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Hyperconsumption in Reality Television: The Transformation of the Self through Televisual Consumerism

The new breed of television reality shows, such as Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, I Want a Famous Face, and The Swan, to name just a few, all specialize in “converting” their subjects’ lives through a shock attack of new televisions, instant luxury mansions, completely overhauled bodies, and other artifacts of American consumer culture, to create the impression that one can “buy” whatever one wants; a new life, a new future, an entirely new “self,” which, of course, is impossible. But were this illusion to collapse, not only those television series, but also their numerous progeny, such as The Apprentice, Joe Millionaire, Nashville Star, Survivor, Wife Swap and many other “extreme makeover” shows would vanish, leaving a gaping hole in the four networks’ programming schedules (ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox, no longer a “mini-network” but a major player in the business, and a leader in the creation of reality programming. Nor is the “reality television” phenomenon confined to American broadcast and cable television; many of the most successful US series are copies of foreign “reality” shows, many of them created by Endemol, the Dutch production entity that has successfully marketed its programming to numerous countries across the globe. While the details of each show are distinctly different, the central organizing concept remains the same; you, too, can have a new identity, a new persona, in a matter of days, weeks, or months, just as long as you have the necessary capital to finance such a drastic reconstruction of the self. On Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, an Endemol production, the concept is simple, as detailed on the show’s website: