I recently have been binge watching The Great British Baking Show on Netflix, and it is such a good show. The contestants are so nice to each other, and at the end of each season is a big celebration of everyone who competed. But, in general, I love any show where people make food, but I especially love cooking competition shows. They always have me at the edge of my seat waiting to see who wins and “who will be chopped.”
It isn’t just cooking competition shows that reel me in, but any competition show. Jeopardy, Dancing with the Stars, RuPaul’s Drag Race, America’s Next Top Model, and American Ninja Warrior are some of my favorites to binge and, more times than I want to admit, I end up crying when it is revealed who wins.
This doesn’t just happen to me, maybe the crying thing is just me, but the interest in competition shows is extremely high. Almost every channel has competition shows now- The Bachelor on ABC, America’s Got Talent on NBC, Survivor on CBS, Masterchef on Fox, and on and on.
There are so many competition shows, and so many types of competition shows, there is one for anybody who is looking to get really excited for people they have never met before. The Game Show Network is literally completely dedicated to showing people participating in competition shows.
During my Netflix binge, I wondered why these shows do so well and I came up with a broad answer- seeing people succeed makes us feel good about ourselves.
In general, seeing people succeed at extraordinary things feels like we are winning too. Winning at anything releases serotonin in your brain, which makes you feel good, and is why winning is so awesome.
People want to succeed to feel the reward in our brain. This comes into play constantly- when we play board games, when we are in conflict with others, and even when we watch competition TV shows.
Underdogs are labeled as such because they have to work much harder than those around them, and it is not expected that they will win. When underdogs are on competition shows, we support them because we recognize how much harder they had to work to be on the show with everyone else. We root for them in hopes to see them beat the odds and because we can see ourselves in their struggle.
These shows always show clips of the people competing so that the people watching can connect to them and support them. We root for the people like us. We root for the average Joe who wants to be more, people who came from nothing and those who still have nothing, people who are members of a minority race, gender, or sexuality group, children who remind us of ourselves, and even elderly people who are showing the world all that they have to offer.
Seeing someone who could be you succeed on national television is inspiring and shows everyone that being the underdog doesn’t mean you can’t be the best at something. It gives you a pick-me-up to see others succeed because succeeding is inherently rewarding.
Competition TV shows are very rewarding to watch and, because there are so many that exist, everyone can find something that they could see themselves doing.
Emma Farina
Opinions Columnist