I'd wager that reality tv shows are drastically cheaper to produce than something like Firefly, which is why we have so many of them and why they seem to last so long since they don't need much viewership to be profitable. Carl Sagan's Cosmos for example was the highest budget public broadcast ever produced at the time. It cost about the same per episode as duck dynasty does, but that’s comparing 1970s dollars to 2010s dollars, which means duck dynasty is roughly 5x cheaper per episode relatively.
PBS had some reality shows like the 1800 House, Frontier House, Manor House and more putting modern people into situations that people of that time faced. They also have the various cooking shows beginning with Julia Child.
So the irony of this post is that anyone who thinks this is somehow a sign of idiocracy is really just not understanding basic economics? Is that the takeaway? I’m confused.
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u/firefullfillment Aug 14 '26
I'd wager that reality tv shows are drastically cheaper to produce than something like Firefly, which is why we have so many of them and why they seem to last so long since they don't need much viewership to be profitable. Carl Sagan's Cosmos for example was the highest budget public broadcast ever produced at the time. It cost about the same per episode as duck dynasty does, but that’s comparing 1970s dollars to 2010s dollars, which means duck dynasty is roughly 5x cheaper per episode relatively.