The Great Recession pushed television toward cheap unscripted reality formats.

Evidence

The Kardashians’ rise was part of a broader shift in television during the Great Recession. While movies leaned into bombastic blockbusters, television shifted to cheaper, unscripted programming. — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 229

The Kardashians’ rise was part of a broader shift in television during the Great Recession. While movies leaned into bombastic blockbusters, television shifted to cheaper, unscripted programming. By 2010, scripted shows like Friends, CSI, and Everybody Loves Raymond had waned, and reality TV dominated prime time, with American Idol and Dancing with the Stars consistently topping the charts. The format’s international appeal turned it into a juggernaut of global low-cost entertainment. — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 229

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — W. David Marx, Blank Space: A Cultural History of the…, 229
• XREF: connects to: Reality TV blends real and staged content to harvest attention cheaply — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 853; Late-90s television desperation produced increasingly bizarre reality shows