Entertainment
‘The faker a show is, the more ethical it is’: Emily Nussbaum on the conditions of reality TV
On the Shelf
Cue the Sun!: The Invention of Reality TV
By Emily Nussbaum
Random House: 464 pages, $30
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Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson were still “Newlyweds” grappling with the chicken or tuna conundrum when television critic Emily Nussbaum first came up with the idea of writing a book about reality TV.
“I waited 20 years until reality TV was an established industry and I had a career writing about television,” Nussbaum says about the impetus for “Cue the Sun!: The Invention of Reality TV,” which she conceived of in 2003 during a conversation with friends and colleagues amid the explosion of the genre with the shows “The Bachelorette,” “America’s Next Top Model” and “Joe Millionaire.”
Dissuaded by these naysayers, who dismissed the genre as a flash in the pan (insert chortle here), Nussbaum carved out a career in criticism as a culture editor for New York Magazine and as a current staff writer for the New Yorker, covering such prestige shows as “The Sopranos” and “Mad Men” in essays that were collected in her first book, 2019’s “I Like to Watch: Arguing My Way Through the TV Revolution.”
That was part of a two-book deal with Random House, so for her second, Nussbaum thought she’d revisit that idea from two decades ago, not from a critical point of view but from a reported one. Using more than 300 interviews with the people who invented the genre, Nussbaum crafts the story of the origins of reality TV from 1947 to 2009.
But wait — television was a new medium in 1947, let alone reality television. That’s the first clue that “Cue the Sun,” out Tuesday, isn’t your average history of the genre, which Nussbaum calls “dirty documentary.”
While loosely linear, “Cue the Sun!” groups programs by thematic similarities: game shows, prank shows, reality soap operas and clip shows. These include prank show “Candid Camera” and its roots in the radio show “The Candid Microphone,” hence the 1947 date stamp, as well as clip shows such as “America’s Funniest Home Videos” and “Cops,” to which Nussbaum devotes much of the early part of the book.
“Each of those takes cinema verité, which people think of as an elevated discipline where you hold the camera and capture the truth with a lot of patience, and then mix in commercial additives that give it a format: speed it up, make it serialized, make it inexpensive, put pressure on people. That’s how I think of [reality TV],” she says.
Her initial stages of reporting in early 2020 unintentionally foreshadowed the year that would follow: Nussbaum tested positive for COVID-19 and developed long COVID after one of her first reporting trips for the book, which included interviewing the creator of “Cops,” the “charming pirate” John Langley, who looms large over “Cue the Sun!” In June 2020, the clip show was pulled off the air after 33 seasons in response to the Black Lives Matter resurgence that summer. (The show has since resumed.)
“There’s a touchingly naive statement that someone was making, that the problem with ‘Cops’ is not that it would document [police brutality] but that [police] would act nicer on camera [while still committing abuses of power off camera]. And, of course, that’s not an argument that held up because at this point, everyone is a reality producer because everyone has a camera in their hand,” Nussbaum says, conjuring images of civilian-captured police brutality on social media.
Nussbaum doesn’t agree with Langley’s stance on “Cops,” detailed in “Cue the Sun!,” that the program captured raw material and presented it neutrally. However, she acknowledges that it’s “just one show in this book that has major ethical problems.”
One such series that Nussbaum — and, indeed, many others — experiences joy from is “Project Runway.”
“Here’s a show that celebrates creativity, that’s pro-gay … has a fantastic host [in Tim Gunn] who modeled positivity and warmth, [and] is an offshoot of the ‘classy’ ‘Project Greenlight,’ and then I looked into the origins of it and I was like, ‘Oh, yeah, ‘Project Runway’ [was developed] because Harvey Weinstein wanted to have a show about models,’” Nussbaum deadpans with her signature dry wit. (Miriam Haley, a former production assistant on the show, testified at Weinstein’s 2020 trial in New York that the disgraced Hollywood mogul sexually assaulted her at his apartment in 2006.)
While shows such as “Project Runway,” “Survivor” and “The Amazing Race” have all been praised for their contributions to the genre and the culture at large, Nussbaum says it’s actually reality stars who are producers on their own “soft-scripted” shows, like the much-maligned Kardashians, who experience the least problematic conditions.
“The faker a show is, the more ethical it is,” she says. “The people who’ve agreed to be reality stars and ‘play’ themselves, those shows might have their own ethical problems, but they’re not ‘real’ in the same way.”
“Bona-fide amateurs,” a category of reality TV performers that exists somewhere in the gray area among scripted performers, hosts and documentary subjects that Nussbaum discovered while reporting her recent New Yorker article on “Love Is Blind,” are unprotected.
“When I wrote this book, nobody was doing anything to try to protect cast members,” such as former “Real Housewives of New York City” star Bethenny Frankel advocating for reality television stars to unionize amid last year’s strike by members of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Radio and Television Artists. (Nussbaum interviewed producer Andy Cohen for “Cue the Sun!” prior to the filing of several lawsuits against the Bravo franchise from other Housewives.) “This genre is a strikebreaker” that grew out of the 1988 strike by members of the Writers Guild of America that spawned “Cops,” Nussbaum says. “It’s a budget mechanism. It’s a way not to pay writers or actors.”
While it might be hard for some to muster sympathy for reality stars who’ve gone on to make millions from their exposure in the genre, Nussbaum offers this: “[Just] because [some people] find reality stars ridiculous or gross or are villains on the show, which is an edited version of themselves, [doesn’t mean that they don’t] deserve labor rights or to be compensated. The whole idea of the genre as a guilty pleasure prevents people from seeing it as the other things it is, one of which is a workplace.”
1 of 5 | Nick Jonas (L) and Paul Rudd star in “Power Ballad,” in theaters Friday. Photo courtesy of Lionsgate
LOS ANGELES, May 28 (UPI) — Power Ballad, in select theaters Friday, introduces several provocative themes about creativity and the music industry. Unfortunately, it only pays them lip service and leaves many important ones on the table.
Rick Power (Paul Rudd) is the lead singer of an Irish wedding band who loses the party crowd when he plays his own originals from his U.S. touring days. At one wedding, the bride invites her childhood friend, former boy band singer Danny Wilson (Nick Jonas).
After singing a duet at the wedding, Danny and Rick spend the night together jamming in Danny’s room. Danny even leaves Rick a generous parting gift, though his promise that Rick can get in touch with him through his managers seems empty.
When Danny’s manager, Mac (Jack Reynor) rejects his new solo submissions, Danny records “How to Write a Song (Without You)” which Rick played for him during their night in Ireland. Rick finds out when he hears it in the mall six months later.
This raises poignant questions about authorship. Rick wrote the song but never recorded it. Danny recorded it and made it a hit, but claimed authorship.
The script by John Carney and Peter McDonald goes into thorough detail about how Rick cannot establish a record of writing the song prior to meeting Danny. He has no demos, never shared it with his wedding band, and even his wife (Marcella Plunkett) and daughter (Beth Fallon) can’t remember it out of all the music he’s played in the house.
It’s less surprising that Mac shuts down Rick’s claim and threatens legal retaliation, which a humble Irish wedding singer could never afford to battle. What’s more surprising is which obvious questions Carney and McDonald never think to ask.
Danny got a hit out of “How to Write a Song (Without You).” He can ride that for a bit but what is he going to do when he has to write another and all he’s got are the same trite songs the label rejected before?
Mac and Danny allude to an EP he released that included “How to Write a Song” but we don’t hear any of the other tracks. What B-sides did Mac accept to justify a tour off one hit single?
Danny tells his girlfriend (Havana Rose Liu) that he wrote the song for her. Not only does she never find out, question or appear again in the film, she also doesn’t find out when he later takes two groupies to the hot tub.
Instead, Power Ballad seems more invested in mocking Rick for claiming he had a hand in a hit. It must be hard to live with the song ubiquitous everywhere he goes, and especially when a married couple requests he perform it for them. It seems particularly heartless when Rick’s wife and daughter mock him for it. That they don’t believe he wrote it suggests far deeper conflict in that family, but the film never gets into that either.
Rick also lashes out too hard when he’s defensive. It becomes uncharacteristically bitter for a John Carney movie.
The ultimate confrontation between Rick and Danny is unsatisfying. Their jam session was genuine, two musicians bonding over the art when Rick does not care about Danny’s celebrity.
By the time they meet again, Danny’s arc is reductively “hurt people hurt people.” He’s insecure, and boy, would it have been interesting to see him put to the test to follow up “How to Write a Song” by… writing another song.
It also strains credulity that “How to Write a Song (Without You)” is the comeback hit for Danny. It’s fine but not notably better than his other demos.
Begin Again and Sing Street had original music that sounded like it could sell albums on its own. Once literally became a Broadway musical. By Power Ballad, we’ve got a song less catchy than fictional movie songs like “That Thing You Do” or “Way Back Into Love” from Music & Lyrics.
The film does contrast Rick’s heartfelt performance with Danny’s poser version. A sold out Madison Square Garden doesn’t know the difference, but the viewer of Power Ballad does.
Other bright spots are sporadic and disjointed. Jonas takes some gentle jabs at boy band music. They’d land harder if his character ultimately did man up.
They do portray diverse weddings. Fortunately, LGBTQ unions get screen time along with more heteronormative ones.
A nightmare visualizes Rick’s real insecurities comically. Rick and bandmate Sandy (McDonald) perpetuate a cute scheme to get past security, and their actual “in” with Danny was legitimately established previously. Sandy choosing music over a party girl hitting on him is endearing.
Carney’s earlier movies were genuinely uplifting and inspiring even with their share of heartbreaks. His film about struggling to regain earlier inspiration ultimately faces the same very dilemma and blows it like the movie’s antagonist does.
Lionsgate will release Power Ballad nationwide June 5.
Fred Topel, who attended film school at Ithaca College, is a UPI entertainment writer based in Los Angeles. He has been a professional film critic since 1999, a Rotten Tomatoes critic since 2001, and a member of the Television Critics Association since 2012 and the Critics Choice Association since 2023. Read more of his work in Entertainment.
Grizz Chapman, an actor best known for his role as Grizz on NBC’s Emmy-winning comedy “30 Rock,” has died. He was 52.
Chapman’s cousin, Donte Harrison, confirmed the actor’s death on social media.
“Life gave my cousin Grizz Chapman some heavy battles, but he fought them with strength and dignity until the very end,” Harrison wrote. “A lot of people knew him as the sitcom star from 30 Rock, but we knew the man behind the screen. A good heart, good energy, and somebody who made an impact in this life.
“After years of fighting illness and dialysis, he passed peacefully in his sleep on May 22nd, 2026. I’m thankful we got time to reconnect 2 months before his passing.”
Born Mack D. Chapman on April 16, 1974, in Brooklyn, N.Y., Chapman got the name Grizz while working as a security guard at nightclubs around New York. The claim to fame of the 7-foot-tall security guard turned actor would be portraying a character that resembled himself: a towering bodyguard named Grizz.
Chapman played the mild-mannered bodyguard across 80 episodes of the wildly popular sitcom “30 Rock,” which starred Tina Fey, Tracy Morgan and Alec Baldwin. Chapman’s character was part of the entourage of Tracy Jordan (played by Morgan).
Chapman told Cracked in 2024 that landing “30 Rock” was the “hardest/easiest audition I ever had in my life.”
But it wasn’t until the second season of the show that Chapman felt he really broke through as a performer. On Episode 210, he performs a rendition of “Midnight Train to Georgia” alongside the veteran ensemble. “That showed so many levels of our talents — we got a chance to dance, we got a chance to sing, we got a chance to take direction and to be funny.”
In addition to acting in various projects, including the 2014 film “The Cobbler,” which starred Adam Sandler, and the 2016 thriller “Money Monster,” starring George Clooney and Julia Roberts, Chapman was an advocate for the National Kidney Foundation.
The actor battled high blood pressure and kidney disease and struggled with his weight for years, and in 2009, he announced he was seeking a donor for a kidney transplant. During an appearance on “The Dr. Oz Show,” the actor said, “I don’t want to go through this forever.”
Chapman told Dr. Oz that he’d coped with the news by acknowledging it was “a scary situation” but deciding to “face it one way or another.”
When Dr. Oz asked him what he wished for, the actor said, “I want to stay alive.”
Chapman spent nearly two years undergoing dialysis treatments three days a week for 4½ hours a day while filming “30 Rock” and hoping for a donor. In the process, he lost more than 150 pounds, hoping to be fit enough for the procedure. After the episode of “Dr. Oz” aired, a fan of Chapman’s, Ryan Perkins, flew from Arizona to New York to meet the actor. Perkins, then in his early 20s, knew he wanted to do something that could change someone’s life.
“I was emotional. I was excited. I wanted to scream. It was exciting to meet someone with that kind of willingness to help,” Chapman told the East Valley Tribune.
“How do you ever repay someone for something like that? You can’t. It’s not like borrowing $20 from someone and telling them you’re going to give it back. It’s something that you can never repay someone for.”
BY WYATT ALLISON
In 1976, Dustin Hoffman was the star of a film called Marathon Man, that followed a hotshot Columbia grad embroiled in a plot through his brother, with an evil Nazi war dentist played by the stage/screen legend Laurence Olivier. The film is regarded as one of the best examples of a 1970s paranoia-thriller. Now, 50 years removed from 1976, comes Tuner – a film directed by Oscar award winning documentarian Daniel Roher — also with Dustin Hoffman — that plays like something a little bit mysterious but intriguing, as you see its title on a summer night theater marquee.
Tuner follows Niki White (Leo Woodall), a talented piano tuner with a unique and meticulous auditory condition. As he trails New York City’s streets, hallowed concert halls, and brownstone neighborhoods with his blunt and charismatic mentor Harry Horowitz (Dustin Hoffman), Niki encounters a rotating cast of clients, including Ruthie (Havana Rose Liu), a keen piano student who challenges his moral complexity.
When security contractor Uri (Lior Raz) learns Niki’s hypersensitive hearing is worth more for cracking safes than for opening Yamahas, he offers Niki a dangerous opportunity that could help Harry and his devoted wife Marla (Tony Award–winner Tovah Feldshuh) manage their suffocating medical debt.
As Niki is drawn deeper into the criminal underworld with Uri and his crew, his relationship with Ruthie is threatened, entangling him in a dangerous side hustle that gives his life some unfortunate obstacles.
I caught Tuner back in September of last year at the Toronto International Film Festival, and it really brought the house down. The slick, watchable cadence of this old-fashioned thriller is read like the box of an elevated frozen pizza — perhaps Rao’s? You know exactly what you’re getting into, and chances are you’ll be fairly satisfied and full by the time for dessert.
Director Roher won the Best Documentary Oscar for Navalny, a 2022 film about the poisoning of Russian journalist Alexei Navalny — who was critical about the government and leadership of Vladimir Putin. In Roher’s first narrative film, his guerilla-esque foundation is seen plenty as Tuner unfolds a lot like a documentary. The camera feels invisible, and each character plays off one another to a natural degree.
For Leo Woodall, the performance as Niki is carefully crafted and another entry into the “sad boy” with a talent gauntlet. His hearing gift is utterly believable, and coupled with the exceptional sound design, it’s hard not to find yourself right with Niki as he cracks safes and tries to get the girl. It’s a performance that any young actor should be bidding for, since genre thrillers like this tend to have a longer lifespan in the zeitgeist.
Black Bear Pictures, the independent film distributor behind Christy, could really use a hit. Much like Tuner, the studio is a great example of why more risks should be taken on smaller budget films with some recognizable faces in it. In a theatrical setting that can be clouded out by blockbuster, IP-driven filmmaking, Tuner is something worth seeing on a Friday night at the movies.
Tuner
Directed by Daniel Roher
Regal Downtown West
Released on Friday, May 29, 2026
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