The D-list named a new celebrity tier that had fame without bankability.

Evidence

In the early 2000s, the D-list entered common parlance as a loose category meant to cover a new kind of figure who was somehow famous but not in a way understood by existing metrics. As Gareth Palmer writes, those on the D-list occupied the “space between the unknown mass of ordinary people and the celebrity.” The D-listers had no bankability; their achievement, instead, was, as one writer put it, having “triumphed over obscurity.” The archetype was, of course, the reality television star, though it could include others like models, romantic partners of celebrities, or faded pop stars. To be D-listed was not necessarily flattering, for it seemed also to refer to those who didn’t know their place; whose efforts to become or remain famous were embarrassing and therefore worthy of broadcast for general amusement. Nonetheless, the very establishment of a D-list undeniably suggested that the line between famous and not was beginning to blur. — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1027

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains D-list as the space between the unknown masses and celebrity proper, tied to the rise of reality TV stardom.
• XREF: connects to: Celebrity fame now functions as a loss leader for other products — W. David Marx, Blank Space: A Cultural History of the…, 656

Broader Connections

• Celebrity fame now functions as a loss leader for other products #expands (0.82) — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 656