While evidently each reality television series must have some sort of discernible storyline to function as a cohesive narrative, many competitive reality series are able to consist as a series in themselves, merely by documenting the series of events that are occurring during the time period of filming. However, in part due to the behavior of the participants, producers of such shows are also required to create a storyline where perhaps one would be less discernible. In analyzing differing subgenres of reality television and their level of use of influence on artificial narrative construction through the series The Amazing Race Australia and Beauty and the Geek Australia one can tell more about the narrative direction and the tropes that the series creators wish to perpetuate or challenge.

Casting

In casting for the reality series The Amazing Race Australia, creators focused on the existing relationships between the participants as a way of focusing the narrative. For one pair of competitors, the focus was heavily put upon the dynamic between the duo, how this relationship was put under pressure in circumstances and how it functioned well and poorly, and this seemed to be a similar focus for much of the casting process for the teams who were selected to compete. Much of the questioning also related to challenges, both personal and professional, life experiences, and the mental approach that the applicants felt that they would reveal in certain situations. Indeed, throughout much of the casting process there was little focus on much of a personal aspect, only inasmuch as it related to the running of the actual race and the involvement with their partner. In conversation with one participant (Elleissy 2013) it was said that the casting did not lead the applicants towards any particular conclusions relating to themselves, and in particular it felt as though if someone was especially attempting to make himself more interesting in order to be selected “it would be hard to give the right answer” in order to fit any selection criteria.

In contrast, the casting of Beauty and the Geek Australia focused heavily on the stereotypes of the roles. In an interview it was revealed that the casting directors focused heavily on portions of the applicants’ personalities that fit best the archtypes that they were attempting to fill, “They were more interested in finding someone who outwardly fit that geeky stereotype than someone who was more […] inwardly nerdy” (Hogan 2013). In previous seasons, Beauty and the Geek Australia has hosted a range of ‘geeks’ to whom they assign descriptions to help the audience easily identify them. While they are sometimes based on the occupations of the participants, which are usually occupations which would be perceived as quite intelligent, such as aerospace engineers, sometimes the description functions more to focus on the intelligent or socially reclusive aspect of that person’s personality, rather than being more descriptive in a general sense. In relation to these descriptions, the interview revealed that casting directors were eager to find out how each person was able to classify himself as a particularly ‘geeky’ person, in that they would focus more on one aspect of interest in the person, in this case, live action role-playing, “they would ask me, did you like LARPing? Was it something you’d do again?” Indeed, suggestions were made to the applicants about how they might conform to criteria fitting of the program, “They said, ‘Tell us about something you’ve invented, surely you’ve invented something.’ So I sat there racking my brains, trying to come up with something.” From this anecdotal evidence, it can be assumed that the level of focus on personality and criteria-based application is higher in a show such as Beauty and the Geek that is strongly geared towards depicting the participants in a certain light and having stereotypes that they fulfill.

Production

Throughout production, changes can be made to the course of action unfolding in order to make the narrative follow a certain course that may be of more interest to the viewer, or may conform more closely to the dictates of the show being produced. In an interview, one Muslim competitor stated that the producers of The Amazing Race Australia would “call up the camera guys […] [and] tell them to remind us to pray” (Elleissy 2013), however other than informal instruction of behavior to the crew members on location at the time, there was expressed the view that in the production there was little narrative interruption, and indeed the interviewee stated, “Nothing, they don’t do anything to change the race once it’s running” and in much of the press released by the producers of the original US version, it is stated that it is explicitly against the rules of the series to alter in any way the course of the series.

Promotion

During the promotion of The Amazing Race Australia, there was an advertisement that claimed that two Muslim racers on the program would stop and pray during their racing period, and implied that this would affect their performance during the race. However, during the race they “did not pray once” (Elleissy 2013). Similarly, during promotions for the program it was implied that the faiths of the two racers would be impacted greatly by the challenges presented on the race and vice versa. In fact, not once during the presentation of the series was there any impact upon the team’s success in the race by their faith presented in any depth. While not explicitly stated in the advertisement as such, the implication that their faith would impact the actions of the contestants in a negative way was heavily implied with the question that headlined the advertisement on television and print media, “How will this affect the race?”

In a parallel manner, much of the advertising promoting the premier series of Beauty and the Geek Australia revolved around pre-conceived notions of the contestants, and included slogans which were presented in such a way as to suggest, but not state explicitly, elements of the contestants that were not specifically true. These included television commercials that saw slogans imposed over the faces of the contestants stating, for example, “Never been kissed?” and “Do you know more about geometry or girls?”

Throughout production of Australian reality television, there is a manner of communicating which suggests a concept familiar to Australian audience that may induce them to carry a pre-conceived idea of the events of particularly participants during the proceedings. This manner of casting, creating and presenting the series, while not being as overtly manipulative as one might expect from popular opinion of reality television, does suggest some level of construction of if not a narrative, then a creation of caricatures which make the participants more easily digestible for a broad audience.

Elleissy, M 2013, pers. comm., 18 May

Hogan, N 2013, pers. comm., 27 April