The allure of ratings is too great for even CNN to pass on. Adweek reports that CNN has picked up a Morgan Spurlock series, Inside Man.
Spurlock’s work teeters between documentary and reality TV, and leans more toward the latter, IMO. If you take a look at his Hulu series, A Day in the Life, you’ll notice that it’s highly produced, thereby nudging it more towards reality TV than true documentary. While I am a fan of some of his work, I take issue with a few of his comments in this article:
“The idea of doing very engaging nonfiction programming is smart; this is a network like a lot of other 24-hour networks who’ve realized that you run out of news,” he opined…Spurlock balks at the word “reality.” “We make very straight, deliverable, nonfiction programming,” he said.
Really? You run out of news? I find that hard to believe. What is more likely is that CNN is making the slow but steady march towards news-tainment. (Ironically, this is a subject that is explored in depth in the fictional and hotly debated HBO series, The Newsroom). I also take issue with Spurlock’s insistence that he makes “straight” programming, but that’s a whole other issue.
Does reality TV belong on a 24 hour news network? It’s arguable. It will be interesting to see the ratings, and see if other news networks follow suit.
sohinidas.wordpress.com 