How Reality TV Demands the Body. Eliciting and Exploiting Emotions in the Staging of Self-Overcoming in Germany's Next Top Model

In reality TV, the eliciting of emotions and physical expressions and displays is a key strategy to authenticate represented behavior. We follow a multimodal approach to analyze the eliciting of participants' body reactions and the exploiting of provoked emotions in the German reality show Germany's Next Top Model. Here, controllable and staged working situations, such as a catwalk in high altitude, become a mental or physical challenge for the contestants. These challenges trigger uncontrollable affective momentum as the participants must overcome their physical and mental resistance to master the task. We analyze how physical representations are elicited, exploited and applied stage believable images of self-overcoming. The real challenge for the contestant is to regain control of her body and to overcome her fear. Within the staging of authenticity, this illustrates that and how bodily expressions are used to verify mediated events regarding a "claim to 'the real'". The success of the contestants in Germany's Next Topmodel and the appeal of the show both highly depend on whether and how the representation of the evoked self-overcoming appears as credible. To achieve this, the proper staging of elicited emotions and corresponding bodily displays is crucial.