Oct 16, 2026 · 27 min · 9 segments
Mediawatch host Colin Peacock chats with Dylan Reeve and Phil Vine, host and producer of the new RNZ podcast series The Reality Machine…
Colin PeacockHostPhil VineGuest
Dylan ReeveGuest
There's programs out there, Dylan, that are like a fine line between genuine fly on the wall, seeing the lives of people we wouldn't normally see, and where the people have been chosen almost like casting in a drama and where they're not necessarily being themselves.
If we take a New Zealand example that's featured in The Reality Machine, uh, The GC back in-
Yeah, I mean, there's a whole category of, uh, unscripted entertainment, uh, called, that people sort of refer to as docu-soaps.
So the, the big examples of that are shows like, um, The Real Housewives franchise.
You've got cameras that are following people around, but the entire conceit around it is constructed.
But actually, that's true across most reality television with the exception of, like, a, a purely observational show like a motorway patrol, right? Where you're just driving down the motorway until you see someone do a dangerous lane change.
And you're, and you're obviously in most reality formats also, um, contriving the situation in which they find themselves.
I think the docu-soaps are more focused just on, on pure character drama, whereas most other reality formats have some other f- what we call format content.
So, you know, where they're challenges or cooking a dish or- Doing something and then some what we call actuality, which is the living your life within the show around that.
And so it's all, it's all just like little ingredients that you put together in different ways in different shows.
And then how real it is depends, I guess, on the expectations of the producers and the participants.
But I think everyone going into a reality show is sort of playing a version of themselves to some extent.
Whi- which, the thing that made me think of the GC after all these years is, um, the current series that's on for Kāthe Māori, uh, MIA-
There's programs out there, Dylan, that are like a fine line between genuine fly on the wall, seeing the lives of people we wouldn't normally see, and where the people have been chosen almost like casting in a drama and where they're not necessarily being themselves.
If we take a New Zealand example that's featured in The Reality Machine, uh, The GC back in-
Yeah, I mean, there's a whole category of, uh, unscripted entertainment, uh, called, that people sort of refer to as docu-soaps.
So the, the big examples of that are shows like, um, The Real Housewives franchise.
You've got cameras that are following people around, but the entire conceit around it is constructed.
But actually, that's true across most reality television with the exception of, like, a, a purely observational show like a motorway patrol, right? Where you're just driving down the motorway until you see someone do a dangerous lane change.
And you're, and you're obviously in most reality formats also, um, contriving the situation in which they find themselves.
I think the docu-soaps are more focused just on, on pure character drama, whereas most other reality formats have some other f- what we call format content.
So, you know, where they're challenges or cooking a dish or- Doing something and then some what we call actuality, which is the living your life within the show around that.
And so it's all, it's all just like little ingredients that you put together in different ways in different shows.
And then how real it is depends, I guess, on the expectations of the producers and the participants.
But I think everyone going into a reality show is sort of playing a version of themselves to some extent.
Whi- which, the thing that made me think of the GC after all these years is, um, the current series that's on for Kāthe Māori, uh, MIA-
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