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There was an interesting article in Newsweek about Mormons dominating in reality TV. Fascinating read! http://www.newsweek.com/id/135758http://www.newsweek.com/id/135758” class=”bbcode_url”> Yes, interesting! I liked this paragraph: “Mormons don’t do well only on shows where the audience votes. “There must be something about the Mormon community that makes these people so self-confident and so open,” says Lynne Spillman, a casting director for “Survivor” and “The Amazing Race.” She thinks that coming from a large family probably helps in a game like “Survivor,” with its complicated group dynamics mirroring sibling rivalries. “They also have these incredible experiences through their missions,” she says, “and can relate to being dropped off in the middle of somewhere they’ve never been and having to make it.“ I’ve thought about this recently, and using my own experience as a missionary in Japan in the late 70s — message not well accepted, difficult language, very different culture, etc., I came back with a few years of discipline, great study habits, experience with public speaking, tolerance with weird companions (of course, I was the normal one
Whether the “church is true” or not, it provides an amazing training for its members in so many ways!
Interesting. I wonder if there is a stigma that the mormon on the reality show should be all “churchy” and people want to see that characteristic on their reality show conflicts?? Kind of like casting the pink rocker with the Donny Osmond type to try to get the sparks to fly and create the scenes where drama will emerge. Idk. I don’t watch a lot of those shows, but I wonder if they are trying to cast those types or if they are just randomly happening.
I don’t really watch a lot of TV, but I have seen a few of these shows with identified Mormons as participants. The show “So You Think You Can Dance” has had a Mormon contestant several seasons. In fact, Benji was the winner in the second season I think, and he was identified as an RM and was very charismatic and charming on the show (why he won). I seem to have noticed a good diversity actually. I didn’t watch much of this one season of Survivor, but I remember they had a male gay airline steward who represented himself as being Mormon. That was interesting.
So no, I don’t think they are always the goody-two-shows TBMs that make on the shows for puritan drama with the “heathens.”
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