Real Work: Affective Labour and Reality Television

This chapter employs auto-ethnography, oral history interviews and first-person accounts to illuminate the often-overlooked labour conditions in reality television production, focusing specifically on the ‘house-based reality’ subgenre. Reflecting on my own experiences within the industry I position reality television as a contemporary, commercial genre that epitomises the exploitative nature of post-Fordist capitalism, and as a useful example to reframe affective labour as deviating from traditional Marxist concepts of alienation. The reality television work is brought directly into the text through the insights of Nancy Huffman, a female camera operator in reality television since 2000, whose career mirrors the industry’s shift from technical to affective labour. This shift is indicative of strategic circumventions of labour organisation for cost-effective content. I argue that the concealed labour and interrelated conditions in ‘house-based reality’ result in undesirable ‘byproducts’, coined by feminist scholar Shiloh Whitney, with lasting impacts on worker subjectivity. I further extend this discussion to consider intersectionality, delving into the intricate relations of gender, race and labour within the industry through first-hand accounts of on-camera participants. Drawing on worker experiences, this chapter underscores the significant role of affective labour in reality TV production and its implications within contemporary work.