What Does Reality TV Say About Gay Men?

The A-List: New York's Reichen Lehmkuhl

In our parent company Logo's new reality show The A-List: New York, a “docu-soap” about the lives and loves of six social-climbing gay men, there’s a scene where Reichen Lehmkuhl is about to have sex with his boyfriend in a hot tub.

“Oops,” says the boyfriend, Brazilian model Rodiney Santiago, as he slips his swimsuit off.

But just as things are really steaming up, Reichen’s cellphone rings. When he climbs out of the tub to answer it, it turns out it’s Austin Armacost, one of the other A-List-ers – the guy that the show has clearly telegraphed is going to try to come between Reichen and Rodiney over the course of the season.

Austin tells Reichen he wants them to go out to dinner, even as Rodiney sits stewing in the hot tub.

The A-List: New York's Rodiney Santiago

Is there any possibility that this sequence of events wasn’t completely staged? Even apart from the amazing timing of Austin calling at the exact moment when it would have the most dramatic impact, what are the odds that Reichen and Rodiney were going to have hot tub sex in full view of an entire reality show film crew?

In other words: news flash! Reality shows aren’t “real.” All of them are heavily edited, and many of them further stage and semi-script the events they “document.” With the rise of “personal drama” shows like The Real Housewives of New York – the producers of which are also producing The A-List – the staging and semi-scripting is becoming even more pronounced.

On some level, we all know all this – and we don’t really care. We don’t watch reality TV because it all absolutely really happened: we watch it – or not – because it’s entertaining. On some level, the fact that it purports to be “real” simply adds to the appeal – whether it makes it seem more spontaneous, or it merely satisfies our natural curiosity as voyeurs.

But when it comes to gay and bisexual men on reality TV, there’s an additional question: how do the participants come across to the audience?

When it comes to reality shows about straight people, this doesn’t really matter: no one gets their impressions of straight people from TV (although they might very well get their impressions about people from New Jersey that way!)

But even today, most people do form their attitudes about gay people, at least in part, from the media images portraying us.

So it’s worth asking: what is reality TV saying about gay and bisexual men?

How “Real” is Reality TV Anyway?

Most of us like to watch.

From the old Candid Camera “hidden camera” comedy show, to the 12-part 1973 PBS documentary An American Family, to MTV’s The Real World, which debuted in 1992, television viewers have long been fascinated by the idea of watching actual people in “real” situations.

“People are interested in other people’s lives,” says Andy Dehnart, the editor of RealityBlurred.com, a website devoted to reality TV. “And rather than standing at the window and peering inside, we now sit in our living rooms and watch other people. There’s an incredible attraction to that.”