The impact and efficacy of reality television are closely linked to its function as entertainment medium. Within the subgenres of reality television there are different purposes which each conform to in order to function as separate entities that are successful in and of themselves.

Factual programming, misleadingly also known as factuality, classifies a genre dedicated to informing the audience, most commonly in a classroom type situation. The most notable examples of this format on Australian television include Who Do You Think You Are?, Bondi Rescue and The Family. Programming of this nature is less invested in the drama of social interaction in order to further the narrative, and either presents a straight informative format to the audience, in the case of Who Do You Think You Are?, or allows the naturally occurring action of the situation that they are capturing to function as a narrative, as in the case of The Family and Bondi Rescue. This genre is closely linked to lifestyle television which shares the factual and informative nature of this genre, however lifestyle television does not include real-life occurrences and instead focuses on constructing a presentation of an idea, most popularly television shows in the format of cooking tutorials, such as Ready Steady Cook, Food Safari and Poh’s Kitchen.

Docudrama, the name arising from the purported factual nature of the programming, is the title given to the genre that deals largely with cameras following people as they go about their everyday business, unchanged by filming. Some examples of this subgenre include Brynne Edelsten: My Bedazzled Life, Dance Moms, Here Comes Honey Boo Boo and Keeping Up With The Kardashians. In recent years, this genre has spilled out to include programming that focuses on different industries and occupations, usually chronicling the events occurring in one store, warehouse or workshop. Being such a cheap option and with little preparation required, as the shows consist of documenting an existing scenario and broadcasting the most interesting occurrences, the number of these shows has increased dramatically in the past few years, one of the earliest and most popular examples being the 2004 renovation series Pimp My Ride, however earlier programs loosely fitting this type can be found as early as the mid-nineties, and it can be argued that Antiques Roadshow, which premiered in 1979, also conforms to this type of programming, in documenting real people in unscripted situations. One of the first ‘true’ reality series in this vein is Cops, which premiered in 1989, and conforms to many of the staples of the genre which are less focused on today, including a lack of investigation into the personal circumstances of the participants and a focus on the events that occur which are factually relevant to the subject matter. This genre is rapidly growing, and programs are expanding to include diverse occupations and scenarios accessible to audiences of different ages, races and socio-economic backgrounds, including Gator Boys, Cake Boss, Say Yes To The Dress and Pawn Stars.

The term dramality is often used to classify the genre of television that revolves around putting non-actors in artificial, stylized settings, and the narrative choices surrounding this genre. Heavily geared towards younger viewers, even more so than reality television is already, this subgenre is most easily identifiable by its convention of putting young people in a house together. While this alone, and the resulting actions of the participants can stimulate a narrative enough to sufficiently sustain a series, often this convention is coupled with the subgenre of competitive reality in order to sufficiently pace the series. Some examples of an observational dramality series include Jersey Shore, and The Real Housewives franchise, which has six current US incarnations in production and is being expanded into a Melbourne series, and one of the most notable examples of any reality television format, Big Brother. The merging of this genre with competitive reality leads to a more social experiment-based television series. The adding of a competitive element that the participants can strive towards gives the series a natural story arc, and allows for the opportunity of personal growth for the participants, particularly the series whose competitive element is focused around personal and social growth, giving the participants more caricaturized personalities that make them more easily digestible for the audience. For example, Tool Academy is based around making uncouth men more cultured, well mannered and pleasant, and the participants’ success and failure propels their personal storyline, as well as the direction of the competition. The series focuses on these aspects of their personalities further by giving them names that identify them with their caricatured selves and allow the audience to link their personalities with the development of the storyline and their quest for personal betterment e.g. Lazy Tool, Stoner Tool, Randy Tool etc. The focus on participants’ emotional journey as opposed to the strict progression of the competition’s direction can be seen in series that provide behind-the-scenes footage and extra material with which fans can engage. Television shows like The Bachelor and The Apprentice offer ‘reunion’ episodes in which audiences find out what personal developments occurred after the conclusion of the competition, whereas shows whose competition make up the entirety of the storyline, such as The Amazing Race, either do not produce these, or dedicate theirs to focusing on the more detailed workings of the competition. One can say that this style of reality television program allows producers, and arguably participants as well, to shift focus from personal and social drama to competitive behavior, and vice versa. One example of this focus shifting is found in the series Survivor that places heavy emphasis on social interaction not as a supporting interest in the show, but as a motivation for furthering the competition, particularly in terms of deception and the forming of social and professional alliances. In certain series of this program there have been bonus episodes produced which did not contain any competition-based activities that were vital to understanding the progression of the competition, but instead depicted the social machinations occurring within the social hierarchy of the participants. Not every series has these, but those series with particular emphasis on purely social interactions between the participants, such as series that have led to prominent romantic relationships between major competitors, have had these overview episodes. By allowing the drive of the naturally unfolding narrative to decide the balance of physical competition and social experiences, Survivor is able to harness the key features of multiple differing genres in order to keep audiences engaged in the events of the story.

One of the most prominent examples of an Australian series that utilizes the competitive dramality format is Beauty and the Geek Australia, as the series uses the loose structuring of a competitive reality program to stage the events of the show, however focuses much of the narrative around the social interaction between the participants, and much of the drama and conflict arises from this interaction, rather than the competitive elements of the show.

While there are some overlap in the themes of the programming found in dramality and docudrama, the former focuses far more heavily on the characters within the series and their personal experiences, while docudrama consists largely of documenting the events that occur within a certain area or working towards a common goal. For this reason, dramality is also referred to as ‘special living environment’ television.

Comprising elements of many other reality show subgenres is the competition-based reality series. Focused almost exclusively on the staged challenges that participants must overcome to progress in the competition, these series tend to focus on the participants only inasmuch as it allows the viewer to connect and identify with them, and particularly to give the audience an insight into the justification behind the participants’ success in the competition. For example, The Amazing Race shows the participants articulating aspects of their relationship with their partners before showing events in which this knowledge is critical in understanding. Some common tropes include the participants talking about their greatest fears and why they are so emotional when confronted with them, before leading into the participants having to undertake that challenge themselves.