Xiaohua: Hello and welcome to RoundTable’s word of the week. 这周我们来谈谈真人秀， reality shows, apparently they’re really popular now.
John: That’s right so we’re gonna be looking a little bit at reality television. Beginning in the 1990s with MTV’s the REAL WORLD, basically putting a bunch of college students together and creating situations that led to conflict and other interesting outcomes.
Xiaohua: 真人秀最早的起源应该是MTV电视台的”真实世界”。So part of what defines the reality show is the word “reality”, meaning that is somehow based on the real world, but is it real?
John: That’s the way they sell it, so by definition reality television is a genre of television programming that basically just records unscripted situations and actual occurrences and in many cases features an unknown cast, usually highlighting personal drama and conflict between the different characters, but as we can see with many reality TV shows especially as they have become more and more popular, in many situations, these supposedly unscripted events do seem to be highly scripted.
Xiaohua: 之所以叫真人秀是因为他声称是百分之百反映显示的电视节目，一般来说都没有剧本，演员呢也相对来说没有名气一些。并且会强调在所谓的真实情景里面的一些戏剧冲突。
John: Right and so what happens a lot is that sometimes we are looking at the what originally was, a spontaneous event or interaction. But producers or directors will stop the cast members and say “ok, that was really good but do it again.” and in some cases also they actually coach the actors or the non-actors (as we’re supposed to believe) in acting the certain situations in a certain way.
Xiaohua: 虽然说是反应真实但是有的时候呢，导演组也会让演员从本来是即兴的表演中停下来然后会教他们怎样表演观众会更爱看一些。其实我觉得真人秀节目之所以会走红是因为他迎合了我们普通人的一些偷窥他人隐私的心理。
John: Yeah I think so and people like to believe that they’re looking at what is a real situation especially when it comes to conflict and drama because it somehow reflects their own experience in their own life. And you know I think the bottom line we’re nothing if not voyeurs especially in the age of television and the internet and schadenfreude, so you know, getting pleasure from other people’s tragedies is very strong in most people as well. So schaenfreude is actually a German word, and literally translated, it means finding happiness in tragedy, in others’ tragedy. And I believed it spelled schadenfreude, so schaenfreude.
Xiaohua: interesting 另外还有一种节目我觉得也可以教真人秀，就是那种 talent shows所谓选秀节目。
John: Yeah I mean talent shows, singing shows but also dating shows as well, usually can be considered as reality TV.
Xiaohua: Anything that will give us an opportunity to look at what we think actually happens in other people’s lives
John: Exactly but you have to remember that reality TV unfortunately is anything but.
Xiaohua: Yes. Ok, and that’s all we have for roundtable’s word of the week.