Production costs per viewer, not popularity, drive what gets televised.

Evidence

Reality TV’s explosion in the US began with Survivor in 2000. Executive producer Mark Burnett, inspired by the 1997 Swedish program Expedition: Robinson, pitched the idea of a wilderness survival competition to every major network. The project was initially dismissed as too lowbrow, but CBS gave Burnett the green light after he promised to produce it cheaply. — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 230 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Cheap production costs drove hundreds of reality shows into every conceivable attention-capture niche — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 848; Cheap production costs got reality competition shows greenlit — W. David Marx, Blank Space: A Cultural History of the…, 230; Institutional incentives, not human nature, drive televised violence. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 954 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Cheap production costs got reality competition shows greenlit #exemplifies (0.92) — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 230