What are the typical conventions of reality TV shows making particular reference to big brother?

Craig Coates: "I refuse to diminish my character to survive in this house"

Reality television offers “a set of rules which allow us to “shape” reality, thus making it appear less random and disordered”[1]. The main conventions of reality TV feature ordinary people instead of actors, moreover it consists of a group of contestants who are completely conflict with each other who are living together in the Big Brother house and are isolated from the outside world and are being watched, all to win a cash prize. Reality TV increased after the success of Big Brother where the audience “interplay between confirmed expectation and novelty”[2]. What is different about reality TV is that it claims to show “realism” and it exposes various representations of people. Reality TV has dramatically changed the viewing habits of people and is drawing them into a world of voyeurism where they “collectively believe it to be”[3], and takes them away from the typical entertainment television making “genres flexible”[4].

[1] Patrick Phillips (1996)
[2] Douglas Pye (1975)
[3] Andrew Tudor (1986)
[4] Richard Maltby (1995)