Week-to-Week: A Reality Show I Don't Even Watch Anymore Made Me Cry
On history, memory, and Dancing with the Stars' tribute to Len Goodman
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I don’t consider this to be a spoiler, so I don’t think I’m breaking an embargo to say that I recently watched the first episode of For All Mankind’s fourth season (which returns November 10 alongside my reviews here at Episodic Medium), which means that I’ve seen the show’s opening montage that fastforwards its timeline into the 2000s. And not surprisingly, one of the cultural touchstones they address is the rise of reality television, and while I’ll quibble a bit with the narration’s suggestion that the genre was new, it’s technically possible that An American Family and The Real World never happened in the show’s timeline, meaning that maybe The Osbournes and Survivor really were America’s introduction to the concept.
They were certainly my introduction to the concept, and I was further encouraged to reflect back on my history with the genre by last night’s episode of Dancing with the Stars. It’s a show I haven’t watched regularly in probably fifteen years, but my TikTok algorithm has recently started serving me clips from the show as a younger generation of contestant—the MCU’s Xochitl Gomez, Netflix reality star Harry Jowsey—leverages the platform to garner support. But last night, the video that came across my feed wasn’t about the show’s present: it was instead a journey into the show’s past in the form of a 7-minute tribute to judge Len Goodman, who retired from the show last fall before passing away earlier this spring.
I can’t speak for you, but even as someone who hadn’t watched the show in years, this was an emotional journey. It so clearly captures the sense of history that an ongoing reality competition series creates, as pro dancers from past seasons return to reflect on Len’s impact on their lives. The waltz itself is beautiful, but it’s less about the dance and more about seeing the familiar faces (many of whom haven’t done the show in some time). But it’s when the dancing stops that the emotional weight becomes clear, the spotlight falling on Len’s empty chair as the dancers gesture toward it, slowly losing their composure as they watch Len’s fellow judge Bruno Tonioli weep in his chair before embracing Carrie Ann Inaba as the camera cuts to each dancer with tears in their eyes.
Again: I haven’t watched this show regularly in over a decade, but I’m still crying writing about it, because there is such amazing power in the longevity of reality franchises. Dancing with the Stars is by my estimation the longest-running paneled reality show in the U.S. (especially since it runs two seasons a year), and its collection of pros means that there is more continuity in terms of parasocial relationships than in any other format. And while shows like American Idol or America’s Got Talent have had lengthy runs, their panels changed over time, whereas Len, Bruno, and Carrie Ann were with the show in some capacity (barring some breaks) for the show’s entire history. The relationship they have with each other, and the subsequent relationship that creates with the audience, is a byproduct of the last 20 years of reality television’s prominence in the broadcast space, and the tribute to Len is also a tribute to the era as a whole.
What struck me in reflecting on it was that reality television was an inherently ephemeral genre when it made it to broadcast television in the early 2000s. There was no TV on DVD when Survivor debuted, and reality television was never syndicated beyond its initial airing (likely because it was treated more like a game show where knowing the result ruined the appeal). And while CBS did release a clip show DVD of the early seasons before eventually doing full season releases when the TV on DVD boom began in 2004, there was a time when reality TV seemed as though it would be effectively lost to history.
Streaming changed that for Survivor, of course, and I know a fair few people who have retroactively returned to the early seasons and become superfans in their own right. However, it’s notable that the same is not true for Dancing with the Stars and other reality competition series that deal with music rights in any way. There is no way to binge-watch past seasons of the show, which fans have often complained about on the internet as they discover the show in current seasons and want to be a part of this history. And while there are plenty of YouTube clips, and probably some janky Dailymotion links, there’s this idea built into Dancing with the Stars in particular that reality television is something you experience live, and carry with you as a memory, and which can never be relived in full after that moment in time.
It made me realize that this is part of why the Len Goodman tribute hits so hard: this is a show whose past has effectively been erased, except for in the memories of its most ardent fans, and so seeing that past come to life in honor of one of their own carries extra weight. It does also, however, make it extra conspicuous when the show excludes those who are past of this history but are not currently affiliated with the show. Cheryl Burke, who was a pro for 26 of the show’s 32 seasons, was not invited to participate in the performance most likely due to her recent choice to start a podcast, Sex, Lies, and Spray Tans, where she dishes dirt on the series. That recently included an interview with the other notable absence from the package: former host Tom Bergeron, who recently went on Burke’s podcast to discuss his firing from the show amid conflicts with producers over the casting of Sean Spicer.
That particular incident is a good reminder that because of its casting of “celebrities” in very particular cultural moments, Dancing with the Stars really is ephemera. It’s probable that ABC doesn’t actually want to memorialize some of the choices they made in the interest of capturing the zeitgeist, nor do they want to platform people like Burke and Bergeron who have been willing to hold them to account for those choices (even if the show itself is under new management). But for those who have been watching all along, the celebrities themselves are immaterial, and it’s the relationship with the judges that has been the most enduring. And so while I’m sure that even newer viewers of the show felt the emotional weight of the Len Goodman tribute, it was really a message intended for the generation who was there when the reality TV boom began, and whose accumulated memory of that era came flooding back on the dance floor.
Episodic Observations
I’ve been keeping up with Amazon’s Gen V, which…it’s fine? There’s an intensity of serialization that has robbed the show of its ability to actually explore its college setting in a meaningful way, but I’m fairly endeared to the characters, and overall I’m invested in the story even if it feels a bit thin on the ground as it were.
It’s been a charming return to form for GBBO, I’ve felt—good contestants, simpler challenges, and a charming new judging dynamic that doesn’t feel as intrusive. I did think that last week’s situation was a bit unfortunate: it was clear once Tasha didn’t return to the tent that they weren’t going to eliminate anyone, and so it must have been particularly weird to be putting so much effort into a bake that you had to know wasn’t going to “count” in a traditional sense.
On the subject of Dancing with the Stars, that one season that aired live on Disney+ is such a fascinating artifact of the industry’s pivot to streaming, and the immediate reversal is a nice bellwether moment for Disney and other company’s acknowledgment of the business model’s failures.
I attended a taping of Dancing with the Stars as part of a Television Academy workshop for professors back in 2017, and it was a fascinating production to witness live. Some of our group were selected to appear as part of a crowd on the dance floor during one number, but for the most part we were consigned to the rafters, lest our relative lack of enthusiasm make it on camera.
I’m in the midst of a busy period work-wise, so I haven’t had much reading time, but I intend to eventually get to the audiobooks of two recent releases from friends of the newsletter: Matt Singer’s Opposable Thumbs: How Siskel & Ebert Changed Movies Foreverand Joanna Robinson’s (with Dave Gonzales and Gavin Edwards) MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios. Find them wherever books are sold, or put them on your holiday list for relatives in need of ideas.
Oh man. This makes me miss my grandma, an ardent DWTS fan who would implore me to make sure the show stayed on the air. Crazy that such a popular show would never be syndicated or licensed to streaming... music rights are a bitch.
Well said, but god, that waltz. Beautiful