster, or a guilty pleasure? Or do you think that TV snobs are the ones missing out?

In “ 11 Reality Shows to Watch With Your Older Kids ,” Noel Murray recommends several entertaining, even substantive, reality shows for teenagers to watch with their families:

The reality TV genre often gets dismissed as irredeemably trashy and filled with fame-starved men and women who’ll stab each other in the back to get more time on camera. But that’s not always the case. Many reality series are more like a cross between a documentary and a game show, featuring a diverse assortment of ordinary people who demonstrate their wits, skills and simple human decency as they compete to win a lot money. And some, like the recent Netflix hit “Floor Is Lava,” are just good, goofy fun, ideal for all ages. The 11 shows below are exciting, funny, moving and educational — and exactly the kind of television that parents should be watching with their kids.

The article continues with Mr. Murray’s recommendations:

‘The Great British Baking Show’ There’s a reason this internationally popular cook-off is considered the nicest show on television. In addition to making some eye-catching cakes, pies and breads, the amateur bakers are all friendly and supportive rather than ruthless. By casting people who represent a variety of ages, ethnicities and religious backgrounds, “The Great British Baking Show” producers are presenting an encouragingly utopian vision of Britain in the 21st century, depicting an eclectic and inviting nation where people appreciate each other for both their differences and for what they have in common. ‘Nailed It!’ Maybe the funniest reality series, “Nailed It!” functions like a parody of “The Great British Baking Show,” replacing skilled home cooks with more ordinary, bumbling bakers. Tasked to replicate impossibly intricate and beautifully decorated confections — under ridiculously tight deadlines, with weird impediments to overcome — these lovable schmoes do their best to produce something that looks and tastes at least passable. Host Nicole Byer brings just the right note of cheery whimsy to a series that allows the audience to laugh at the contestants’ foibles while also encouraging us to admire their pluck. ‘Project Runway: Junior’ Most Little League versions of reality competitions are way too simplified and cutesy; but “Project Runway: Junior” contains nearly everything that made the original a hit, from the fiendish design challenges to the shrewd judging. The big difference is that these teenage designers treat their time together more like a fun and congenial summer camp than like a must-win struggle to become fashion’s next big thing. This is a “Project Runway” with a refreshing feel-good vibe, populated by some arty high school outsiders who boost each other’s self-esteem as they make amazing clothes. ‘Survivor’ It’s only right to end with the granddaddy of American reality TV competitions, which has been on the air for 40 seasons stretched across 20 years. It’s as fascinating in 2020 as it was in 2000 to watch a group of strangers test their physical limits on a remote beach while also forging alliances and secretly strategizing. As with so many other shows on this list, “Survivor” is packed with teachable moments, offering lessons about game theory, trust and the foundations of society itself.

Students, read the entire article, then tell us:

Mr. Murray writes that “the reality TV genre often gets dismissed as irredeemably trashy.” Do you agree with this judgment? Why do you think that some television shows are labeled “highbrow” or intellectual, while others are considered “lowbrow” or trashy? Is this distinction valuable? How do you think art and culture are used to signal social status or class?

What worthwhile reality shows would you add to Mr. Murray’s list? Who are some of your favorite contestants, hosts or guest stars you’ve encountered on reality TV and why?

Mr. Murray describes two of the shows he mentions as “depicting an eclectic and inviting nation where people appreciate each other for both their differences and for what they have in common” and “offering lessons about game theory, trust and the foundations of society itself.” What messages have you gotten from reality television? What lessons have you learned from your favorite shows?

What would you change about reality television? Do you think the genre promotes dangerous stereotypes or underrepresents people of color ? How do you think these issues should be addressed?

In 2015, we asked students which reality shows they would want to join as a guest star or contestant. Which shows would you want to enter? Why?

About Student Opinion

• Find all our Student Opinion questions in this column . • Have an idea for a Student Opinion question? Tell us about it . • Learn more about how to use our free daily writing prompts for remote learning .

Students 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.

It’s Time to Start Taking Reality TV More Seriously

Danielle J. Lindemann ’10GSAS , a sociology professor at Lehigh University, understands reality TV better than practically anyone else. Her new book True Story: What Reality TV Says About Us takes an intellectual dive into a massively popular but maligned genre. 

Why should we take reality TV seriously?

Despite the stigma associated with lowbrow entertainment, studies reveal that more people in the US are watching reality TV than not, and nearly half of all TV series are unscripted. Media research has long shown that what we see on TV impacts our beliefs, values, and attitudes and how we move and act in the world.

I see reality TV as a kind of fun-house mirror, because it can show us ourselves in caricatured or amplified form. The genre reveals some of the worst things about society — sexism, racism, classism, materialism — and dials them up to eleven. But it also shows us the best of ourselves in its creativity. Historically, reality TV has been more diverse than other forms of media in its representation of people of color and queer people, even if those representations haven’t always been positive. Reality TV reveals how much society has evolved and, at the same time, how conservative it remains. 

You teach a course that pairs episodes of reality-TV shows with sociological readings. Which shows do you find particularly interesting?

I like RuPaul’s Drag Race , because it emphasizes how aspects of gender are performed in everyday life. A show like The Bachelor , with its fixation on marriage and rigid gender stereotypes, reveals how long-standing ideas about courtship still powerfully influence the way we think and behave. The Real Housewives franchise offers fascinating character studies and insight into group dynamics, while Keeping Up with the Kardashians explores the strength of the family unit.

What’s your take on why reality TV is so popular?  

Reality TV is voyeuristic. We like watching the “train wreck” character to remind ourselves that even if we’re messed up in our own ways, we are not the train wreck. We might feel smugly superior to the people on these shows. There is a freak-show aspect to this voyeurism too. Sometimes, it’s marginalized groups that are ridiculed, as in the case of Here Comes Honey Boo Boo , where the central family is portrayed as buffoonish and stereotypically lower-class.  

Reality TV involves real people ostensibly reacting to real-world situations, which allows us to put ourselves in the participants’ shoes and see flashes of ourselves. The genre tends to traffic in broad character archetypes — the “smart one” and the “shy one” and the “athletic one,” for example. There’s usually someone you can identify with and say “I’m a Bethenny” or “I’m a Ramona,” and so on. Reality TV is also unique in the way it encourages audience participation: we engage with the stars via social media and, with shows like The Voice or Love Island , we even vote on the outcomes. 

Binging reality TV, at least for me, can have a kind of anesthetic effect. Viewers do not need to see these shows as pure mirrors of life in order to enjoy and connect with them. We know they are constructed by producers and some scenes may be staged. Personally, I enjoy looking for “really real” moments, the smudges in the gloss — like when the Housewives haul out one another’s real-life text messages to read during reunion episodes. 

How has reality TV influenced other areas of society? 

Studies have shown various behaviors to be associated with watching reality TV; heavy viewers of the genre are more likely to drink alcohol, get fake tans, and use hot tubs on dates. While correlation does not necessarily equal causation, one well-known study established a link between viewership of 16 and Pregnant and reduced teen-pregnancy rates. 

Many people have launched successful careers after starting out in reality TV. Cardi B, for example, entered into the public view in 2015 as a cast member of Love & Hip-Hop: New York , where she was portrayed as an aspiring musician. Since then, she has pulled herself up the celebrity pipeline and become a Grammy-winning rapper. 

Some reality stars have even entered politics, the most famous being Donald Trump. Would he have been elected president if he hadn’t appeared on The Apprentice and been shown in a position of power, wearing a suit, and barking orders from behind a desk, and been depicted as always being right? We can’t know for sure, but it’s reasonable to suggest that reality TV helped pave his road to the White House. The media coverage surrounding Trump’s presidency arguably became its own reality show — in 2018, major news outlets even covered a visit to the Oval Office from Kim Kardashian. Trump is an important data point for helping us understand how reality TV both reflects and molds culture. If we learned anything from his presidency, it’s this: one thing that’s “really real” about unscripted programming is its impact.   

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“THERE ARE TOO MANY REALITY SHOWS ON TV”. DO YOU AGREE?

            Nowadays we can see on TV too many realty shows, practically in all the chanels. Do people have boring lives? Are the “reality shows” good or bad? The “reality shows” have the same number of suporters than detractors.

            First of all, People are who have given the success to them. If they didn’t have a big number of supporters, they wouldn’t have success.

Secondly, I think that all, on TV, is moved by money. The producers of TV programs only want people with problems who they show sex and fights because that is what it sell.

To sum up, I believe that people want to see real people and things that it happens to them but “reality shows” dont’t offer a public service but a business of morbidness.

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What are your views on reality TV? Are these types of shows popular in your country?

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Survey says: Too many reality shows

In the eyes of viewers, reality television is not only a misnamed genre. It’s a format wearing out its welcome.

Four out of five Americans say they think too many reality shows are on the air, according to an AP-TV Guide poll. Only 4 percent of respondents said there were not enough.

Few people believe there’s much reality in reality TV: a total of 82 percent said the shows are either “totally made up” or “mostly distorted.”

“They pick the personality types to fit a role. I don’t think it’s really real,” said Brenda Sobol, a 42-year-old homemaker from Susanville, Calif. “It’s kind of bogus. I think they pretty much know what the outcomes are going to be or they wouldn’t do the programs.”

The poll also found:

—Half of Americans believe there are too many crime shows on television. The longtime staple of TV dramas has proliferated with the success of franchises such as “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” and “Law & Order.”

—Of all the new shows introduced last year, “CSI: New York” has the most people looking forward to its return. “Desperate Housewives,” twice as popular with women as it is with men, came in second.

—People watch more TV as they get older. The median number of hours that people over 65 say they watch is 14.7 per week. For those 18 to 34 — young people that TV advertisers are desperate to reach — it’s nine hours.

Time for new TV Television’s new season officially begins next week, a relief to viewers after a lackluster summer. Broadcast networks threw many new reality shows on the air. Between angry chefs, Tommy Lee’s college escapades and a rock band searching for a new singer, the only one to catch on was ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars.”

Slideshow    26 photos

Celebrity sightings.

Starting primarily with the CBS game “Survivor” and encompassing pop culture favorites like “The Osbournes,” “reality” is a TV genre that has grown to rival sitcoms and dramas. It doesn’t hurt that most are cheap to produce.

The poll results could be daunting news for Martha Stewart, who joins Donald Trump with her own edition of “The Apprentice” on NBC next week.

“You can get a reality show about anything,” said Michael Russell, a 27-year-old construction worker from Cleveland who admits to getting a charge out of Bravo’s “Being Bobby Brown.” “Anyone can do it.”

Joseph Passmore, 66, a retired computer systems analyst from Oklahoma City, said he enjoys “Survivor.” But there’s little real about it, he said.

“I think most of them are fake,” he said. “Even ‘Survivor,’ they just show you the parts they want you to see and it’s been messed with too much. They have too much — what do you call it? — editorial control.”

The saving grace for TV producers is that even a belief these shows are fake or distorted doesn’t necessarily mean they won’t watch. Sixty-eight percent of viewers said it didn’t matter, or only mattered a little, whether the shows were truthful or not.

Too many talk, crime shows, too Viewers may also be having their fill of talk shows. The AP-TV Guide poll found 56 percent of Americans saying there were too many.

And the fact that half of the viewers said there were too many crime shows could be an early warning for TV programmers: The genre’s success has only encouraged them to make more and, based on previews, they’re getting more gruesome than ever this season.

“It’s like they’re harping on it,” Russell said. “There’s so much crime going on around the neighborhood and around the world, it’s like they’re glorifying it.”

He’d like to see more uplifting programs, like ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.”

The elderly are more likely to say there are too many crime shows, according to the poll. Given the way advertisers seek youth, that’s not an audience programmers are likely to listen to that much.

The poll of 1,002 adults was taken Sept. 6-8 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. It was conducted by Ipsos, an international polling firm.

Sport and Competition

How reality shows affect our lives and society, what are the negative and positive effects of reality tv.

Posted April 12, 2022 | Reviewed by Abigail Fagan

• People are often drawn to reality TV because they enjoy the drama and relate to difficult decision-making.
• The theme of self-interest vs. self-sacrifice runs through many reality shows.
• Reality shows often lead people to reflect on what they might do in a similar situation, which can be a good exercise in values exploration.

Millions of people around the world tune in to reality shows and have been watching for decades. What started out as an experiment has turned into mainstream programming and as a culture, we can’t get enough of it.

Is there any personal or societal cost to our ongoing fascination with reality shows? While opinions certainly differ on the topic, it comes down to a few factors:

• The malleability of your values
• Your commitment to behaving in ways that reflect your values

Television and all other forms of media have an impact on our thoughts, opinions, and behaviors. There is no doubt that what we take in for entertainment and information influences the way we think about the world around us. Our minds are designed to synthesize boatloads of information every day, from our interactions with others to the books we read and the entertainment we seek out. We make sense of the world through these pieces of information we gather, and this impacts how we live our lives every day.

Beyond the daily information we absorb, we are also influenced by our prior life experiences, our family of origin, the environment we are raised in and a slew of other cultural and genetic factors. These interpersonal and direct influences are more likely to impact our values and behaviors than reality shows. Does this mean that we should be unconcerned about the ways in which reality show trends impact us? No, we definitely need to pay attention to the underlying messages in these shows and explore why they appeal to us so much.

Why Do Reality Shows Reel Us In?

Reality shows keep us coming back, week after week. We want to know who said what to whom, which person betrayed another or who compromised their alliances or made a shady decision that influenced other people. It’s all about the best and worst of human behavior; it is an observational psychology class without the lecture or exams.

Often reality shows cause us to reflect on what we might do in a similar situation, which can be a good exercise in values exploration. The basic question of self-interest versus self-sacrifice is a theme that runs through most reality shows. These themes of good and bad behaviors, betrayal, competition , and connection are familiar to us; we make similar decisions every day, minus the cameras, artificial scenarios, and publicity. It calls to us because on a very basic level, we love human drama, and we relate to tough decisions. Whether it is a competition for love, money, fame, or notoriety, we enjoy watching the struggle. When we root for our favorite reality show participant, we are identifying something compelling within them, and this may say a lot about us if we choose to explore it. As we indulge in our favorite reality shows, we can ask ourselves:

• What do I enjoy about this show and what emotions does it elicit?
• What appeals to me about these characters and their role in the show?
• Would I make different choices than these characters? If so, why?
• What values do I embrace in my life that are either abided by or abandoned in this show?

Reality shows are ironically named because they are often far from realistic scenarios. Even though these programs are guilty pleasures for so many, we can use them as good conversation starters with friends and as food for thought within our own minds as we consider our values and how to live in ways that demonstrate those values.

Teyhou Smyth, Ph.D., LMFT , teaches psychology at the Graduate School of Education and Psychology at Pepperdine University.

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There's too much TV to keep up. Have we hit the limit?

Linda Holmes

Maybe you've heard this phrase: "peak TV."

It was coined by John Landgraf, the boss of FX, during an address he gave at the Television Critics Association press tour in the summer of 2015. It was a very buzzy talk , as these things go, and since then, the phrase "peak TV" has gained traction as a shorthand for the massive expansion of television through cable and now streaming.

What got the most attention were Landgraf's musings on sheer quantity: He pointed out that he (and critics) not only could barely keep up with all the shows; we could barely keep up with all the outlets that were making shows. (And this was before Disney+, or Apple TV+, or HBO Max.) He told us that FX estimated that during 2015, more than 400 scripted series would air. That doesn't even count the also-exploding genres of reality and documentary, or sports, or news. He said, in a way that seemed both obvious and darkly funny, "This is simply too much television."

Listen to Pop Culture Happy Hour on Apple Podcasts and Spotify .

In some ways, the Peak TV speech was prescient: It put a name to a phenomenon journalists have been talking about ever since. But he'd admit, I think, that the speech missed the mark when it comes to the arc of growth. The very reason he used the word "peak" was that things had to contract at some point; he predicted 2015 or 2016 would be the top, and then the number of scripted series would start to drop.

That didn't happen. Instead, in 2021, FX estimates that the number was 559. That's something like a 40 percent increase over what he thought, and what we all hoped, was approaching the peak.

This first appeared in NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour newsletter. Sign up for the newsletter so you don't miss the next one, plus get weekly recommendations on what's making us happy.

The implications for jobs

The discussion of numbers, though, is not what sticks out most about that 2015 address now. What sticks out most is what Landgraf argued this onslaught was doing to television. One concern was how many people it took to make this many shows and make them well: "For programmers," he said, "this bubble has created a huge challenge in finding compelling original stories and the level of talent needed to sustain those stories."

To be clear, there are plenty of stories and plenty of people, many of whom are underserved and underappreciated and rarely heard. But he's right that the finding of them (and the hiring and the choosing and the training and especially the nurturing and supporting and protecting of talent for a good outlet that wants to do those things) does take time and commitment. And while everybody making more stuff should lead to more chances for underrepresented voices to be heard, it can easily lead to the opposite: going back to the same people over and over again because it's easier and faster and it feels safer, and you don't have all day to go beyond your existing Rolodex.

Here's another thing Landgraf said that day: "Brands [meaning networks and streamers] will become increasingly important as mediating filters for the overwhelmed viewing public." His thesis was that a brand a viewer trusts (like, say, FX or HBO) acts as a kind of Good Housekeeping seal that tells them that this show is worth their time. It's perhaps ironic how complicated streaming has been for the FX brand itself (just try to figure out what is on FX on cable versus FX on Hulu versus both versus FXX versus having FX beamed to the fillings in your molars).

But there's some reason to believe he was right about this in the broader sense. For one thing, the one streamer that seems to have perhaps overachieved compared to what was expected of it is Disney+ — and that's the one that comes from the most aggressively brand-y megabrand that has a rigidly defined sense of self, and the one that puts out show after show from other lesser included megabrands like Marvel and Star Wars. The Disney brand might not be strictly about quality, but it does tell people what they're going to get in a way that Apple (in the realm of content) doesn't.

Could Netflix's recent troubles be the first sign of change?

If you really want to ponder the meaning of brands, think about Netflix, and in particular the reporting that Kim Masters did recently for The Hollywood Reporter . For a while, when it was launching Orange is the New Black and Stranger Things and Bojack Horseman , Netflix seemed like it had a brand promise for viewers just like the one Landgraf was talking about — not about the specific type of show, but about quality control.

But as Masters writes, once Netflix started blowing up the quantity of stuff they were making, that's when the people in her story suggest the streamer began to struggle in ways that would eventually hurt the business. Netflix is still a powerful brand, obviously, and it still makes terrific work. But that terrific work sits alongside a lot of undifferentiated stuff, and that makes the promise to viewers about original programming quite different.

What resonates the most, though, from that talk in 2015, is the way Landgraf talked about the good and the great. A lot of people who heard those "peak TV" numbers from critics — 400 shows! — groused back that it didn't really matter, because most of it was terrible. Landgraf, on the other hand, was careful to point out that this was not the point he was making. He didn't think the problem was too much bad TV; he thought the problem was largely too much good TV. Or, maybe, too much good enough TV. The head of FX, after all, doesn't care about total garbage shows or about how many of them there are; that's not the competition, either for viewers or awards, or for critical attention. (There was a lot of speculation at the time that this part of the speech reflected in part FX's frustration at a lack of awards recognition for The Americans .)

Here's what he said about too much good TV: "There's just too much competition, so much so that I think the good shows often get in the way of the audience finding the great ones."

Maybe self-serving? Sure, of course. Landgraf is not an academic or a neutral arbiter; he's a network executive who had (and has) his own business to worry about. But I think this phenomenon does exist, and not just for audiences. As a critic, I do feel overwhelmed by the amount of television — but not by the amount that's terrible, most of which I get to ignore. I feel overwhelmed by the amount that's okay . Perfectly fine. Watchable, but unremarkable. The ten-episode series that should be four; the four-episode series that should be a movie. The A-for-effort project that just doesn't quite get where it's trying to go. The adaptation of true events that's well-made but has little to add to the podcast it's based on. The show that stars very famous people doing solid work and nevertheless doesn't make so much as a ripple.

It's not that nothing is great. There are still exciting new shows out there; Apple's Severance , for instance, is wonderful and innovative, weird and special and provocative. But at times, I do feel like I am kept very busy looking at B-plus shows that look a lot like other B-plus shows, that are nicely made and earnestly executed by talented people and that are perfectly okay if you like the kind of thing that they are.

But with the Netflix news last week , it does seem like perhaps we really have reached Peak TV. Maybe things really are going to contract, just a few years behind schedule. If that happens, it may come as a relief to viewers (both amateur and professional), but it will mean shake-ups with implications for jobs and creativity that are still very hard to predict. And of course, when money is hard to come by, it's often the new voices that are sacrificed first.

Or, I suppose, this will all be wrong, and the number of shows will grow for the next seven years like they've grown for the last seven years, and in 2029, we'll be back here talking about SuperPeak TV and the fact that our greatest movie stars are now making shows that exclusively air on those little screens at gas pumps. Nobody ever said it was easy to see the future.

This essay first appeared in NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour newsletter. Sign up for the newsletter so you don't miss the next one, plus get weekly recommendations on what's making us happy. Listen to Pop Culture Happy Hour on Apple Podcasts and Spotify .

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Reality Tv Nowadays

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