The term "reality show" may be unfamiliar to Americans but in Korea, it's a "Konglish" word for programs where celebrities do real-life things like camping or going on a trip and doing various entertaining activities. I guess what Americans may think of when they hear the word "reality show" may be something like 16 and Pregnant.
Of course, Korea does have something like 16 and Pregnant but that is not what Koreans consider a reality show. A reality show is a form of a variety show and in order to understand what a reality show is, you have to first know what a variety show is. A variety show is just a show comprised of music, games, and just such entertainments for the viewers, usually in the form of a talk show. Over the years, variety shows have included a "Real theme" in which the celebrities show their "real" selves, so eating, sleeping, and sometimes even showering (that's the show "1 Night 2 Days" and yes, they keep it clean so they only show male celebrities, hence in "1 Night 2 Days", and they only show shoulders and above). So in these reality shows, the celebrities do not fake anything really, but rather just be themselves and be amusing and funny because after all, a variety show is for entertainment.
The crew in the broadcasting systems also add in amusing captions that definitely play a key role in making the shows entertaining. Jokes are used often; and speech/thought bubbles are also added next to a celebrity.
I wish America would have these variety shows. I get to see my favorite Korean singers and actors be their silly selves on shows, playing games to see who eats dinner first or who gets the best side dish in the dinner and stuff like that, but wouldn't it be great to see, I don't know, Logan Lerman and Jennifer Lawerence on reality shows? It's great that we get to see their stunning selves on the red carpet, but to be able to see them go through obstacles for their team and cooking and maybe even miserably failing at it would double the entertainment of Americans. You probably have no idea what I'm talking about unless you've seen these Korean (and actually, just Asian) variety shows so here's a couple of examples from good ol' YouTube you can look into: Running Man (crazy popular show!), 1 Night, 2 Days (2 Days 1 Night), Shinhwa Broadcast.
So even just glimpsing at some of the reality shows, you can see how loose it is and not so formal. American talk shows are all super formal, I mean look at Oprah and Live! with Kelly, sure, sure they do goof off and everything, but nothing really hands on and there definitely is different air to American talk shows and Korean ones. I mean, I'm not trying to degrade Oprah or Live! with Kelly at all, but some more different styles to American T.V. shows like that of Korean ones would be nice too.
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