"Next"
I decided to watch the MTV reality show “Next.� This is where a guy or a girl gets set up on dates with five different people. If that individual does not like a certain contestant he/she can “next� that person, send them back on the bus and meet the next person in line. I accessed this through my television, on Tuesday afternoon on MTV.
Kalissa Miller is one of the producers of the show. I am positive that there are a team of producers that work on most of the MTV reality shows that are aired. The target audience is anyone who watches MTV. I think the majority are young viewers, especially young girls. There is a lot of reality shows that are aired on MTV.
I think this show is absolutely ridiculous. It is all about first impressions and looks. The main guy/girl looking for the date bases his/her judgments all on outward appearances. If he/she does not like what they see, they will simply send them back on the bus waiting to meet the next person. It is exactly opposite of the old saying, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.�
The idea that is being sent to the audience is that you better look and be attractive to the dater or else you are a loser. I think this message is very horrible to be sending to the young audience that is viewing shows like this. Life is not all about who finds you attractive and what you look like. In this particular episode, all of the five girls get “next-ed� by this guy. The first three girls last only one minute, because he did not like what they looked like. One of the girls, according to him, had too much junk in the trunk. The fourth girl lasted 30 minutes, but he “next-ed� her because she was not having fun doing the activity that he picked out. The fifth girl lasted 72 minutes, but he “next-ed� her because after the activity he found out that she worked at a tanning salon and did not agree with the whole “fake and bake� idea.
The form had a lot of close-up shots. At first the individuals were shown by introducing themselves to us, the audience. I also noted that in each of their introductions, there was always a sexual connotation that was slipped in. Then when an individual would be rejected by the date, both of them would be talking directly into the camera with some harsh criticism about one another. There were also a lot of over the shoulder shots when the daters were first meeting each other, so we the audience could get a real look at their impressions.
It always seems that in this particular reality show, the heterosexual guys are always looking for that pretty girl with a great body, and anything else gets tossed to the side. So this is reinforcing femininity with young girls because these girls that view this will want to achieve that perfect body because that is what guys supposedly want. The thing I do not understand is how this television show is stilled being aired. It is so far from reality that it is almost funny.