News 2020

Making the present look like paradise

Millions of working hours were lost yesterday as British television's first experiment in meta-reality TV reached its first major climax. It is estimated that up to 25 million people found themselves unable to tear their eyes away from their television screens and risk missing the pivotal moment when a near-fatal quarrel broke out among the show's volunteer real-life protagonists over which reality-TV programme to watch.

In the event, no actual injuries were sustained, and the argument was resolved by the entry of the one person in the house who is able to programme a DVD recorder. As a result, most of the show's viewers managed to get in to work this morning.

The show, Living Room Live, while achieving what its producer calls "an almost Buddhistic simplicity of conception", has cost the nation about £33 billion in lost revenue thanks to its addictive effect on its viewers.

Meta-reality TV, which commentators have dubbed "the new reality TV", presents its watchers with a view of an ordinary living room in an ordinary British home, whose occupants are carefully selected for whiteness, marriedness, presence of dual biological offspring, and other indicators of acceptable averageness. These volunteers are paid an hourly rate according to the time they spend in their living room, under the camera's gaze, watching reality TV programmes.

This means that, in addition to the unprecedented thrill of watching reality TV on a television set which is part of the picture on their own television set, viewers can enjoy the sophisticated excitement of watching the genuine, unfeigned reactions of others to the reality TV on view.

Further shows along similar lines are planned for the new season, including meta-game shows, in which viewers will be able to watch people watching game shows, and meta-soaps, in which viewers will be able to watch people watching soaps, said producer Vivian Prong-Mandelbrot today. "It should take those break-time conversations about last night's television to a completely new level," she added.

"The reaction to the show has been really phenomenal," Ms Prong-Mandelbrot said. "I think it's giving people a whole new perspective on the potentialities of television in the twenty-first century. That's not to say we encourage people to miss going to work every time it starts to look exciting, but it does show the market is out there for this stuff, and that's what matters in the end."