ABSTRACT
In a blistering and hilarious essay about reality TV’s relationship with celebrity, Jeffrey Sconce advocates the “almost unlimited potential and positive social utility” of the genre. He argues that reality competition series like American Idol theatricalize the “burnout trajectory of celebrity” into a condensed season of fleeting notoriety. 1 Reality TV programs market a rhetoric of aspiration that Pramaggiore and Negra contend forges “common ground with an audience that longs to believe in the class-mobility narrative that neoliberalism has made practically obsolete.” 2 Reality TV hopefuls may find its neoliberal trap especially seductive given the rare success stories of a few genre participants, like The Real Housewives of New York’s Bethenny Frankel and American Idol’s Kelly Clarkson. Reflecting on Frankel’s Housewives-launched Skinnygirl brand empire, Suzanne Leonard and Diane Negra claim that, “Frankel’s success illustrates that economies of self can be leveraged” and result in substantial financial gain. 3
