Will Reality TV Go Too Far?

Picture this: Thousands of eager people sit in the hot afternoon sun anticipating the start of a bloody battle. The stadium is filled with their voices, along with the voices of hundreds of vendors peddling their goods. A horn is trumpeted and the stadium goes completely silent. Twelve men and women from all walks of life step onto the field in the middle of the stadium. They nod at each other and place their hands on the small sheaths they wear on their sides. A horn is sounded once more as the contestants pull their swords from the sheaths and dash at each other, screaming. The crowd will not go silent again until only one contestant is left.

What you have just pictured could be one of two things. It could be a description of a bloody event held at the Roman Coliseum over 1500 years ago. However, it could also be a description of a bloody event held at an American stadium in the near future. Nonsense, you say? We’ll see.

The economy is doing badly, jobs are getting scarce, money is tight, and reality TV is now found on almost every station. In fact, my opinion is that over 60% of all TV is now reality based. People will do just about anything for money. So far we’ve seen people fight to survive on islands and in the wilderness across the globe; we’ve seen people eat disgusting things and perform dangerous stunts; we’ve seen people dropped off in the middle of nowhere and trying to make it back home at a certain time; we’ve even seen executions and images of death and destruction flashed before our eyes (remember Faces of Death?).

All of the contestants, who participated in the events described above, save for Faces of Death, have participated simply because there was a large amount of money offered as a prize. The question I pose to you is this: will people be willing to fight to the death in hopes of winning big money? The answer is yes.

In my opinion, it is only a matter of time before some Hollywood hotshot decides that he would like to see a sport in which people fight hand-to-hand or with certain weapons. Sure, it would be extremely controversial at first, but eventually the government will see the green pouring from our nation’s pockets to see these brutal events. As always, the thought of big money is enough to convince any politician that watching people die can be fun.

I would like to make a prediction, here and now. I predict that within the next fifty to a hundred years, a sport will emerge in which people will battle each other to the death in stadiums, in the wilderness, and even in an urban environment. There will be variations of the sport, some will allow weapons and others won’t. This sport will be sponsored by major corporations and tickets to the events will be taxed by the government. There will be a huge sum of prize money. We’re talking over three-hundred million dollars. The events will be broadcast all over the world. The events would probably take on a format similar to professional wrestling of today.

I would like to close this article by stating that this entire article is my humble opinion. Please do not refer to it for accurate data. You can link to this article, but you may not copy it in any way. Thank you for reading!