Reality (sound) bites

Ella Gauci on the journalists blurring the line between contestants and copy

“Simon Cowell told me: What are you doing? Don’t go on it. You’re a journalist – never be the story.”

This was the advice Sharon Marshall received from the X-Factor judge before she appeared on Season 4 of ITV’s weight-loss show Celebrity Fit Club in 2006. Marshall was no stranger to the camera. Having just joined ITV’s This Morning, she went on the show just to lose some weight and stop smoking.

Instead, she was dropped into the middle of a front-page scandal regarding her fellow contestant and journalist, Anne Diamond. On a show that was centred around competing to lose weight, the media quickly accused Diamond of cheating for having a gastric band ftted beforehand. Headlines such as The Mirror’s “TV ANNE IN FIT CLUB QUIT FURY” quickly made their way to all major papers.

Marshall recalls: “At that point, it ruined the whole thing for me. I remember saying to her, “I’m going to have to write this story.” From that point on, I went into journalism mode. I stopped enjoying the show as a participant. [Broadcaster] Carole Malone was on it with me and we just looked at each other and went: this is a big story.”

Across all beloved British reality TV shows, you can almost always fnd a journalist among a hoard of ex-Love Island contestants. Marshall is not the only journalist who has found themselves embroiled in the scandal itself. Journalism by nature is about uncovering stories. What happens when the story is one that not only involves the journalist, but one where they know the public – and their boss – are watching them? Sometimes there is only one option: report on it.

Last year saw the infamous moment where ITV news broadcaster Charlene White confronted Matt Hancock on I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here about his role as Health Secretary. Hancock’s appearance on the show was shrouded in controversy. Ofcom received over 1,100 complaints about his involvement on the show after he was forced to resign over his actions during the pandemic. White knew that the public wanted answers. So she asked the question she knew was on the public’s mind: “Do you regret the way you handled the pandemic as a whole?”

“The second you go into journalism mode and start reporting on everyone there I don’t think you get the full experience or joy of being in it,” Marshall laments. “We viewed it all as copy.” captivated by her emerging friendship with the frontman of the Hip hop trio N-Dubz Dappy who claimed that she was a “sister from another mister”.

Aisha Barrett, story producer for the Channel 4 TV show Coach Trip, strives to fnd moments like these. “Unlikely friendships are awesome. I particularly am a fan of a bad boy/older woman vibe because it’s kind of maternal and usually brings out the guy’s softer side. We always encourage people to talk about their careers or outside lives so they can fnd things in common and bond.” that experience as well. Our living conditions were so hard that I had to get the fre going again.”

Griffths wasn’t the only person who didn’t know what they were getting in for when joining a reality TV show. BBC presenter Gavin Esler had no idea what to expect when he was approached by the BBC to go on Celebrity Masterchef. Esler had never even watched the show before he competed. “I have probably appeared in more reality TV episodes than I’ve actually watched,” he chuckles.

From then on, she treated her interactions on the show like interviews. As Marshall predicted, the media swarmed around the story. Diamond eventually quit Celebrity Fit Club due to objections from other contestants about the unfairness of her surgery. At the time, Marshall felt she was doing her job. Working as a columnist for The Sun as well as being on This Morning, it was instinctive to treat the situation as if she was writing an article.

That being said, bonding is not always on the forefront of contestants’ minds. When former servant of the Royal Household Paul Burrel, famous for revealing behind-thescenes secrets of royal life, went on Season 4 of I’m A Celebrity, it was only a matter of time before he would get interrogated about the Queen. Broadcast legend Janet Street Porter took it upon herself to “open the foodgates” and start the conversation about the Royal Family. Knowing it was the elephant in the room – or the jungle in this case – Porter gave audiences what they really wanted to hear about: what happens inside Buckingham Palace. However, these moments of confict –or at least what we see of them – are not completely organic. When documentary

Throughout his career he presented shows like BBC Two’s Newsnight and the BBC’s News at Five. However, in 2021, Esler dropped politics for parfait when he appeared on the cooking competition.

The BBC presenter had one main concern when he was approached for the show and it wasn’t uncovering a scandal. “I’ve not got a sweet tooth,” he admits. It therefore came as no surprise when it was his attempt at a plum sorbet that eventually got him eliminated. Despite having no idea who any of the other contestants, such as media personality Katie Price or TV presenter Joe Swash, were – “I had never heard of any of them.” – Esler went on to love his Masterchef experience and the comradery in the kitchen.

“We got on very well,” Esler says. “Everytime someone screwed up we all knew that any of us could have done that. But it was very jolly.”

For Marshall, this is the best way to approach going on reality TV. “I think you have to make that decision when you go into it: are you going in as a participant on a reality show or as a journalist who’s there to report on it? If you’re going for the latter you have to realise that you don’t get the full joy of the show.” because no one was manning it that would be a storyline. But then I would have to live

Would they do it again? For Esler, it would have to be something outdoorsy (“Maybe learning to ride an elephant!”). And for Marshall… anything that isn’t ITV’s diving game show Splash (“I just know what my colleagues at the news desk would do with a shot of my bum on the diving board”).

For shows like Big Brother or I’m a Celebrity, which are designed to prompt headlines and scandal, it seems impossible that any journalist could avoid slipping into “journalism mode”. When the front-page story is on your doorstep, it would go against all instincts – journalistic or otherwise – not to follow it. But on shows designed purely for some light-hearted family watching and a bit of fun, it would seem that you can in fact turn off the dictaphone and – in Esler’s case – turn on the hob.