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 Reality TV show "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" is now also
wrestling with serious drama after former basketball
professional Lamar Odom collapsed at a Nevada brothel and was
placed on life support in a Las Vegas hospital.
Cable channel E! says it is "not currently shooting in Las
Vegas" for the show, which returns for its 11th season on Nov.
15. But the network declined to say how it planned to handle
what TV watchers acknowledge is a real dilemma involving the
estranged husband of Khloe Kardashian, and the dash to his
bedside of most of the Kardashian clan.
"They are going to have to deal with it. It's not like they can
ignore it. I imagine it will pick up in an aftermath kind of
situation," said Mary McNamara, TV critic of the Los Angeles
Times.
Odom's whirlwind courtship and marriage to Khloe was played out
in detail on "Keeping Up With the Kardashians," which devotes
much of its air time to portraying its stars' beauty treatments
and wardrobe choices, and in the short-lived spin-off "Khloe and
Lamar."
But the couple were on the brink of finalizing their divorce
when the ex-Lakers star was hospitalized.
That poses ethical questions over whether Odom would want to be
included in the shownat this critical stage, and he is in no
condition currently to say so.
"On the one hand, producers should be committed to respecting
privacy, and they should be mindful of consent. On the other
hand, they should be committed to truthfulness," said Wendy
Wyattt, professor of media ethics at the University of St Thomas
in Minnesota.
Yet, as Andy Dehnart, editor of realityblurred.com, noted, "The
Kardashians are dealing with this and their reactions are their
own."
ANYTHING GOES IN REALITY SHOWS
After 15 years as a major force in U.S. pop culture, it is not
the first time that reality TV has dealt with tragedy and
scandal.
"We are long past the point of saying there are certain things
that should not be included in reality shows. There are no
rules," said McNamara.
In 2011, the husband of one of the "Real Housewives of Beverly
Hills" committed suicide. The Bravo show went ahead a month
later, tweaked to include a discussion of the suicide and how
none of the other housewives had seen it coming. It got scathing
reviews.
Long-running "19 Kids and Counting," about the Christian Duggar
family, was canceled in July, two months after the eldest son of
the 19 children acknowledged he had molested four of his younger
sisters about 12 years ago.
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Cable channel TLC in August broadcast a one-hour documentary about
child sexual abuse that included two of the sisters, now in their
20s.
Dehnart said one of the best examples was set by Discovery Channel's
"The Deadliest Catch" after the 2010 death from a stroke of its
popular crab fishing captain, Phil Harris. An episode featuring
Harris' death aired five months later followed by a special tribute
episode
"They did an outstanding job and turned one of their most important
characters' deaths into television art by presenting it in a way
that was cinematic and emotional and really done with care," said
Dehnart.
Wyatt, co-author of "The Ethics of Reality TV: A Philosophical
Examination," said the Kardashians share the obligation of handling
the Odom crisis with the producers of their show.
"As a family whose story has unfolded in public for so many years,
they may not, in my mind, appreciate as fully as they could the
value of restraint," she said.
After the mass coverage of Odom and his bleak prognosis this week,
the battle for TV ratings may also come into play. Audiences for
"Keeping Up With the Kardashians" have fallen in the past two years.
Sunday's season 10 finale was watched by 1.7 million Americans
compared to an average of 3.3 million for season nine.
"If (Odom's situation) becomes a central story line, it might help
ratings temporarily, but we have also seen that these kind of things
don't necessarily draw viewers back in hordes," said Dehnart.
"If anything, it reminds viewers that this isn't just a fantasy
world and that can sometimes turn off people who don't really want
to think about what they are watching but who just want to tune out
and enjoy."
E! television is a unit of Comcast Corp
(Reporting By Jill Serjeant; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
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