Young viewers proved the core reality-show demographic partly through hoping for their own fame

Evidence

The key demographic for reality television had always been young viewers. Perhaps this was because of the genre’s origins on MTV, or simply youth’s relative willingness to believe in their own chance of achieving fame in their lifetime (outside of the political class, the middle-aged are under fewer such delusions). — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 848

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the earlier attention-industry observation that hope and aspiration feed attention capture — connects to Wu’s overall thesis about hope as a lever. — connects to: Television could manufacture overnight celebrities from ordinary contestants. — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 482; Celebrity culture shifted from awe at achievement to flattering self-mirroring — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 397; Reality television created a fame path requiring no talent — W. David Marx, Blank Space: A Cultural History of the…, 145 (+1 more)
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Television could manufacture overnight celebrities from ordinary contestants. — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 482; Celebrity culture shifted from awe at achievement to flattering self-mirroring — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 397; Reality television created a fame path requiring no talent — W. David Marx, Blank Space: A Cultural History of the…, 145 (+1 more)