For the Week of June 5, 2006

Part 2 of 2

The previous edition of Culture Watch explored the historical influence of British television programming on the American medium. This edition documents a new trend on British TV, one which is beginning to be mirrored on programming in America.

British television has recently begun dealing with religious content in a reality TV format. Programs such as Priest Idol, The Heaven & Earth Show, The Manchester Passion and Gay Muslims are being developed in greater numbers by television programmers (called "commissioning editors") in Britain.

"Having pushed the boundaries with food, sex, and sport, it was only a matter of time before producers gave faith the reality treatment as well…It's an approach that appeals to society's obsession with the make-over; instead of plastic surgery and home improvements we're being sold the possibility of spiritual transformation." – British media commentator Sally Turner (London Independent, May 22, 2006)

Such programs bring the standard elements of reality TV to bear on religious – but increasingly desacralized -- ideals. That a religious faith which most Americans take seriously, and which is for many is the center of their lives, can be portrayed in such a fashion bodes ill for American viewers. Hollywood has always exploited America's interest in and love of religion for box-office gain; but from the days of silent film through the era of "religious epics", care was always taken to respect the beliefs of filmgoers. Pictures such as The Ten Commandments, King of Kings and The Greatest Story Ever Told were dignified and reverent in their portrayal of the religious events and beliefs which have shaped the lives of billions of people throughout history.

But in today's Hollywood "creative" circles, calling a series or movie "irreverent" is considered the highest praise. Programs mocking religion are increasingly prevalent, and the idea that using the reality TV format to exploit America's reverence for religion while simultaneously denigrating it would be popular with American television programmers should surprise no one. A negative portrayal of religion in reality TV would only follow the trend already established by the medium's dramatic and comedy programs.

As a sign of Hollywood's disdain for traditional belief and religious practice, increasingly, portrayals of traditional religion are being superseded by those of a supernatural character. This trend reflects and encourages the rise of a vague "spirituality", in which nothing is definitive and traditional religion is repudiated. Popular culture is willing to engage with the more entertaining and mythical expressions of the spiritual realm - angels, ghosts, the undead and magical "forces" - but not with the concepts of God or organized religion, which Hollywood deliberately associates with guilt, corruption and mindless extremism.

Such programming demonstrates above all the unwillingness of American media leaders to explore religious questions. In 1991 All in the Family creator Norman Lear produced Sunday Dinner, a television program which Lear claimed was inspired by his wife's devotion to her faith. It is notable that on a program supposedly endorsing religious practice, not one single character practiced any kind of mainstream religion. Similarly, last year CBS canceled the successful Joan of Arcadia, which portrayed God appearing to the teenaged Joan and confronting her with moral questions, and replaced it with Ghost Whisperer, a program about a spiritualist medium who talks to ghosts. CBS president Les Moonves claimed that the switch was caused by a desire to attract younger viewers and defended the move with the statement, "Ghosts skew younger than God." Such trends are amply reflected in British programming; the BBC and Channel 4 have produced a program pointedly titled Spirituality Shopper.

Similarly, the recent British reality series The Monastery, in which young men live a monastic life for a short period and attempt to adhere to a religious community's rule of life, played up personality clashes between two of the participants. Its sequel, The Convent, follows four women from different walks of life as they clash with one another while spending six weeks with a closed community of nuns. The similarity to the recent A&E program God Or the Girl, which examined four young men as they struggled with a decision to enter the Catholic priesthood, is striking – and disturbing.

Whether programming making religious belief a centerpiece of reality TV exploitation will become the next trend in American television is as yet unknown; but the medium's track record on both reality programming like Fear Factor and Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire, and on the mockery of religion from programs such as Fox's The Family Guy and ABC's Boston Legal to the twisted portrayal of Mormonism on HBO's new series Big Love, is ominous and does not encourage optimism. Most disturbing of all is the possibility that this new genre of "religious reality TV" will, in its desire to spark controversy in the name of "character conflict," actually end up encouraging racism and religious bigotry.

"Watching ordinary people attempt to cope in extraordinary circumstances is the mainstay of reality TV, but other devices that work in an entertainment context - volatile ‘contestants', conflict, and humiliation - are potential pitfalls where religion is concerned…Place an outspoken group of Muslims, Jews, Hindus and evangelical Christians in a reality format and a Big Brother-style meltdown quickly becomes incitement to religious hatred." – British media commentator Sally Turner (London Independent, May 22, 2006)

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