CBS canceled Hugh
Jackman’s musical television series, Viva Laughlin, today.  After only two outings.  Ouch.

But that’s not what’s interesting to me (I mean, did anyone think the
show would work?  It reeked of mid-season cancellation).
What interested me was what was taking its time slot:  The
Amazing Race.  
Hold on a second.  I’m not going where you think I’m going. 

Everyone knocks
Reality Television.  But why?  Everyone loves Web 2.0., don’t they?

Reality
television is the ultimate form of User Generated
Content . . . just on
television instead of the web.  It’s TV 2.0.
One
could argue that the birth of Reality TV in the US (with Survivor in 2000) is what
spawned the User Generated Content movement which began in 2005.
American Idol is Users singing
and Users voting.  Like EBay, the show just provides the opportunity and
the platform for the two sets of Users to meet each other and interact.
And then it gets out of the way.  It’s television social networking.
So
don’t knock Reality TV.  There’s a connection between these two forms of
media and entertainment.   If you love one, you gotta love the other. 
Now
how does theatre, the eternal late-adopter, fit into this UGC movement?  
We
have a lot to learn from the audience that would rather watch The Amazing Race over a
multi-million dollar slickly-produced show like Viva.