So many of my references with my friends are based on reality shows.
"Was it yours to open, you stupid bitch?!"
"You're a snake. Ssssss"
"How am I doing? Not well, bitch"

Emily Nussbaum has taken on the task of laying out the history and evolution of reality television. From Cops, to Survivior, to The Real World (my personal favorite), Nussbaum gets into the dirt and the drive to bring regular, or at least, sort of regular people to everyone's television.

Yes, the final chapter touches on the Reality TV President, but it's almost a must when talking about reality television. Nussbaum does a wonderful job on research and shows the trajectory from The Apprentice to .... the White House.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This reality tv overview gets a little too verbose at times (particularly in regards to Survivor), but I enjoyed learning more about my favorite type of tv shows.

I was surprised that we started with a radio program, but it was a stepping stone I hadn’t ever considered. I know that it would be impossible to cover the entirety of reality tv, but I felt like the subjects in this book trended more towards middlebrow reality shows. I think that trashy reality shows are a very important part of the genre. I did appreciate the inclusion of Joe Millionaire as a foil to The Bachelor.

Thanks for the advance copy in exchange for my honest review, NetGalley!

During the pandemic I binged pretty much all the Survivor I’d missed since I stopped watching after the first two iconic seasons. There is something unique about the real life characters reality tv creates and the way it intersects with culture…and the way that connects with our brains. In Cue the SUN!, Nussbaum (of Pulitzer and Twitter) takes a well researched look at the history of reality tv along with its progression and cultural and societal impact. The writing is accessible and smart. It would drag if it was fully comprehensive of all of reality tv so it’s interesting to see what the author picks and chooses to write about. I will admit I struggled to care as much about the content in the first couple of chapters but they are important for setting the stage. The American Family chapter is where I became fully engaged. The rawness and emotional impact of the series was captured on the page in a way that I could visualize. Other highlights for me were earlier sections on Bob Saget and Cops, the inner workings of the first season of The Real World, the connection between shows like Alien Autopsy and Fox Cable News, how Survivor and Big Brother came to be, the dive into Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?, the gross inner workings of early seasons of The Bachelor and the way predators like Weinstein and Trump interacted with the reality tv landscape. This review was published on Goodreads on 5/24/24.

If you are a reality TV buff, you must read this book.

I came of age watching many reality series, from American Idol and America's Funniest Home Videos as a kid, to Top Model, Flavor of Love, Survivor, and The Amazing Race as a teen, to Drag Race and Top Chef as an adult. I love reality TV and the campy escapism it offers, but I also have described it as a "guilty pleasure."

Emily Nussbaum, who won a 2016 Pulitzer for her television criticism in The New Yorker, combines in-depth interviews, meticulous, and a true connoisseur's appreciation for the genre that simultaneously attracts and repulses. She seeks to neither "clutch [her] pearls" or "dismiss [reality shows] as frothy nothing"—a difficult line to walk—but rather explores the history of the makers and participants of landmark shows throughout the decades, revealing the tensions and contradictions within.

She describes the paradox of loving reality TV so aptly: "These programs had always had an obvious allure: They offered something authentic, buried inside something fake. They stripped away the barrier between the star and the viewer. More than any other cultural product, they functioned as a mirror of the people who watched them—and if that reflection was sometimes cruel, it was also funny, riveting, outrageous, and affecting, even if—maybe especially if—you found it disturbing."

Nussbaum starts with the hidden-microphone radio shows of the 1940s, then moves onto the pioneering and divisive 1970s An American Family and The Gong Show, then the beginnings of the '80s reality boom with Cops and AFV. Finally, she explores the ramp-up and explosion of reality TV in the '90s, '00s, and '10s, from The Real World and Big Brother to Survivor, The Bachelor, Bravo shows, and The Apprentice, arguably the reality show with the most outsize ripple effect on modern political life. Every chapter is fascinating, well-written, and propulsive, often following a scrappy showrunner, a pioneering editor, and some of the contestants on their shows. Nussbaum also critiques the productions through lenses of race, gender, class, fame, and subjectivity/authenticity, all of which made me consider different facets of each show.

What I really loved about this book is the framing conceit of The Truman Show, which also lends the book its title. Reality showrunners and producers have the "godlike power to create stories from the lives of ordinary human beings," and the audience eagerly consumes every minute. The chapters within Cue the Sun! trace the evolution of the participants, as well. In the candid microphone and candid camera shows, as well as first seasons of popular shows, the contestants were often naive Truman types, unsure of how to harness and construct their own image on TV and unaware of the ramifications of such visibility. But as these shows get renewed and we move into the age of Kardashians, Real Housewives, and social media virality, they take a much more active role in shaping their narratives (even if they don't always share in the power).

Overall, a fascinating book and one of the best I've read so far this year.

I've been such a huge fan of Emily Nussbaum's work for a long time. I absolutely loved her first book, and this one was fun! As a huge reality TV fan, it was nice to learn the origins and where it's gotten us now with the TV landscape.

Cue the Sun! is one of the most in depth and well written books I’ve read and Emily Nussbaum delves deep into the history of Reality TV, it’s creation and the figures and shows that helped revolutionize the medium. Nussbaum uses historian level research to look at shows ranging from The Gong Show to Survivor and never makes the reading monotonous or boring all the while peppering in stories of creators, contestants and those surrounding the shows.

Several years ago, I dated someone whose sister lived in LA and worked for the company that edited America’s Next Top Model. She was legally prohibited from sharing wacky Tyra Banks stories; however, I did learn one thing about the business from her. A part of her job was cutting and pasting bits of dialog to make it sound like the contestants said something the producers wished for them to say. Emily Nussbaum’s Cue the Sun: The Invention of Reality TV taught me that these bits of phony dialog are called “frankenbites.”

Writing in an incredibly engaging way, Nussbaum traces the origin of reality TV all the way back to “audience participation” radio shows. These shows featured regular people talking to a host about incredibly inappropriate things. Think of them as a precursor to Jerry Springer, Riki Lake, and Phil Donahue. From there she talks about Candid Camera, the Gong Show, and then An American Family, the PBS series that most resembles reality shows of today. More modern shows like The Real World, Survivor, and The Bachelor get plenty of pages as well.

Cue The Sun is a fascinating look at a subject many love/love to hate. You’ll learn a lot about the culture that produced these types of shows and the making of the shows themselves. I’m grateful that Nussbaum didn’t shy away from the bad side of these shows and how harmful some of them have been to their subjects. Reading it will undoubtedly change the way you watch them.

I am worried about Emily Nussbaum. She clearly needed to watch thousands upon thousands of hours of reality TV to write her book, Cue the SUN!, and I am seriously worried what that can do to someone's mental health.

If you love reality TV, then this review is simple. You must read this book and you will absolutely love every page. If you hate reality TV, then guess what? You and I are in agreement. I hate reality TV. Unless Gordon Ramsay is in it, then it should win an Emmy. All others are trash. All that being said, I still loved this book.

The reasons why everyone should love this book are evident from page 1. Nussbaum's writing style is easy to read, and it feels like a conversation. Also, I am not kidding about how much reality TV she must have watched. She is utterly meticulous, and she consistently brings up events that have long been forgotten. And I mean long forgotten. Nussbaum doesn't start with a show like Survivor. Instead, she traces the roots of reality TV all the way back to the 1940s and works her way to today. The chronology is seamless and a chapter on a show called An American Family is a particular standout. If you aren't keen to go back that far, then you are missing out. However, Nussbaum quickly gets to all the shows you know and love (or love to hate).

There is no way to write this book without inevitably touching on some political hot buttons. The Apprentice was a show after all and is the subject of the final chapter. As someone whose tolerance for political diatribes is zero, I think Nussbaum is fair with her subjects throughout the book. Yes, I don't think it is hard to pick out what side Nussbaum herself is on. However, multiple times I read a chapter and thought, "Hm, I think one extreme would be mad about this part of the chapter, while the other extreme would be mad about another." In the end, Nussbaum's research is so extensive and so well presented that it doesn't matter what side of the aisle you fall on. A great story is just a great story.

(This book was provided as an advance copy by Netgalley and Random House.)

I enjoyed this book. I thought the characters and the narrative structure were very interesting. I would recommend this book to those interested in this genre. I would be interested in reading more from this author.

I would like to thank Random House and Net Galley for the opportunity to read this book as an ARC.This is a fairly lengthy book about Reality TV. Clearly, Emily Nussbaum has done a lot of research on the subject. She begins with the earliest antecedents- Candid Camera , Queen for a Day , and continues through the years with chapters on Chuck Barris's game shows, An American Family, and Cops, for example. She then does a deep dive into several well known franchises- Survivor, The Bachelor,Real World, and Big Brother. She also ends the book with an overlong chapter on The Apprentice, which is to say a long chapter on Donald Trump. A lot of this got boring after a while. There was a lot about the first seasons of shows- I read more about Survivor Borneo than I needed, ,for example ,but little about subsequent seasons. This was a thread - lots about season one, then nothing. And some of the shows are very long running. Which brings me to the shows not mentioned. While there is a lot about the shows that had some unsavory backgrounds, shows that were not as controversial barely rated a mention. There were a few paragraphs about American Idol, nothing about the Voice and a very little about Amazing Race. Top Chef got barely a mention. Project Runway was really only mention for its first season and its connection to Harvey Weinstein. The writer talks about how the TV producers looked for the story lines and people who were most likely to be provocative. I am thinking that this attitude carried over to this book. I have one other , fairly petty comment to make. The cover states- A Pulitzer Prize Winner, under the title. Yes, the writer did win a Pulitzer for her critical columns. The way this is positioned, to me, makes it look like this book is a prize winner. Just my opinion. For the most part, I enjoyed the book. Again, thanks for the opportunity.

I received this as an eGalley from NetGalley.

I don't really watch much reality television but I do enjoy reading about it? A lot of that probably is credit to the writing and research of Emily Nussbaum.

There are only two reality shows I have watched- Survivor so as to join our large extended family in our decades long pool and I used to watch Amazing Race given the global travel buddy theme. The Bravo genre has often left me perplexed as to why people want to watch it. This is why I chose to read Cue the Sun. The well researched author not only pulls back the curtain of “reality” she charts the insatiable audience who wants more, more, more. She also reminds us it has always been with us, Candid Camera, Dating Game etc. As television grew more polished this category did as well. I highly recommend Cue the Sun simply to better understand the history of this genre which is here to stay. And “Bravo” to the author, I read it cover to cover in one weekend!

I've loved Emily Nussbaum's journalism so I was so excited to see she was writing a book! I really enjoyed reading this; the threads that Nussbaum draws out through so different kinds of shows and across many decades. The ethics of reality TV is, for me, the central topic animating this work, and Nussbaum tackled it with nuance and from a variety of perspectives. She also paints detailed, specific pictures of all the people mentioned in the book, which I also admired. My one suggestion would be to include a list of who's who and what shows they were affiliated with, since I did sometimes need a reminder. Overall, would highly recommend this as an engaging cultural history!

I was captivated by Emily Nussbaum's ability to seamlessly transition between different TV shows in this book! Despite not being a fan of the early shows she discusses, I found myself engrossed in her narrative. From Survivor to Project Runway and even the unsettling evolution of Trump, Nussbaum's storytelling kept me hooked.

Viewing reality television started with Survivor. I had been a Peace Corps trainee and then a volunteer in the seventies. I was curious about the conditions the castaways had to endure. I wondered if it was anything like being a volunteer in a country where I was often sick from tainted food, had Dengue Fever, and some form of Typhus they never nailed down. I was always hot in a country with the highest mean temperatures worldwide. Yes, the castaways had a similar experience but suffered from a lack of food more than tainted food. They were hot and even spent a season in the same country where I had volunteered. What I learned about "behind the scenes" in Survivor production had me glued to the page. Big difference in motivation between me and the castaways. They were trying to win a million dollars. I was an idealistic kid trying to make a difference, inspired by JFK.

My heart went out to Tim Gunn for how he was treated on Project Runway. His genuine desire to help a contestant thread a bobbin was a testament to his character. I was relieved when he and Heidi left, and I sincerely hope this kind-hearted educator is enjoying life to the fullest. I eagerly anticipate his future projects.

I am not surprised by how The Apprentice was made or by what Trump said and did during production. Nothing he does surprises me anymore. I am happy that Trump is sitting in court as I read Nussbaum's wonderful book, which is complete with excellent writing and research. At the same time, a jury is being selected for his criminal trial.

Cue the Sun! Reading for every media class in secondary and post-secondary courses should be required. Thank you, Emily Nussbaum, for educating me, making me laugh, and enjoying every page of information.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the advanced copy of the book. The book will be published on June 25, 2024.

I've long been a fan of Nussbaum's writing, and her latest is no exception. Cue the Sun is a thorough, engaging cultural history of the reality tv genre, full of smart observations about the lineage of the genre's tropes. Nussbaum does an excellent job at demonstrating how seeds planted through the decades in the culture industry grew into the current ecosystem. Readers of other television histories will likely be familiar with some of the shows featured here (An American Family, The Real World), but this book goes into much more detail and context than other works.

Emily Nussbaum knocks it out of the park (again) with this incredible history of everyone’s favorite (and sometimes guilty) lowbrow pleasure, Reality TV.

As a child of the (late) 90s, I found this history to be grounding and familiar, while filling in gaps I didn’t know my knowledge was missing. I have a deep interest in the ways that media changed during and after the 9/11 so I personally enjoyed and appreciated that Nussbaum takes care to ground the history and evolution of reality TV within the political and social climate and context.

This read is equally valuable to academics, nerds, and genre fanatics alike — you could give this to your sister in law or discuss it with your Cultured frienemies.

The length of this book can be intimidating but Nussbaum is uniquely talented at making 400+ pages feel like a dear friend is telling you a story.

Thank you to the author and publisher for access to this titled in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book was overly long and detailed. The writer even acknowledged at one point the seemingly long backstory was needed for context. But it was a good overview of the genre which many only hearken back to the turn of the millennium. Readers may get the most out of this book if they have seen a lot of shows mentioned and know more about the personalities discussed.

There are two reasons why I was initially interested in reading “Cue the Sun! The Invention of Reality TV,” by Emily Nussbaum. The first is that, for better or for worse, I’m always looking for an excuse to wax poetic about Allen Funt, and I was quite sure that that itch would be scratched here (it was). The second is that ever since reading an essay by Chuck Klosterman about ‘The Real World’ as a teenager, I’ve been lightly obsessed with the psychology of that and other reality TV programs: what makes somebody want to participate in those sorts of shows? What makes somebody want to *watch* them? These particular brain worms of mine made “Cue the Sun!” sound like exactly the sort of thing I’d find fascinating, and it didn’t disappoint.

From early proto-reality radio programs like Funt’s ‘Candid Microphone’ and the wholesome-ish game shows of early tv, to user-submitted clip shows and 90s sick day staple tv judges and ‘Cops,’ through the invention of discrete reality micro-genres (‘normal strangers living together,’ ‘team survival challenges,’ ‘garish dating shows’ etc.) all the way to touching upon Trump’s ‘The Apprentice,’ Nussbaum weaves a fascinating tapestry from the many threads that make up the history of reality programming. We are taken from the naive early days when nobody really knew what the genre would become or what would be embraced by audiences, to the modern understanding of reality as unreality, as an at least semi-artificial vehicle for fame and fortune. Nussbaum interviews many reality creators, producers, production staff, and cast members, to really get into the depths of how many reality shows were conceived of, produced, and released out into the wild. We hear from cast members of various reality shows, whose experiences range from the generally benign to the catastrophic. Production is by design a side of reality tv that we don’t really see or hear much about, so having a spotlight shone upon some of the things that were going on behind the scenes of big reality productions, especially some of the bigger missteps along the way, was definitely interesting to me. Nussbaum treats her interviewees and subjects with a clear eyed curiosity and respect not normally associated with the reality genre, which I appreciated - nobody was treated as a joke, whatever their reality tv portrayal may have been.

The one missed opportunity, in my opinion, would have been to spend some time casting a reflection upon the audience of reality tv, to invite some introspection as to what it is about these shows makes us so receptive to them despite most of us being generally aware of both their status as “air quotes reality” as well as their tendency to be at least lightly abusive toward their cast members.

All in all, I thought that this was a really fun read, a bit of a palate cleanser that I’d certainly recommend if all this sounds interesting to you, too.

Much thanks to NetGalley and Random House for the opportunity to read & review an ARC copy of “Cue the Sun!”

This review is being posted to GoodReads ( https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/15458637 ) and The StoryGraph ( https://app.thestorygraph.com/profile/suzeisreading ) and linked on Instagram ( @suze.shi )

Engaging and enlightening, this book offers a deep dive into the history of reality TV, far beyond the commonly cited beginnings. Nussbaum's narrative is compelling, making this read a delightful journey through the evolution of a genre that has shaped television. It's a thought-provoking exploration that will appeal to fans of reality TV and those curious about television history.

Really enjoyed this book. Nussbaum is an excellent writer and she really knows her stuff. This is a fascinating look at the social and entertainment history of reality TV and the way it has changed our world—spoiler alert-not for the better. If you have any interest in reality tv, this book is a must read.