Reality TV: When suicide is ‘entertainment’

Reality TV doesn’t get much more real than this, said Sharon Waxman and Tim Molloy in Reuters.com. Russell Armstrong, a participant on Bravo’s Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, committed suicide last week, just two weeks before the show’s second season was due to air. Armstrong’s troubled relationship with his wife, Taylor, was a major story line on the show. She recently accused him of assault, and he was grappling with a $1.5 million lawsuit for allegedly duping investors. Armstrong, 47, told his mother that he was terrified about how Real Housewives would portray him now that he and his wife were headed for divorce. “‘They’re just going to crucify me this season,’” she claims he told her. “‘I’ll never survive it.’” Now that Armstrong has hung himself, many are questioning whether he’s the latest “victim of reality TV.” In recent years, “countless people have joined reality shows in the hopes that fame will fulfill their dreams,” only to find themselves exposed and humiliated for the public’s titillation.

Get real, said Richard Huff in the New York Daily News. Reality TV shows have been around for at least a decade, and if participants don’t realize by now that they may not like what ends up on screen, they only have themselves to blame. Armstrong had plenty of stressors in his life, and no one can really say why he chose to kill himself. Those who blame reality TV are simply “looking for a logical way to explain an illogical act.”

That’s a convenient dodge, said Matt Zoller Seitz in Salon.com. The ugly truth is that Armstrong and his Real Housewives co-stars are the modern-day equivalent of gladiators, sent out into the arena of reality TV to bicker, throw tables and punches, and sacrifice their privacy and their dignity for our entertainment. It’s “emotional blood sport,” and we should no longer be surprised when the troubled narcissists who sign up for these shows end up hurting themselves or others. It’s happening all too frequently, said Mary McNamara in the Los Angeles Times. One of MTV’s “Teen Moms” has attempted suicide, and Jeff Conaway, who appeared on VH1’s Celebrity Rehab, subsequently succumbed to his addictions. Should we be entertaining ourselves with real human misery? Not so long ago, public hangings drew big crowds of laughing spectators. Armstrong’s death has brought that sort of savagery “one click closer.”

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up