About this episode
What started as Emily Nussbaum’s “guilty pleasure” of watching Big Brother became a deeper dive into the world of reality TV, leading to her book, Cue the Sun: The Invention of Reality TV. From its early, often morally questionable experiments with shows like Candid Microphone, to the strategy and drama of Survivor, Nussbaum traces the history of a genre that’s shaped how we see the world—and even influenced who gets elected. If you think reality TV is all fluff, this episode might just change your mind.
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