Has the American TV audience finally had it with reality shows’ bad eggs, and will it instead tune in to people doing good?
ABC banked on that pendulum swing last March with Oprah Winfrey’s Oprah’s Big Give, wherein 10 fledgling philanthropists vied to change the lives of complete strangers by giving out cash in the most effective and outlandish ways (the premiere attracted some 15.6 million viewers). And Discovery Communications’ Planet Green, an environment-themed digital and satellite cable channel that debuted last June, currently features such fare as Greensburg, a show that tracks the green restoration of a Kansas town destroyed by a tornado.
One of the most ambitious efforts to bring philanthropy to the mass media will launch next year. The newly formed San Francisco-based Generocity Media, still in its funding stage, will offer programming focused on giving through satellite and cable stations as well as a Web portal. It will use a variety of formats—reality TV, news magazine, talk show, and drama—and will target specific audiences. The millennial generation, for instance, might be enticed by programming in broadband or mobile. Higher-income viewers loyal to PBS might tune in to Generocity shows about family giving on satellite or cable.
But will audiences find giving entertaining? “Yeah, people are into it,” says Ben Schick, Generocity Media’s CEO. “I feel very strongly that we’re moving into an age of giving, away from an age of consumption. If consumption made people happy, Americans would be the happiest people on Earth, and they’re not.”
At the least, capturing philanthropic acts on film would be a moving experience for viewers, thinks David Levy, Generocity’s chairman. “A lot of these stories—say Jim Gordon, who has helped disaster relief workers overcome post-traumatic stress disorder in Gaza, Kosovo, and New Orleans—aren’t emotionally impactful when you read them. But when you see them … in that moment of inspiration you can get people to take action.”
Read more stories by Jennifer Roberts.