Is Reality TV Jeopardising People's Mental Health?

With the news coming through this week that a guest passed away a week after filming on the Jeremy Kyle Show and now that the shows has been axed for good, it has definitely raised some worrying concerns about how TV shows handle mental health.


Obviously there is a lot of speculation circling about the circumstances surrounding this person's death. It's incredibly sad and if it is due to this person's mental health, then a lot of people need to have a long hard look at themselves.

The Jeremy Kyle Show has been a morning staple show for 15 years now. Let's face it, we see all manner of different walks of life sit onto the stage, whether it's to find out lie detector results, DNA results or to just have a right go at each other. I have been one to watch it numerous times, mostly in the holidays when I'm off work.


I have seen so many people on there arguing and ripping each other to shreds over the slightest things. For example, someone accusing their neighbour of stealing a lawnmower or someone called Tina accusing her partner Martin of cheating on her whilst she was down Tesco's doing a weekly shop. They have chosen to go on the show because they feel Jeremy Kyle or Graham can sort out their issues.


However, have mental health issues taken a back seat on this show? Are other reality shows not taking mental health seriously?

If the JK show knew that this person had mental health issues, then they should have taken great care of their needs and assessed whether they would be able to handle being on the stage and being filmed for millions of people to see. They should have taken into account whether they could handle being interrogated and questioned by Jeremy, he does like to get the truth out of people.


However, this person and their family or friends (whatever the story was) must have seen the show beforehand, so they knew what they were letting themselves in for. It must be a nerve wracking experience going on a TV show anyway, but this is a show which does involve a lot of tense confrontations and arguments. It must be even scarier.


One tweet I did see making the rounds on Twitter after the news broke was this - Love Island have had 2 deaths in the last two seasons from 2 stars from their show, should that be cancelled as well as the Jeremy Kyle Show? You can't have one rule for one and not the other. But because Love Island is so incredibly popular and it's so loved by many (excluding me, I can't stand the show!) , it won't get cancelled because there would be huge uproar. Kind of unjustifiable and hypocritical of ITV if you ask me. I am now currently waiting for a mob of Love Island fans to line up outside of my front door with pitchforks.

I think the TV world need to really take into consideration about how to handle contestants or people's mental health. These are people's lives were talking about. Mental health awareness is so important these days as it's getting more attention than it ever has done before.


I think the axing of the Jeremy Kyle Show has opened up a big can of worms about how shows treat people with mental health and rightfully so!

What do you think about all of this? Let me know!

 

 

Lucy