What Jeremy Kyle and a tragic death reveal

The British used to laugh at American reality television. They then joined a race to the bottom of a genre whose demise may finally be near

For those unacquainted with British reality television, Steve Dymond, a 63-year-old man, appeared on The Jeremy Kyle Show in 2019. On camera, crying in a highly distressed state, he had denied cheating on his partner. This kind of “emotional” scene, with people’s private lives turned public for all to digest, is what is quietly known as “good television…