US and its role in the explosion of Reality TV

I am often asked why the US were so successful in developing Branded content and reality shows?

Well for me they were in the right place at the right time and had all the infrastructure in place with the film industry etc to swoop on the forerunners of the new wave (Big Brother etc) and generate Hollywood-quality productions straight off the bat (ok Big Brother originated in Europe but the genre soon transported to the big production houses in the US...)

The continued success was then fuelled by a combination of:

- Highly original concepts with compelling human stories
- A-list hosts
- Hot/interesting casts...
- ...who created authentic DRAMA
- The advent of digital helped the explosion of interest/penetration with 3-screen content
- Viewers' new-found thirst for celebrity gossip

In other words, I don't think it was rocket science. All the pieces were in place; technology became the accelerant (to quote CSI!), then it needed a bunch of creative producers like John de Mol, Mark Burnett, Simon Cowell etc to light the touchpaper.