Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie star in The Simple Life where they spent one month working manual jobs in rural Arkansas. Reality TV obsessively focuses on labor and work, often redefining work as competition, with Project Runway celebrating a meritocratic work ethic and The Simple Life representing an abandoned work ethic. Reality TV has no writers and produces are known to piece together contestant interviews out of context to fit a narrative.

1. Making It Work on The Simple Life and Project
Runway
Jocelyn Pimental
&
Justin Ernst

2.  The series portrays two wealthy socialites,
Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie
 The two struggle to do manual, low-paying jobs
 cleaning rooms, farm work, serving meals in fast-food
restaurants and working as camp counselors
 Spent one month in rural Arkansas (S1,E1)
 Ledings; humble, hard-working farm family
 Nicole & Paris ignored their chores, French kiss
the local boys, and assemble slutty outfits
 The Simple Life offers a Simple Moral:
 Rich people are stupid (yet sexy), while working-
class people are saints (but fat).

4.  Reality TV is a genre that is obsessively focused
on labor
 Example:
 The Apprentice, participants construct business
strategies, and are asked to pound the pavement and
do “grunt” work.
 The self-production on the program; contestants put
together special outfits to catch Trump’s eye.
On most programs the “work” demanded is not
the kind of thing one would normally be paid
for.

6.  In real life…
 Your job involves plugging information into a data
base, balancing ledgers, etc.
 On TV, your job is to…
 Cheat on your girlfriend, pretend to be a
millionaire, room with fellow washed-up celebrities.
 Though participants‟ goals may be stated as
“finding true love” or “resolving emotional
issues”
 The vast majority of reality TV focuses in some way
on work.
 Often the work is redefined as “competition”

7.  In regular jobs, the people who work the hardest
do not necessarily advance.
But…
 If you do your job on TV, your effort is often
rewarded
 Win a million dollars, Chapstick contract, or the
chance to be on other reality TV shows
 Reality TV is one of the few places where you
can do hard physical labor for big bucks – If you
win, that is.

8.  Project Runway celebrates a meritocratic work
ethic
 Creates an illusion of the “American Dream” in
action, as we watch talented people move ahead on
the basis of their achievement.
 The Simple Life represents an abandoned work
ethic
 Rich girls who seem continuously incapable of work.
 Presents viewers with a static world: Rich people stay
rich, and poor people stay poor.
 However, it offers a more “realistic” lesson about
work and class in America.

9.  Aspiring fashion designers competing to win $100,000 to
start their own fashion line.
 Each episode designers are given a new challenge with
only a short time to meet it.
 Each challenge has a winner & loser
 The loser is eliminated from the program, until only three
finalists remain.
 The finalists compete at a run-way show during New York
City‟s annual Fashion Week.
 Good work is consistently rewarded, and bad work is
punished.

11.  Project Runway may reward virtue,
But…
 The program relentlessly abuses its unpaid
employee-contestants
 Budgets for material are small.
 The time for shopping, designing and creating new
fashion is VERY short.
 Produces continually push contestants to the breaking
point.
“Creative expression becomes its own reward…”
– McRobbie

12.  Reality TV has no writers
 Videographers shoot endlessly
 Editors collaborate with “story producers” or
“story editors”
 Creating dramatic tension, sound effects, voice-overs, or
music.
 „Frankenbites‟: Story editors switch around contestant
sound bites recorded at different times and piece them
together to create what appears to be a seamless
narrative.

13.  Reality TV workers:
 Lower salary than guild members
 No health care
 No pension
 12-18 hour work day
 Writers tolerate these conditions because reality TV is
seen as a stepping stone to better gigs.
 Over-worked
 No writing credit for their work
 Since no producer wants his show to be tainted by a
credit acknowledging that stories are often scripted.

14. 1. What two celebrities star in The Simple Life?
2. What state did the two celebrities relocate to during
season 1, episode 1?
3. How long did the two celebrities stay in the state for?
4. Reality TV is a genre that is obsessively focused on
________.
5. The vast majority of reality TV focuses in some way on
________.
6. ________ _______ celebrates a meritocratic work ethic.
7. ___ _____ _______ represents an abandoned work ethic.
8. Reality TV has no _______.
9. What is it called when story editors switch around
contestant sound bites recorded at different times and
piece them together to create what appears to be a
seamless narrative?
10. How many hours a day do writers work?