Siegel paints a picture of modern television in America as childish and escapist, and controlled more often than not by capitalist influences that sponsor these shows and use them for profit. Significantly, most of the shows praised by Siegel are on for-pay television stations like HBO. True, with reality TV, there is some rough democracy in the way that celebrity is deglamorized, that everyone with talent can seemingly become a singing idol with enough votes. Reality TV also shows what aspirants to becoming a top model look like without their makeup. But ultimately by rendering inner experience in a superficial way, merely...

Unlike a drama that aspires to show the inner life of a character, reality TV shows only surfaces, but it presents the illusion that it is real, simply because the participants go by their 'real' names. However, the shows are just as scripted, choreographed and carefully lit to create an effect as a manifestly unreal drama or comedy like Dynasty or Seinfeld, which are at least honest enough to openly admit their lack of 'reality.'
Works Cited

Siegel, Lee. "Reality in America." From Telling Stories, pp.173-175.