Reality show-turned-documentary “The Activist” received backlash for “performative activism.” PHOTO CREDIT: scarymommy.com
The Kardashians, finding “true” love on an island and people singing in masks all seem to capture America’s attention through one uniting concept: reality television. The question now is, can activism be added to that category?
CBS’s new reality show “The Activist” was set to debut on Oct. 22, with an original concept following six activists competing in challenges for a once-in-a-lifetime prize: presenting at the annual G20 summit in Italy in front of world leaders. Contestants would represent causes under the categories of either health, education or the environment, vying to express their causes to as many people as possible.
When announced in May, the show did not receive much attention. However, when the hosts actress Priyanka Chopra, dancer-actress Julliane Hough and singer Usher were announced to be attached to the show this month, “The Activist” gained a lot of traction online, but not in a positive way. Some said “this show is the definition of performative activism” while others deemed this a great way of spreading important problems in our world.
Danny Haiphong, an editor of Black Agenda Report, tweeted, “so many people saw through the hollowness of celebrity activism and the dystopia it presents to real people.”
After receiving this criticism, CBS decided to completely scratch the original concept and medium of the show and revamp the original six episodes into a single documentary special.
According to Statista, a genre breakdown of the top 250 TV programs in the US during 2017 revealed that reality TV tied for second most popular genre with comedy at 18 percent respectively, just below drama. However, documentary style programs accounted for only 6 percent of the top TV programs, according to Stroll. As the purpose of “The Activist” is to spread important messages to as many people as possible, this begs the question: should CBS have kept “The Activist” as a reality TV show despite social media criticism?
After hearing that CBS took “The Activist” in a new direction, Edward Ongweso Jr., a New York City-based reporter tweeted, “I’m not about to watch a documentary on this! I wanted to watch the raging dumpster fire this competition would’ve been.”
Similarly, University of Rhode Island sophomore Michael Giguere believes that CBS should “pick reality” but “in a perfect world the documentary should be more popular.”
Sophomore Joe Charette represented the other side of the argument.
“[CBS] should stick with documentary because even though reality may get more views, documentary is more important,” Charette said.
Although opinions on this topic vary, it’s clear that CBS sparked a greater conversation with the creation of this show.
Global Citizen, one of the producing companies of “The Activist,” came out with a statement that said “we got it wrong,” admitting their naive approach to fostering an activism competition. People often say “it’s not the mistakes you make, it’s how you react to them.”
CBS is showing their true colors by reworking “The Activist,” proving that their intentions are in the right place but their execution still needs some fine tuning.