Will ‘The Hills’ Continue To Lose Its Grip On Reality… And Teens?
Posted by meredith on 05-19-2009
Today’s Ypulse Youth Advisory Board post is from Caroline Marques who weighs in on how MTV’s brand of reality show has lost its appeal to teens. Remember, you can communicate directly with any member of the Ypulse Youth Advisory Board by emailing them at youthadvisoryboard at ypulse.com…or just leave a comment.
Will “The Hills” Continues To Lose It’s Grip On Reality.. And Teens?
We have MTV in Switzerland: You can get it on cable in French or German, or like myself, you can watch everything in English on mtv.com, where you can stream all the episodes legally (in contrast to The CW, which only allows US residents to watch the shows online ). This is one of the things that I like about the channel. Although like other people my age, lately I haven’t been watching that much.
I do, however, tune in to watch “The Hills,” which I got into after watching “Laguna Beach” a few years back. In the past it’s been entertaining, and as an international teen, I enjoy seeing LA sights and the current fashion trends. Still, I think that now I feel myself, and other teens, being more attracted to the characters on “Gossip Girl” and other scripted shows full of scandals, backstabbing, sex, boys and basically all the over the top drama that teenagers love.
Not that there isn’t any drama in “The Hills” or its spin-off series “The City,” but on those shows it just seems, well, fake. I feel like teens can relate to Blair and Nate on “Gossip Girl” more than Heidi and Spencer on “The Hills” and that teens have had enough of the second couple. As one of the stars on “The Hills” would say, that’s “so over.” I mean, we know what happens and it’s kind of been done to death. “Laguna Beach” first aired in 2004, but now we’ve been through the drama several times. I think that for MTV to regain the franchise’s fans, they’re going to need to bring something seriously new, cool and hip to the table. Their solution? Replacing Lauren Conrad on “The Hills” with Kristen Cavallari from “Laguna Beach.” Hmm…
The main issue I have is that MTV shows are supposed to be a reality that resembles our lives, but the fame-hungry characters are not like us at all. Even the other version of reality shows that MTV offered – shows like “Punkd,” “Jackass” etc. that made you laugh have now been replaced with shows like “Paris Hilton’s New Best Friend” and “The Girls of Hedsor Hall” which are just… not that great, and definitely not interesting enough to hold my generation’s attention. I think that if MTV had one new great teen-centric reality show that lived up to expectations, they would get their ratings back up. Easier said than done, right? For now, I’m just going to wait patiently and see what they do, and maybe, just maybe see what happens when Kristen Cavallari makes her debut on “The Hills.”
About Caroline
Caroline is a high school student in Geneva, Switzerland. While Caroline lists sports, music and travelling as her hobbies, she also very much enjoys writing and reading. After being a teen adviser for NickMag, she thought Ypulse would be the perfect opportunity for a new start. While trying to keep up with the trends (or setting some of her own), dance classes, working on long papers and trying to master three new languages, she rarely has time to write the novel she wishes she could finish, though she is certain one day she will. Writing is never far from her thoughts.
Categorized under: TV