Elita TV series overview

Recently I spent some chill time with my wife watching the reality show Elita (TV series). In this blog post, I’ll drop some random observations.

Format

• There is a house isolated from the world.
• There are three main groups in the show:
  • Zadrugari (cooperators) – these are the actual people living in the isolated house
  • Novinari (reporters) – these are reporters who visit the house couple of times per week
  • Produkcija (production) – the people behind the scenes, beyond the reporters

Incentives

• Zadrugari “build” their “careers” on the largest TV platform.
• Zadrugari receive a weekly honorarium.
  • There is a reward & punishment system – e.g., if they are asked to perform some task and they don’t, their honorarium will be lower for the week. Also, they won’t get notified for this, so they naturally follow all the rules set by the “production”.

Zadrugari style

• Reality players (those who act) and non-reality players cannot hide too much; emotions are often visible and hard to hide. It’s not about what one says, but more about what one does and how they do it (body language, etc.)
• Some “zadrugari” see what the “production” wants or who they favor (e.g. based on the questions they ask) and decide to follow along and play as required.
• As a result of unhappiness caused by the “production”, some “zadrugari” “withdraw” by doing only the very minimum (e.g., not causing extra drama on purpose) providing only short answers to journalists or finding smart ways around tasks.
• Some “zadrugari” are very good at naturalistic observation and are also good at communicating new theories about a situation. The “production” uses this information to guide situations.
  • They are sometimes restricted by their observations of behavior, leading to accusations of inconsistency like, “You said X then, but now you say not X.” It’s worth noting that higher-level factors, such as people changing over time or not knowing what they actually want, play a role. However, the “zadrugari” often appear overconfident, making everything seem easy and obvious.
• Some “zadrugari” inside are part of the “production” and this is a well-known fact.
  • While they try to be as objective as possible, other “zadrugari” sometimes reach out to seek their advice. However, at times, these “production” people fuel the fire, making it obvious how the “production” wants things to go.

General observations

• Limits are set by what the “production” allows.
• If it were in the US, the show would immediately get shut down. There are basically no limits, and people sometimes behave very weirdly.
• It seems there is one employee per “zadrugar” who maintains a psychological profile for them. The “production” sometimes steers stories the way they want, knowing how different people respond to various stimuli.
• Those joining looking for love inside… the system is set up to cause drama even when there isn’t any, to increase viewer numbers.
• The reporters ask the “zadrugari” questions, which they then have to defend or admit.
• When a group forms naturally, others bring this up and blame it on groupthink.
• Isolated from the world, they get information from reporters who visit several times per week (including what their families are saying, etc.).
• The production is not objective.
• Sometimes the “production” builds up high emotional expectations for the viewers, but in reality, things are different.