American reality competition television is showing its softer side

By B.H. | WASHINGTON DC

WHAT makes a good reality competition show? In the early 2000s American television executives created a winning formula. Large sums of money were put on offer and mind-bogglingly difficult challenges—like making a dress out of found material, or maintaining haute-couture elegance amid a swarm of bees—stood in the way of it. Fellow contestants provided additional drama, with a survival-of-the-fittest atmosphere and a rallying cry of “I’m not here to make friends!” Judges handed down biting one-liners. Tears flowed.

But the parameters changed in 2014, when “The Great British Bake Off” landed on American shores and demonstrated a softer, slower model of competition. It was a show built on nostalgia and warmth; compassion rather than antagonism. Contestants often helped each other to complete their challenges. The hosts made silly double entendres. Paul Hollywood, one of the judges, was considered a villain merely for giving his honest assessment of the baked goods. It was an immediate hit.

Now American networks are applying the lessons of that show’s success. “Making It” (pictured, top), which premiered in late July on NBC, has contestants craft objects such as photo albums and children’s forts in a picturesque barn on a sprawling green estate. Celebrity hosts Amy Poehler (an actress and “crafting idiot”) and Nick Offerman (who owns Offerman Woodshop, a woodworking collective, as well as working as an actor) preside over the action alongside two expert judges, Simon Doonan and Dayna Isom Johnson. Winners for each of the two challenges are given patches to sew onto their apron and one contestant is sent home each week. The cash prize of $100,000 awaiting the victorious “Master Crafter” is only spoken of in the opening credits because, as Mr Offerman says, “the real prize is a job well done.”

Here, too, we see contestants striking up friendships and supporting one another in both success and defeat. Mr Doonan and Ms Johnson are playful in their critiques, concerned mostly with the “coolness” of an idea and the neatness of the execution. Ms Poehler and Mr Offerman—known for their roles in “Parks and Recreation”, a beloved sitcom—are delightfully entertaining in themselves. Segments feature the skilled comedians and long-time friends riffing on the very competition shows from which “Making It” deviates so sharply, setting each other strange craft-related challenges, or talking about doing away with the competition altogether and building a commune. Everyone is having a good time and, as a viewer, you can’t help but wish you were sitting in on the fun. In one episode, contestants were tasked with building an outdoor activity for a party, which the hosts and judges then gleefully tested out.

While “Making It” is still a celebration of skill, Netflix’s “Nailed It!” (pictured, above) revels in the amateur element of amateur competitions. Three contestants who each have a “terrible track record” in the kitchen compete to recreate two elaborate baking projects. Judges Nicole Byer and Jacques Torres, a comedian and a pastry chef, are joined by a different celebrity guest each episode, and together the trio chooses a winner for the show’s $10,000 prize based on taste and aesthetic quality. The show’s format may sound tried-and-tested, but the special ingredient is the utter lack of talent on display. Sometimes the winner is whoever has made a cake that has held its shape, or one that isn’t still raw. Expectations are wonderfully low.

And everyone is in on the joke. The camera lingers on awkward silences, weird facial expressions or genuine laughter as the judges try to crack each other up. There is no indication that any of the participants will improve or manage something impressive at the last moment. Contestants, in trying to help each other, often do more harm than good. The judges laugh at the contestants, who laugh at themselves as they announce with a flourish: “Nailed it!” As Ms Byer says in one chaotic episode, “This is the ‘Nailed It!’ of TV shows.”

Yet these shows’ success is not another case of people having enough of experts and wanting to watch the everyman have a go. Rather, for reality series, they feel oddly divorced from modern America. Where once the schadenfreude of competitive television may have appealed, it is difficult to take joy in the misery of others when anger is so pervasive. Instead, a brief sojourn in a bucolic paradise where people have a great time, are kind to each other and create something they care about—or else do their best, and find humour in fallibility—is much needed. Television executives have nailed it.