“It’s your winner, Australia! So jump onto your phones and text the name of the person you want to see go through to 141 300 – or now you can even vote via your laptop or iPad through the official website” is a request we’ve all heard our favourite reality show host say through our screens, yearning the viewers to spend their hard earned money on helping others earn fame, fortune and an inevitable stint in rehab.

From Australian Idol to Big Brother, The Voice to Dancing with the Stars – nearly every competition based reality show relies on viewer votes for an outcome that the nation will no doubt have a say on. This idea of second screens, put simply, follows “three basic criteria that a device must fit if it wants to call itself a second screen… connectivity… app functionality… [and] must have a screen… laptops, tablets, smartphones, and handheld gaming units can all be used as a second screen,” to enhance the viewer experience (Poltrack, 2012). This idea connects so closely to the genre of reality TV as this genre is all about being ‘real life’ and offers viewers a non-scripted look at a real scenario. For example, Big Brother is all about a collection of strangers forced to live in a house together with cameras and microphones catching their every move – where ultimately one will outlast all the evictions to be the winner of the show. On the flip side, The Voice is a singing reality show in which artists audition for their next ‘big break’ and an easy way to make it into the entertainment industry. Throughout auditions, ‘bootcamp’-esque rounds and finally the live shows, these artists vie for the viewer’s votes to ensure they make it each week and then finally to win the show.

The concept of second screens works so well with reality television as the viewer can find extra content, behind the scenes or live feed action, as well as polls and bios on contestants. The Nielsen reports suggests that during the latter half of 2012, “86% of tablet owners and 84% of smartphone owners in the United States said they used their second screen of choice while simultaneously watching TV at least once during a 30-day period.” (Hare, 2012) The future of second screens on television are inevitably going to become more than simply some live Tweets rolling across the screen, Nigel Lythgoe (the creator of American Idol) said this about second screens and their future with American Idol saying that they were “actively looking at ways to integrate the second screen into the singing competition in the future” (Lythgoe in Warren, 2013) which means it is a topic worth speaking about because it is going to have such a huge effect.

I believe it is only a matter of time until second screens become a necessity when watching television, and in particular the genre of reality television where a live vote through a participating device is used to determine the fate of contestants. While we have seen snippets of this in current shows, I believe it will soon become the only way to vote for a contestant to remain on any particular show.

 

Hare, Breeanna (2012) “Twice as much TV? How networks are adapting to the second screen” CNN

Poltrack, Adam (2012) “The second screen explained: What it is and why we’ll be seeing a lot more of it in the near future” Digital Trends 

Warren, Christina (2013) “When Did the ‘Second Screen’ Become a Thing?” Mashable Australia