ABSTRACT
Long before reality TV and the debates that have ensued about the relative value of the fame it produces, television was associated with what Graeme Turner describes as the production of celebrity ‘out of nothing’ (Turner, 2004: 53). As I suggested in the introduction to this book, such an understanding is fostered by the way in which television is perceived to create an ‘identification between persona and role - thus giving the impression that the TV personality is just being “themselves”’ (Bennett and Holmes, 2010: 70). In contradistinction to the film star’s clear demarcation between on-screen roles and off-screen ‘star image’, the televisual image of television personalities begs the question: if television personalities merely present themselves then ‘what do they do’? The positioning of personalities as ‘just-as-they-are’ has largely served to erase any notion of talent, skilled performance or hard work that goes towards the construction of their on-screen persona. Yet, as the quote from Leeman above suggests, ‘being oneself ’ has long been recognised and valued as a performance by the television industry.
