The world of reality TV is growing and soon we might be seeing titles like The White House or Keeping Up With Terror, where the former is about events that happen in the US president’s official home and the latter how whomever the US declares as terrorists operate on a daily basis.
You might think this is reaching, but after what we have seen in recent years, this is not far-fetched at all. Coming from a culture of home videos, reality TV shows filled a gap and soon just about every subject had been adapted into a show.
We’ve seen productions like Jersey Shore and Keeping Up With the Kardashians make tons of money for those involved. At first it was just a narcissistic fest, but soon enough we realised it was a marketing tool. So if R&B singer Fantasia dropped an album, you would not hear it first from her PR team, but from the show, because they’d have shown how the album came to be.
The Christian world, usually known for it’s meekness, has also followed this trend and soon, we may see something from the Vatican. So far, gospel singers Mary Mary, Deitrick Haddon and now Ben Tankard have jumped on the bandwagon.
Tankard joins the trend with Thicker Than Water: The Tankards which is an obvious account of the singer and his family. We meet his wife Jewel and their kids as they navigate life, the Christian way. As a former basketball player and now a prolific gospel singer, it is understandable why a channel would want to invest in a show like this and with a second season coming, the numbers must be good. The show is described as a mixture of faith and fortune where the belief is that God wants us to be millionaires. This is in keeping with some modern churches that promise people God’s blessings, ie lotsa money.
Yet there are many people in the gospel circles who have shunned this reality TV fad. After the release of Preachers of LA, Kirk Franklin said it was drawing people away from God despite its intentions.
TD Jakes has also said that while he has been asked by his gospel music peers to produce a reality TV of his own, he is not interested in “that junk” as he called it. He said he makes his money off the movies and books he sells and nothing else. For him, reality TV is selling out Christian values for the money off the ratings.
Donnie McCliurkin also shunned reality TV, saying it does not respect privacy and diverts believers from the Christian faith. He admits that while there is no sin in being rich, rubbing a congregation’s face in it is in bad taste.
• Thicker Than Water: The Tankards airs on Sundays at 6pm on Vuzu (DStv channel 116).