Reality television has been around since the late 1940’s, and has been entertaining families with their unscripted programs ever since. To say that reality television hasn't evolved the entertainment industry over the years would be a fallacious statement, because shows such as Jersey Shore, The Kardashians, MythBusters, Rescue 911, and American Idol are responsible for an increase in television views and ratings, and with these two variables the desired outcomes are achieved. The beneficial changes that are occurring within the entertainment industry due to reality television are numerous. These changes include increase in creativity of scripted writers, introduction of the shaky camera technique in movies, and limited air play for scripted programs.

Firstly, reality television has grown in popularity in recent years, and has been accumulating surmountable amount of revenues. With this rise in popularity, scripted programs writers within the entertainment industry have to put in valuable time and effort in their work to attract more television views. In other words, reality television has forced scripted programs writers to be more creative at their jobs, by forcing them to producing better quality programs.

Reality television has also influenced filmmakers to be more diverse in their art by introducing the shaky camera technique. They do this because they realize people are drawn more to the realism of a show, and making the camera shaky is as real as it gets. Movies such as Chronicle, Cloverfield, and Paranormal Activity all incorporated the shaky camera technique.

Although there are numerous advantages of reality television on the entertainment industry, it would be bias not to mention a shortcoming reality television has on the industry. Due to an increase in demand for reality shows more space and time are occupied by these unscripted programs, causing the scripted ones such as documentaries, sitcoms, and movies to have less air play. Limited air play may results in low monetary income, low monetary income may results in reduced enthusiasm among writers, with little or no enthusiasm among writers, poor quality productions are made, and with poor quality productions, air play will continue to be reduced. However, to break this cycle one needs more air time, and to achieve this, a reduction in some of the mindless reality television programs needs to be done. So to increases profitability a balance needs to be created.

There are mind stimulating and mind deteriorating reality television programs. Nevertheless, the positives of reality television outweigh the negatives. What would this world be without a little realism to entertainment? I would say dull.