Are Reality TV Shows Done?

I follow reality television, not only for great on air talk, but to see what shows our audience still watches. Reality TV could be "jumping the shark".

First off, "Jump The Shark" was a  term coined in the 80's when Henry Winkler (The Fonz) on Happy Days jumped over a shark with skis at  Marineworld in Los Angeles. Thus signaling the end of the series.

These days the most successful reality TV shows on network television tend to be holdovers from an earlier versions of home entertainment—CBS’s (CBS)Survivor and Big Brother (which both appeared in 2000), ABC’s (DIS)The Bachelor (2002) and Dancing With the Stars (2005), and Fox’sAmerican Idol (2002). The broadcast network to give birth to a hugely successful reality show was NBC, with the introduction of The Voice in 2011.

Don’t take all this the wrong way. Reality TV isn’t going anywhere. In the early days of the genre, that was the cliched media story—reporters would ask. “Is reality TV a trend?” It’s not a trend. It’s not dying or dead. But there does seem to be a weariness and a need for a format that’s truly original to break away from the pack—and not just be yet another variation on what we’ve already seen.