CHAPTER 5The Metaverse Building Blocks
It's no secret that reality TV has become one of the most pervasive and lucrative entertainment formats there is. Big Brother, Survivor, and The Real World proved there was intrigue in watching everyday people on television. Keeping up with the Kardashians showed us just how big and influential reality TV could be. Many cable networks in the early 2000s—including Bravo, A&E, E!, TLC, History, VH1, and MTV—pivoted almost their entire programming schedule to reality TV. And just when we think that we've had our fill of our reality shows, a network will drop another spin-off with a slightly different twist.
However, a reality TV twist none of us saw coming was the viewer getting the chance to affect the outcome of a reality show. We're not referring to fan voting on American Idol but, rather, a reality show whose entire plot and moving force is in the hands of the collective viewership.
That show was Rival Peak. Launched at the end of 2020, Rival Peak was an experimental competition reality show, featuring 12 AI contestants whose fate and survival was controlled by the viewers. The whole experience existed on Facebook Watch and consisted of 13 different streams. Twelve of those streams were dedicated to each individual contestant, allowing viewers to follow their favorite (or least favorite) character in a 24/7 live stream and cast votes on an interactive overlay deciding the outcome of certain things such as tomorrow's weather, help or hinder ...
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