Kirkus
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A Pulitzer Prize–winning critic chronicles the history of reality TV. In 2003, when New Yorker staff writer Nussbaum, author of I Like To Watch, first pitched her idea to write a book about “a hot new pop-culture genre,” her friend told her that she “‘better write that one fast’….Reality television was a fad, he told me—a bubble that would pop before I could get anything on the page.” Yet, as her entertaining narrative proves, reality programming existed long before 2000—and will continue for years to come. Nussbaum begins her examination with a behind-the-scenes look at reality radio shows such as A.L. Alexander’s Goodwill Court, a predecessor to courtroom dramas like The People’s Court; Candid Microphone, the prank-show forerunner to Candid Camera; and Queen for a Day, which the author describes as “The Bachelor crossed with GoFundMe.” Nussbaum then draws parallels between An American Family, one of the first shows to document a loving relationship between a mother and her gay son, and The Real World, the MTV program that introduced the world to queer Cuban American AIDS activist Pedro Zamora. The author also uncovers a variety of disturbing little-known facts. For example, she reports that the first man featured on Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire? not only barely qualified as a millionaire, but also participated in the show after an ex-fiancee filed a restraining order against him. Nussbaum brings her critical, compassionate, practiced eye to a subject that she infuses with the intensity recognizable to readers of her previous book and her work at the New Yorker. She is adept at drawing connections among pop-culture trends and painting big personalities with a broad stroke—though the text is sometimes overly detailed, which contributes to its prodigious length. A thoughtful and comprehensive history of a TV genre that shows no signs of disappearing. Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.