A confessional is a stylistic device used in many

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...

shows. It is a type of

aside An aside is a dramatic device in which a character speaks to the audience. By convention, the audience is to realize that the character's speech is unheard by the other characters on stage. It may be addressed to the audience expressly (in chara ...

, consisting of cutaways to a

close-up A close-up or closeup in filmmaking, television production A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, s ...

shot of one (or occasionally more) cast members talking directly to camera. Confessionals are used to provide

narration Narration is the use of a written or spoken commentary to convey a story to an audience. Narration is conveyed by a narrator: a specific person, or unspecified literary voice, developed by the creator of the story to deliver information to the ...

exposition Exposition (also the French for exhibition) may refer to: *Universal exposition or World's Fair *Expository writing *Exposition (narrative), background information in a story * Exposition (music) *Trade fair * ''Exposition'' (album), the debut alb ...

, and commentary on ongoing action within the show. In small groups, a confessional may provoke a fellow cast member or reveal something about the other cast members from their reactions. They can also be directed at the audience as an appeal to not vote a cast member off of the program. While confessionals are typically presented as an immediate reaction to events in the show (an illusion enforced by the use of the present tense), they are generally filmed later, sometimes much later, and often at another location. Cutaway interviews have their origin in

documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

making. Confessionals in the modern sense may have begun with ''

The People's Court ''The People's Court'' is an American Court show#Arbitration-based reality court show, arbitration-based reality court show, featuring an arbitrator handling small claims court, small claims disputes in a simulation, simulated courtroom set. W ...

'', in which litigants gave interviews to the

court reporter A court reporter, court stenographer, or shorthand reporter is a person whose occupation is to capture the live testimony in proceedings using a stenographic machine or a stenomask, thereby transforming the proceedings into an official certif ...

after arguing their case, in the style of post-game interviews. ''

Judge Judy ''Judge Judy'' is an American arbitration-based reality court show presided over by former Manhattan Family Court Judge Judith Sheindlin. The show featured Sheindlin as she adjudicated real-life small-claims disputes within a simulated court ...

'' later dropped the court reporter from these interactions, and had litigants speak directly to camera. Confessionals were also used on

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

's '' The Real World'', which debuted in 1992. Beginning in its second season in 1993, cast members had a room in their dwellings where they could record their thoughts on the goings-on of the house, in addition to the standard interviews with producers asking leading questions. Confessionals have been criticized as a "gimmick" of the reality TV genre that has lost its freshness and purpose, and their introduction to more traditional

game show A game show (or gameshow) is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment where contestants compete in a game for rewards. The shows are typically directed by a game show host, host, who explains the rules of the program as well as commentating a ...

s has been derided. The confessional device has been deployed in scripted series parodying the reality genre, most notably ''

The Office ''The Office'' is the title of several mockumentary sitcoms based on a British series originally created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant as '' The Office'' in 2001. The original series also starred Gervais as manager and primary charac ...

'' and ''

Modern Family ''Modern Family'' is an American television sitcom, created by Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd, that aired on ABC for 11 seasons from September 23, 2009, to April 8, 2020. The series follows the lives of three diverse but interrelated fa ...

''.

References

{{reflist, refs={{cite news, last1=Murray, first1=Noel, title=Please kill the reality TV "confessional", url=https://www.avclub.com/please-kill-the-reality-tv-confessional-1798277815, access-date=18 December 2017, work=The A.V. Club, date=March 23, 2015 Reality television