University News Last updated 06 June 2014
Reality TV is a "collusion" between tabloids and TV PR professionals, and is on a conveyor belt where death will feature ever more prominently, a Birmingham City University debate, featuring X-Factor winner Steve Brookstein, singer Sinitta and TV presenter Matthew Wright heard.
Channel 5's The Wright Stuff anchor Matthew Wright said collusion between the media and television had saved the tabloid press from oblivion. “By 2002 it was very bleak - buying newspapers is not something young people did anymore. Editors were guided by the TV PR people to collude with each other on coverage that ended up making front page news on a number of tabloid newspapers. Everyone was happy.
“But after a very successful initial collusion I can imagine a scenario where everyone sat down together to say ‘where do we'd go from here. How do we maintain the success?’”
Birmingham City University Professor David Wilson,
who resigned as a consultant on Big Brother 
in protest at the way participants were being goaded to fight each other, told the event: "Death is becoming part of the context of where reality TV will go. That's ultimately the conveyor belt we are on."
Steve Brookstein told the packed City Talks debate on Thursday 5 June, about "the agenda" he felt was at work during the 2004 X Factor show that often resulted in contestants becoming ridiculed by the way they were portrayed. He also expressed his regret at the aftermath of his win: "Before I went on the show, I said to my girlfriend at the time that the only thing I was concerned about was not looking like an idiot. The irony is I didn't look like one during the show, it was only after the show I looked like an idiot."