Great piece on the origin story of 'structured reality', the genre born of budget constraints that has come to reshape the TV landscape. https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2024/sep/16/laguna-beach-reality-television-towie-made-in-chelsea?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
‘The parents asked if we were going to show them having sex’: how Laguna Beach started a reality TV revolution | Reality TV | The Guardian
Two decades ago, MTV executives threw out the script and trained the camera on a bunch of California high-schoolers. ‘Structured reality’ was born, and television hasn’t been the same since
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Becs Hall
Expert Contributor
@DV Talent I worked on MTV / Lime Pictures first attempt at structured reality before the success of TOWIE. A series called 'Living on The Edge' about a group of teens living in Cheshire. It was quite the learning curve!