TV drama openings - How are genre conventions used?

TV drama offers a wide range of genres to work from. The definition of a TV drama is: 'Television content that is scripted and (normally) fictional. This excludes, for example; news, reality, sport etc.' There are many sub genres within TV drama, some of these are: soap operas, reality -real life and constructed, medical and crime. These are just some of the sub genres that TV dramas are subdivided into. The general knowledge about TV dramas is that they focus on the stereotypes of people and play on them to create a programme. For example, in Eastenders they really pull across the cockney accents, the costume on say a teenage mum. The genre that I am going to be focusing on is reality drama, real life in specific. 
The definition of a reality TV show is: 'A genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents etc.' I have chosen three openings to focus my attention on: The only way is Essex, Geordie Shore and The Real Housewives of New York City. What these all have in common is a great feature that reality TV shows hold, they all focus their time on a number of people all interconnected with each other. The fact they all know and see each other all the time is the factor that may have been scripted. The first programme that I'm going to analyse is 'The Only Way is Essex' 

Below, is a video of the opening to The Only Way is Essex:



The first thing we see is a statement. 
'This programme contains flash cars, big watches and extreme posing. the tans you see might be fake, but the people are all real though some of what they do has been set up purely for your entertainment.' This is complimented with a voice over and is the only part of speech we here through the whole opening. It offers humour, enlightenment into what the programme may contain and also warns us that all the people are real and what they say isn't scripted, however some of what they have been told to do has been set up, but only to make sure that the programme isn't boring and that it keeps us entertained. The whole reason for this statement, although putting across a vital point at the end is to keep the film light hearted and entertain us.
Behind the moving images we have a very catchy soundtrack. As soon as we hear this track, we will now associate it with The Only Way is Essex. This is a vital part of a TV drama as the soundtrack is what helps the audience to recognise the programme.
We are then introduced to all of the characters that will be featured in the programme. As you can see most of them are very stereotypical. All of the women and men have bright fake tans, heavy make up, all well dressed and hair perfect. They are trying to sell the image of Essex as being constantly well dressed and done up for an average day. Later on do we find out that the Essex accent is pulled through nice and strong to compliment the image. 

The last image we are graced with is the final title and the whole cast together. The title itself is also staged in a way that will make us associate the font and colours with the programme.

Next we have Geordie Shore. Unlike The Only Way is Essex, it doesn't have a statement at the start of the show as it's a little different. In this show, we have a number of 'geordies' put in a house together to work together for a period of time. However, they get up to a lot more than work. Nevertheless, quite similar to TOWIE we have an introduction to each character. This time, the voice over from the characters are telling us something about them. From this, we get a stereotypical geordie, up for a laugh, quite boisterous, not afraid to say what they feel and ready for a party.

From the introduction of people we can see that they are very superficial. This is the director playing on the stereotypes and making sure all the boys are with fake tans, eyebrows perfect, hair perfect, and all with good physique. The ladies: hair done up, full face of make up, fake tan. All of this is drawing a specific type of audience in. Mostly teenagers, fascinated how people can look, well, fake all the time. However this sort of entertainment is the best sort of entertainment as it's just so humerous to watch.

There isn't much of a soundtrack, just music to fill the silence as they want us to focus more on what the characters are saying as they are building these people in the video for us to be interested and want to know what these people get up to in their day to day lives.

Lastly we have The Real Housewives of New York. This already in the title tells us it's a reality TV show as we have the word 'real' in the title. We can tell that this may be aimed at an older audience as mums want to watch and either envy over the simple lives that these women have or hate that these women have the life and they don't. 
Just like the other two programmes we are introduced to all the different characters one by one. This programme combines the two above in the sense that it uses the music and the characters voices to introduce the programme. The voice overs however are giving across the image of sophistication, snobbery and 'look at us we have it all'. The women are fake in looks, as plastic surgery has undoubtedly been used, however they are fake in a rather classy way. Everything about the opening is very prim and proper unlike the other two which are more down and gritty. 
The last image we are left with is a spin off the Desperate Housewives image with all the ladies holding a golden apple and all dressed in black. This gives us a sense that these are real women living the real life of the fictional characters in the soap Desperate Housewives. This is using the fan base from that programme to transfer to this reality TV drama.