NZ on Air fund reality TV - did they put their money in the right place?
NZ On Air has announced close to $2.8 million of taxpayer money is slated for local productions Celebrity Treasure Island and The Traitors NZ - a first for the competitive reality series.
The top three winners of NZ On Air's first non-fiction funding round were 7 days, The Traitors NZ, and Celebrity Treasure Island.
Long-running comedy panel show 7 Days - which has been funded for more than a decade - came out on top with $1,493,313.
This year, the public media agency dedicated nearly $2.8 million to local reality TV in response, it says, to a tumultuous media landscape. Without its backing, the shows were unlikely to be made.
Dr Rebecca Trelease is adamant the $1,349,000 for Celebrity Treasure Island and $1,436,911 for The Traitors NZ, is worth it.
Trelease is a senior lecturer in AUT's Critical Media Studies Department and wrote her PhD thesis on the phenomenon of reality television.
Not only is she a studious observer of the genre, she has also been a participant, appearing on the 2016 season of reality dating series The Bachelor NZ.
"Out of all the reality shows that could've been funded in New Zealand, and we have so many... it does actually make sense for the two shows that have been selected to receive funding," she says.
Trelease says the shows act as a mirror to New Zealanders, showing us who we are and how we behave, in a format that can also be exported globally.
Celebrity Treasure Island - a New Zealand original that will make a seventh season in 2026 - is expert at integrating cultural elements, Trealease says.
In the show, well-known New Zealanders team up and battle it out on a beach in various challenges that reward charity. As The Spinoff's Tara Ward explains, between all the silly gameplay, "the show encourages gentle discussions about complex issues like ageism, sexism and queer politics, all on primetime mainstream television".
"What could be more culturally relevant and defining than watching 71 year-old activist Tāme Iti give a moving pep talk to young comedian James Mustapic, or witnessing actor Gaby Solomona help MP Carmel Sepuloni stay in the fight with a quiet rendition of a traditional Samoan song?," Ward writes.
Trelease adds: "We hear different languages spoken in everyday conversation. We see contestants meeting with local iwi, learning about the environment we're in.
"In terms of New Zealand needing to recognise its own culture and respect Indigenous populations in our own country, it makes sense to support Celebrity Treasure Island. It does it really well."
Arts and culture writer Karl Puschmann says the job of reviewing all 18 episodes of last season's Celebrity Treasure Island was daunting - he wasn't a fan.
"I was a relative noob when it came to Celebrity Treasure Island, so had to quickly get up to speed on all the rules, scheming, and how it was actually played ... and I got quite into it."
He says his reviews, which started out a little caustic and snarky, shifted over the dozens of hours he invested in the show, as he picked up a fondness for its broad appeal.
Scenes from the finale of Celebrity Treasure Island 2024.
TVNZ
"What I really liked about it was how Kiwi it was, and how much of our own stories were coming across.
"There was the fun, conniving, back-stabby, secret little mind-game stuff - all that happening, but a lot of the time people were working together and pulling together and that... it sounds a bit cheesy, but it could be quite inspiring to watch on a Sunday evening, combatting the Sunday blues."
Puschmann says for a show that's well made, good family viewing and screens three nights a week for six weeks - $1.4m in taxpayer funds is value for money.
"That doesn't seem like a huge amount. I think the NZ On Air funding should be at least doubled [for local productions].
"How do we know who we are as a country, as a people, as a society, as a culture, if we don't know our own stories?"
When it comes to The Traitors, Trelease says New Zealanders not only have the benefit of observing human behaviour, but as a popular international format, it could has value beyond Aotearoa.
"Audiences worldwide will watch The Traitors - no matter what country it's come from."
The scheming gameshow show puts 22 players head to head - a group of selected Traitors must "murder" the Faithful, while the Faithful must try and outwit and banish the Traitors. The show exists in Australia, the US, Canada as well as a hugely popular BBC One version hosted by Claudia Winkleman which is watched by millions worldwide.
The New Zealand series was hosted by Paul Henry, though that's reportedly about to change.
The cast of The Traitors NZ season two.
SPP
Trelease says the idea that reality television is trashy, cheap or low-brow is misguided.
"[It] doesn't mean it's not valuable. It doesn't mean that it's not showing us our own culture and that it's showing human behaviour, and that it's actually entertaining."
NZ On Air chief executive Cameron Harland says while reality shows have been funded in the past, the decision to support Celebrity Treasure Island and The Traitors NZ is new - and unsurprising.
"We could see this coming with our local platforms continuing to face declining advertising revenue."
The move away from linear television has coincided with applications for shows that would normally be commercially funded.
Harland says that rang alarm bells, so the decision was made to open this year's non-fiction funding rounds to reality series - albeit on a limited basis.
"What we were also saying was we're aware that local audiences engage with this content [and] it's unlikely to be made in the current environment."
Harland says the audience is at the heart of the application process, which he describes as robust, accounting for myriad factors, such as production size and employment.
"We expect a whole bunch of different people to engage in that content. It's going to do a lot for the money that we put into it."
Dr Rebecca Trelease.
Supplied
Cameron Harland of NZ on Air
Copyright 2013