2024-08-22
8 分钟The Economist Hello, I'm Rosie Blore.
I host The Intelligence, our daily news and current affairs podcast.
Welcome to Editor's Picks.
Here's an article we've chosen from the latest edition of The Economist.
In New Zealand,
a contestant on Race to Survive has been disqualified for killing and eating a weka,
an endangered flightless bird.
In Britain,
a performer on Strictly Come Dancing has left the show after kicking his on-air partner.
In America,
the makers of The Real Housewives of New York City are being sued by a housewife who says producers got her drunk to make for better television.
Few genres of entertainment cause as much outrage as reality television,
a format dismissed by its detractors as a form of dirty documentary.
Critics have decried reality shows as human zoos ever
since they made their raucous debut on the radio in the 1940s with prank shows such as Candid Microphone,
a forerunner to the better-known Candid Camera.
People always like to see other people fed to the lions,
admitted Chuck Barris, a reality TV pioneer.
It's reassuring to find there is somebody unhappier than you are.
Yet by digging through decades of trash TV, Emily Nussbaum,