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The idea of reality television as entertainment is nothing new. It was first introduced in 1948 when Allen Funt introduced the world to Candid Camera, a television show based on putting ordinary people into extraordinary, oftentimes funny situations. The show centered around watching the unwitting participants and their reactions to the pranks played on them. In the decades that followed, while the premise of the hundreds of reality shows that have been on the airwaves covers a wide spectrum of situations, the premise still remains the same, watching everyday people in extraordinary situations. The key element being they were unscripted reactions, that was what the audience was after.

In the years that followed the reality television world began to change. The audience didn't want just pranks being played, they wanted a glimpse behind closed doors, what people do and say when no one is looking. The docu-drama was born. In the 1960s both Britain and American television provided documentary-style television shows giving the at home viewer an inside look at everyday families, their troubles and their divorces. The audience loved the voyeuristic position they were put in and were left wanting more.

As the 1970's gave way to the 80s and 90s, the feel of the docudrama took a more serious turn, and COPS was born. Viewers were given a ride along view of what police officers do, the arrests they make, the danger they put themselves into each day. Each show would stay with a specific department, usually in a well known city for the duration of each episode. While at first the show focused more on the dangerous element, as time passed and the audience made its voice known, there was more focus on the show on the "entertaining" situations, the drunks who stumble through the sobriety test and the argumentative hysterics of the uneducated. There were still viewers who enjoyed the thrill of the chase, and a new breed of show was born, the clip show. A half hour or hour compiled entirely of clips of car chases and usually crashes, sent in from police departments world wide.

The 1990s also brought us a new situational style reality television show, M-tv produced, Real World. A docudrama style show where people are placed in a house and their lives are taped and broadcast. The difference in this and the previous shows from the 1960s and 1970s is that the people in the house are strangers to each other. With a wide range of personalities and backgrounds, conflict was bound

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