Reality TV pioneer on how unscripted shows bring diversity to mainstream
Diversity was a hot topic this year at the Banff World Media Festival.
From the oppressed women in the dystopian series The Handmaid’s Tale, to the race and class conflicts of John Ridley’s American Crime, to the working moms of Workin’ Moms, there were recurring discussions about how to tell stories from people who don’t often have a voice on mainstream television.
But the actual Diversity Award went to Jonathan Murray and his company, Bunim-Murray Productions, pioneers in the world of unscripted television and, as it turns out, diverse casting.
Ostensibly, the award was for A&E’s unexpected hit, Born This Way, an unscripted program that follows the lives of a group of seven young-adult friends with Down syndrome.
But Murray says diversity has been a driving force in his company since its first hit 25 years ago, MTV’s The Real World.
“In that first season there was a gay person, there was a really articulate black guy from Harlem, there was black woman — a rapper from Jersey City — there was a young woman from Birmingham, Alabama,” says Murray, in an interview at the Banff World Media Festival. “Out of that diversity came some conflict and out of that conflict came growth and that was the story arc for each season of the Real World. What we really discovered is that there were a lot of stories that weren’t being told in television.”
The format of Real World — including the personality and romantic conflicts and those fun catty asides from cast members — has become so ubiquitous in the past 25 years that it’s easy to forget how pioneering it was as a television template.
But beyond the format, Murray says the show also had an immediate impact on the sorts of people who were being shown in TV.
“When Survivor and Big Brother came along in 2000, both of those shows focused on diversity in its casting,” Murray says.
“That first season of Survivor in the U.S., the guy who won all the money was a gay, Machiavellian guy named Richard Hatch. Nobody at CBS would have written a scripted series with a gay, Machiavellian hero in it. The fact that they cast him allowed you to go into that world and tell that story. I think Real World in some ways set the standard for reality TV in terms of how we approach casting and the richness that you can get in story from being diverse in your casting.”
Fast forward a quarter century and Bunim- Murray are again breaking boundaries in the genre it helped create by tapping into a community whose stories were not being told on prime-time television.
But it didn’t take long for Murray to realize that while the voices of his show’s principals — not only the seven young adults with Down syndrome but also their parents — were singular, the stories themselves were universal.
“There are unique challenges for someone with Down syndrome,” Murray says. “But their dreams are no different that the rest of us. The coming-of-age stories that we’re telling are completely identifiable to the rest of us. The parents, who have done such a good job of raising their now adult children to be independent, are now struggling to let go. That’s relatable to anybody watching the show who is a parent.”
Viewers obviously agree. Now in the middle of its third season, the lives, loves, career aspirations and desire for independence of these seven characters has been embraced by the public.
It debuted in 2015 to modest ratings. Over the course of that season and the next, viewership rose steadily.
It was also bringing A& E new viewers. Forty per cent of the show’s audience had never watched the network before.
In Season 2, Born this Way won an Emmy for best unstructured reality show, which was quickly followed by a third- season renewal.
“Again, we are picking up audience each week, which is exciting to see,” Murray says.
“So, it’s been a great journey. I’m not sure where it’s going to end, but we’re really enjoying telling the stories.”
When Survivor and Big Brother came along
... both of those shows focused on diversity in its casting.