Reality Bites

Sometimes it’s the author, not the subject. Show me a history of reality TV and, honestly, sorry, I don’t much care. But show me a history of reality TV written by Emily Nussbaum, the New Yorker staff writer and former TV critic (winner of a Pulitzer Prize in 2016 for pieces on Joan Rivers and Mad Men, among other worthy topics), and I am now very interested.

Cue the Sun!: The Invention of Reality TV does not disappoint. This is a smart, thorough, often skeptical history of the genre. It is also witty and extremely entertaining. What it is not is fan service for Bachelor Nation or the kinds of viewers who can tell you off the top of their heads how many Real Housewives have been arrested. (The number seems to be in the dozens.)