In “Cue the Sun,” a title derived from a line in Peter Weir’s darkly prescient 1998 film “The Truman Show,” Emily Nussbaum, who received a Pulitzer Prize in 2016 for her work as The New Yorker’s TV critic television critic, takes a deep dive into the genesis and maturation of reality television. Nussbaum posits that reality programming and the moral outrage that it engenders began more than seven decades ago in the age of radio when disc jockeys began taking phone calls from listeners. The talk radio fad would jump to television in the late 1940s, with shows such as “Queen for a Day,” launching the game show, and “Candid Camera,” the prank show. Chuck Barris followed with “The Dating Game,” “The Newlywed Game,” and “The Gong Show.”
Nussbaum recycles some well-known trivia, such as Barris’s claim that he worked as an assassin for the CIA, but she also unearths a plethora of new gossip from the hosts, the producers, the employees, and the cast members themselves. She also places the reality shows in the context of the biggest news stories of the time. “An American Family,” the first real-life soap opera, filmed during the chaos wrought by Vietnam, the Manson murders drugs, sex and radical politics, chronicled the foibles of an affluent California family of seven with an openly gay son. Nussbaum describes how Nora Ephron panned the show in “New York” magazine, expressing particular revulsion for the matriarch Pat Loud for “letting it-all-hang out candor” about her husband’s affairs and their impending divorce. Ironically, Ephron would later marry Carl Bernstein who cheated on her while she was pregnant, and Ephron would write “Heartburn,” a score-settling best seller. “‘Heartburn’ would be attacked by critics for the same crime she’d dunned Pat for — sprinting her public divorce into a personal brand.”
No respectable book about reality television would be complete without an analysis of “Survivor,” “The Apprentice,” and “The Bachelor.” With respect to the latter, Nussbaum reveals how contestants imbibed on alcohol because it was readily available and “there was nothing else for them to do: no books, no magazines, no TV.” Female contestants who were unstable and pretty were “gold.” Producers would befriend the contestants, and deploy the private information that they had gleaned (eating disorders) to create emotional scenes and, if they were unsuccessful in generating drama, skillful editing would make a contestant look deranged.
Because Nussbaum drew on hundred of interviews with sources, her book has the gravitas of serious scholarship although she is investigating a guilty pleasure. It is a juicy (and unsettling) read for fans of reality television and popular culture. Thank you Random House and Net Galley for this enlightening read.
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Cue the Sun!: The Invention of Reality TV Hardcover – June 25, 2024
by
Emily Nussbaum
(Author)
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The rollicking saga of reality television, an ambitious cultural history of America’s most influential, most divisive artistic phenomenon, from the Pulitzer Prize–winning New Yorker writer—“a must-read for anyone interested in television or popular culture” (NPR)
“Passionate, exquisitely told . . . With muscular prose and an exacting eye for detail . . . [Nussbaum] knits her talents for sharp analysis and telling reportage well.”—The New York Times
Who invented reality television, the world’s most dangerous pop-culture genre? And why can’t we look away? In this revelatory, deeply reported account of the rise of “dirty documentary”—from its contentious roots in radio to the ascent of Donald Trump—Emily Nussbaum unearths the origin story of the genre that ate the world, as told through the lively voices of the people who built it. At once gimlet-eyed and empathetic, Cue the Sun! explores the morally charged, funny, and sometimes tragic consequences of the hunt for something real inside something fake.
In sharp, absorbing prose, Nussbaum traces the jagged fuses of experimentation that exploded with Survivor at the turn of the millennium. She introduces the genre’s trickster pioneers, from the icy Allen Funt to the shambolic Chuck Barris; Cops auteur John Langley; cynical Bachelor ringmaster Mike Fleiss; and Jon Murray and Mary-Ellis Bunim, the visionaries behind The Real World—along with dozens of stars from An American Family, The Real World, Big Brother, Survivor, and The Bachelor. We learn about the tools of the trade—like the Frankenbite, a deceptive editor’s best friend—and ugly tales of exploitation. But Cue the Sun! also celebrates reality’s peculiar power: a jolt of emotion that could never have come from a script.
What happened to the first reality stars, the Louds—and why won’t they speak to the couple who filmed them? Which serial killer won on The Dating Game? Nussbaum explores reality TV as a strike-breaker, the queer roots of Bravo, the dark truth behind The Apprentice, and more. A shrewd observer who adores television, Nussbaum is the ideal voice for the first substantive history of the genre that, for better or worse, made America what it is today.
“Passionate, exquisitely told . . . With muscular prose and an exacting eye for detail . . . [Nussbaum] knits her talents for sharp analysis and telling reportage well.”—The New York Times
Who invented reality television, the world’s most dangerous pop-culture genre? And why can’t we look away? In this revelatory, deeply reported account of the rise of “dirty documentary”—from its contentious roots in radio to the ascent of Donald Trump—Emily Nussbaum unearths the origin story of the genre that ate the world, as told through the lively voices of the people who built it. At once gimlet-eyed and empathetic, Cue the Sun! explores the morally charged, funny, and sometimes tragic consequences of the hunt for something real inside something fake.
In sharp, absorbing prose, Nussbaum traces the jagged fuses of experimentation that exploded with Survivor at the turn of the millennium. She introduces the genre’s trickster pioneers, from the icy Allen Funt to the shambolic Chuck Barris; Cops auteur John Langley; cynical Bachelor ringmaster Mike Fleiss; and Jon Murray and Mary-Ellis Bunim, the visionaries behind The Real World—along with dozens of stars from An American Family, The Real World, Big Brother, Survivor, and The Bachelor. We learn about the tools of the trade—like the Frankenbite, a deceptive editor’s best friend—and ugly tales of exploitation. But Cue the Sun! also celebrates reality’s peculiar power: a jolt of emotion that could never have come from a script.
What happened to the first reality stars, the Louds—and why won’t they speak to the couple who filmed them? Which serial killer won on The Dating Game? Nussbaum explores reality TV as a strike-breaker, the queer roots of Bravo, the dark truth behind The Apprentice, and more. A shrewd observer who adores television, Nussbaum is the ideal voice for the first substantive history of the genre that, for better or worse, made America what it is today.
- Print length464 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherRandom House
- Publication dateJune 25, 2024
- Dimensions6.38 x 1.46 x 9.52 inches
- ISBN-100525508996
- ISBN-13978-0525508991
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Reviewed in the United States on June 25, 2024
Reviewed in the United States on June 30, 2024
I LOVE LOVE LOVE reality shows, from Survivor to the tacky-tacky Below Deck. The idea of reading Pulitzer Prize–winning New Yorker writer Emily Nussbaum's trestice was something I could not pass up!
Nussbaum is able to pull off an amazing feat - she provides the long history of Reality Tv, including the lore we have heard, the facts that we have not and all of the experimentation that lead to what millions watch today.
Nussbaum covers the heroes of the genre including Allen Funt and Chuck Barris, John Langley as well as more well known Mike Fleiss,Jon Murray and Mary-Ellis Bunim. She also discusses the early stories including An American Family, The Real World, Big Brother, Survivor, and The Bachelor - all which are the elders of what we watch today! She is always bracingly honest but treats the genre with the seriousness it deserves - we all know plenty of people who love to watch. This is a honest and enjoyable history of my favorite genre and what is has wrought on our society (see The Apprentice). Highly Recommended!
Nussbaum is able to pull off an amazing feat - she provides the long history of Reality Tv, including the lore we have heard, the facts that we have not and all of the experimentation that lead to what millions watch today.
Nussbaum covers the heroes of the genre including Allen Funt and Chuck Barris, John Langley as well as more well known Mike Fleiss,Jon Murray and Mary-Ellis Bunim. She also discusses the early stories including An American Family, The Real World, Big Brother, Survivor, and The Bachelor - all which are the elders of what we watch today! She is always bracingly honest but treats the genre with the seriousness it deserves - we all know plenty of people who love to watch. This is a honest and enjoyable history of my favorite genre and what is has wrought on our society (see The Apprentice). Highly Recommended!
Reviewed in the United States on June 27, 2024
If you, like myself, grew up in the 90s and early aughts, reality tv has been playing in the background on that chunky box of a television our entire lives. It’s the tv genre everyone loves to hate and hates to love.
In Cue the Sun! The Invention of Reality TV by Emily Nussbaum, we are walked through the history of reality television, from the Newlywed Game all the way to The Real Housewives of whatever city is currently on.
Throughout the book, Nussbaum dives into some of our most iconic reality shows chronologically to demonstrate not only how the genre came to be, but how each show shaped the future of television. (All while being the black sheep of the TV world.)
For myself, someone who has loved reality tv their whole life while also complaining about it (keeping up the kardashians irks me) this book is everything. Not only is Cue the Sun! packed with information, it’s told like a tell all full of industry gossip. Not only did I gobble this up, I found myself down memory lane watching old favorites like The Real World and Big Brother. Say what you will about reality tv, but it’s definitely a cultural time capsule that is readily available to everyone everywhere. It deserves its time in the sun, and luckily for us, Emily Nussbaum shined a light on it for us!
In Cue the Sun! The Invention of Reality TV by Emily Nussbaum, we are walked through the history of reality television, from the Newlywed Game all the way to The Real Housewives of whatever city is currently on.
Throughout the book, Nussbaum dives into some of our most iconic reality shows chronologically to demonstrate not only how the genre came to be, but how each show shaped the future of television. (All while being the black sheep of the TV world.)
For myself, someone who has loved reality tv their whole life while also complaining about it (keeping up the kardashians irks me) this book is everything. Not only is Cue the Sun! packed with information, it’s told like a tell all full of industry gossip. Not only did I gobble this up, I found myself down memory lane watching old favorites like The Real World and Big Brother. Say what you will about reality tv, but it’s definitely a cultural time capsule that is readily available to everyone everywhere. It deserves its time in the sun, and luckily for us, Emily Nussbaum shined a light on it for us!
Reviewed in the United States on June 30, 2024
This is where I admit my (apparent) overwhelming existing knowledge of reality TV. I had no idea. CUE THE SUN was immediately interesting to me because reality TV has often seemed just…what?…a complete black box to me. The more I watched, the less I understood. I would ‘check in’ on each new iteration of it, expecting to have some glimmer of understanding, but no, that didn’t arrive. Emily Nussbaum’s explanation of the origin and growth of the industry does explain how it developed and to what purpose. I learned more about the peculiarities of the background players than I perhaps needed to know. But, this is an interesting deep dive into a topic on which most people hide their knowledge or their viewing habits. I received my copy from the publisher through NetGalley.