Joanne Morreale’s “Revisiting The Osbournes: The Hybrid Reality Sitcom”(2003) asserts that the Osbournes reality television show was a surprising hit between 2001 and 2002. Morreale backs up her claim in saying that their television show was one of the highest rated programs on cable television and also the most successful series in MTV’s twenty-one year history. The reality sitcom follows the lives of Ozzy Osbourne, his wife Sharon, and Jack and Kelly. The television show began being moved to places such as Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom. Morreale also goes on to explain that because of the shows success the Osbournes began making many public appearances and were becoming more and more popular in the eyes of the public. Morreale
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Pragmatics are the uses to which texts are put. Altman writes “Genres are not only formal arrangements of textual characteristics; they are also social devices that use semantics and syntax to assure simultaneous satisfaction on the part of multiple users with apparently contradictory purpose.” (195) Morreale says that genres are the interaction between the producers, viewers, and texts, viewers may read the text and have totally different views of the text. The Osbournes the producers tried to reach the eighteen- to thirty-four-year-old age bracket. The program was made to appeal to younger audiences. MTV didn’t expect The Osbournes to take off like Real World (1992-), Road Rules (1993-), or VH1’s Behind The Music (1997-) so they only committed to airing ten episodes. It was typical for the eighteen- to thirty-four-year-old age bracket to watch things like Survivor (2000-) and Big Brother (2000-) but in April 2002 the eighteen- to thirty-four-year-old age demographics top ten shows all of those including The Osbournes. The Osbournes managed to use the dynamics of shows like Celebrity Fear Factor (2001-), Celebrity Death Match (1998-), and Celebrity Boxing (2002-) in the authors’ words she says, “Rather than turning ordinary people into celebrities, these new shows turned celebrities into ordinary people.” Which is exactly what The Osbournes sought out to
Pragmatics are the uses to which texts are put. Altman writes “Genres are not only formal arrangements of textual characteristics; they are also social devices that use semantics and syntax to assure simultaneous satisfaction on the part of multiple users with apparently contradictory purpose.” (195) Morreale says that genres are the interaction between the producers, viewers, and texts, viewers may read the text and have totally different views of the text. The Osbournes the producers tried to reach the eighteen- to thirty-four-year-old age bracket. The program was made to appeal to younger audiences. MTV didn’t expect The Osbournes to take off like Real World (1992-), Road Rules (1993-), or VH1’s Behind The Music (1997-) so they only committed to airing ten episodes. It was typical for the eighteen- to thirty-four-year-old age bracket to watch things like Survivor (2000-) and Big Brother (2000-) but in April 2002 the eighteen- to thirty-four-year-old age demographics top ten shows all of those including The Osbournes. The Osbournes managed to use the dynamics of shows like Celebrity Fear Factor (2001-), Celebrity Death Match (1998-), and Celebrity Boxing (2002-) in the authors’ words she says, “Rather than turning ordinary people into celebrities, these new shows turned celebrities into ordinary people.” Which is exactly what The Osbournes sought out to