When “Balloon Boy” took flight it was later discovered that his false journey was a ploy for his family to get its own reality television show, an ambition not unheard of these days.

Graduate teaching assistant Brad Gyori of the Film and Media Studies department said he thinks one of the main reasons people want to be on reality TV is because it gives them a sense of identity.

“People want fame, and as silly as it may seem, some people feel it’s the closest thing to immortality,” Gyori said. “In a way, they live forever. We turn on the TV and see people who have been dead for years and people want that.”

The reality TV show “The Real World” came to Phoenix on Oct. 13 in search of people between the ages of 18 and 24 for its next season.

Broadcast journalism sophomore Lina Washington first went to the tryouts to support a friend, but she decided to audition once she got there.

“I figured as long as I was there, I would try out,” she said. “I thought it would be pretty cool to have that experience.”

But Washington said if she had made it past the first round or was picked for the show, she wouldn’t have agreed.

“I don’t dig the cameras everywhere all the time,” she said. “I love being onstage and performing, but there is a difference between a performance and a personal life.”

Gyori’s said the “rituals of entertainment” began as sacrifices for the gods by ancient Greeks, rather than a show for each other.

People would take to the woods and rip flesh off animals and run amok to honor the gods until the Greeks decided to make entertainment more artificial, Gyori said.

“They figured it wasn’t constructive to make animal sacrifices and have drunk orgies, so they decided to have people just act things out,” he said.

But in regard to reality television, Gyori said most participants have their own limits.

“People will always have different levels of how far they are willing to go,” he said. “Some people will always think the price of reality TV is worth it.”

Academic associate Matt Rodgers of the Film and Media Studies department, said he focuses on reality TV in his new media classes.

Part of the reason people want to get on reality TV is because society doesn’t really view some of these things as degrading, he said.

“I personally think some of the things they have people on reality TV do are really humiliating,” he said. “On reality shows, there’s this culture where it’s cool to make a spectacle of yourself.”

The audience also plays a role by watching. By viewing the shows, the public condones them, he said.

“As long as there is an audience for it, people are going to want to be on reality TV,” he said. “Producers need to fill the channels — this is a cheap way to do it. And there are always people who want to be famous.”

Reach the reporter at sheydt@asu.edu.