Reality TV 2065, Or, Big Brother ran by, umm, Big Brother Options

[sanctusmortis]

I was inspired by a few of the sample missions I'd seen in the various major books (extractions of sports stars, Zoe in SSG...) and Big Brother came on. This led me to think: what would Reality TV be like in the SR setting? After all, the reality TV bug only really hit post SR3, and so it's not really been covered. So, in a nod to certain SLA entertainments, I've been coming up with a few.

*Survivor: Big Brother - a melding of two old reality TV stalwarts, S:BB pits two teams of competitors against each other. One team is sent out into the Sprawl, to integrate themselves into it and hide out. The other team has to hunt them down; they have the methods of search anyone would have, which basically amounts to hunting down a source of info on the streets, surveillance cameras and clues fed to them by the show's producers. The people in hiding have their wits, 100:nuyen: a week, their phones (for their reports; see below), and more hints from the producers.

Every week, three members of each team are voted by the public to be put through a "trial" - a game of cat and mouse where the 2 people who do the worst leave the show. For example, if one "investigator" manages to hunt all three "quarry" down, his fellow 2 investigators would leave as they were totally ineffective. As all 3 of the quarry had been found they would not go, but if one had escaped the other 2 would be going.

As following the quarry with cameras would make capture too easy, every day they each have to call in and leave messages for the investigators. The location from which the call is made is given to the investigators as their small clue of the day, and a further clue is given later. The quarry are tagged so that producers can create the clues that have to be earned, and the clues they earn inform them of where the investigators are looking for them currently or of someone (planted, of course) who can help them hide further. Of course, tied to all these clues are tasks, and it is on these tasks viewers are supposed to judge who they want to be put to trial. Of course, this isn't what people really judge them on at all, and so someone really good at their task but who people just don't like may be as likely to be up as the most useless member of each team.

The interest for Runners is simple: some of the contestants really do "blend in"; they shed their tags and become truly one of the people of the Sprawl, doing Runs for cash and such. The producers aren't keen on this, and as such excuses have to be made or even filled in for. The producers may hire Runners to find a "quarry" and bring them back to be filmed as being eliminated, or even ask Runners to put in their daily reports and masquerade as them. As obviously the quarry voices are voicemasked to preserve their identity (otherwise, Sprawl denizens would just sell them out or even kidnap them), it's not like anyone would know. On the other side of the coin, like Zoe from SSG some of them get attached to their new life and ask Runners to help them exit the show without anyone knowing.

*Trid Idol: every year thousands of Trid star wannabes enter this talent competition to be hired by a major Trid film company and star in their products. The auditions are quite humiliating, and the judges can be quite scathing.

Often, contestants who are voted off the show try to enact vengeance on the show and other contestants; indeed, it hasn't been unknown for someone to hire people to eliminate competition or try to "persuade" the judges...

Those are just two quick ideas (seriously, I added to the first as I thought of it); what other types of reality TV can you imagine, and how could you incorporate players in them?