The best backstory from all the top 10 My Top Billing Dream contestants is that of Jonathan Boynton-Lee.
Here's a guy who was adopted, who recently found his birth mother, who carries small tattoos on his body with things like his parents' initials and the place he was adopted from, and now might find television redemption through viewers who will like him. Because, if you make it as a TV presenter on television - the most populist medium of them all - you're there because the camera, and viewers, love you.
In the world of reality television, the backstory is secretly as important - if not more - as the actual look and on-air actions of the contestants - it's the intriguing, engrossing, relatable, often-sad yet redemptive "real life" backstory which endears a contestant to the TV viewer, make them feel like they "know" them or want to root for them to succeed.
The contestant in the Top 10 of the My Top Billing Dream reality show on SABC3 with by far the best backstory (if you're a TV producer you've found gold if this type of story presents itself) is Jonathan Boynton-Lee. He revealed in the first episode that he was adopted (as he's framed on camera playing with his nephew - sweet!) and recently found his birth mother. It nothing short of nuclear explosion level emotional television.
The backstory is often what gives a particular reality television contestant an instant immediate edge on the others. Think back to what you really remember of a reality TV contestant during a particular show. Chances are ... you don't.
You're much more likely to remember the emotional, heartwrenching and relatable backstory of Kartin Kortje - the poor apple picker from Grabouw; that Elvis Blue got his name from singing to a dying Aids orphan and wanted to sing to make him proud; or that James Bhemgee was a municipal rubbish collector before being discovered - and winning - SA's Got Talent. Those sad tales were revealed before their reality television journey even started on screen. And so powerful is that narrative that viewers often vote to keep them.
Now there's Jonathan Boynton-Lee, the adventure seeker whose moving story interwoven into the My Top Billing Dream reality show on SABC3 is another powerful new example of reality backstory functionality as a presentation device.
What the contestant offer up in personal revelations and lose in privacy, they gain in instant, and growing, viewer appreciation. The more "open" the contestant appears to be - specifically in sharing very painful and private and emotional matters, the more viewers start to feel for that particular contestant. Jonathan Boyton-Lee did so immediately with several eye-popping, yet genuine revelations which surfaced in the first episode and which basically trumped all 9 other backstories ... by far.
Jonathan Boynton-Lee was the only contestant out of the 10 My Top Billing Dream contestants to be seen with an actual child and a cute child - his precocious 2 year old nephew who had to tell him "top 10". He was not only seen with a child, but playing with a child, inside and outside in the garden. Adorable. And by then you know that Jonathan Boyton-Lee himself was adopted - powerful kryptonite in terms of metamedia contextual subtext.
Jonathan Boynton-Lee not only revealed heartwrenching details about his life, he was actually the only contestant to physically "reveal" himself by moving parts of his shirt to show tattoos - while he's telling his story and explaining what it all means. In the mind of the viewer, subconsciously, the personal revelations together with the physical stripping away of layers such as clothing (which is both physically real as well as symbolic) creates a very, very strong emotional reflective bond between TV personality and TV viewer.
"Family is very important to me," said Jonathan Boynton-Lee. "I was adopted and I recently found my mother, so its been a really interesting journey which has happened the last couple of years and quite an amazing experience."
"Family is really important to me, and its all over my body." "I have my parents' initials here on my shoulder," he said as he stripped away his white T-shirt to reveal his left shoulder. "I've got locations of different places in my life on my body," he said as he lifted his right back elbow. "The place I was adopted from. Where I grew up."
Then Jonathan Boynton-Lee showed his right bicep and left bicep - "The date I was adopted; the date I found my mother" - and also his right hip: "I've got something that says 'Wherever you go, go with all your heart'. Which is very applicable to this journey I'm about to take right now."
Extraordinarily, Jonathan Boyson-Lee also ended up being the only contestant who immediately set himself apart by doing something no other contestant did. He in fact fluidly and organically managed to actually influence the producers (and what TV producer doesn't jump at new! exciting! content!) by going for a brand-new tattoo.
It created an insert in the show, and an additional narrative, which was all Jonathan Boyson-Lee's doing, as the lone catalyst which triggered the event through being willing to take the attention and the opportunity and to mold it around himself with presenter Jeannie D and the other contestants as passive onlookers.
ALSO READ: Product placement? Brand integration? Sponsor name-dropping? My Top Billing Dream on SABC3 gets it perfectly correct.
ALSO READ: My Top Billing Dream on SABC3 reveals the Top 10 contestants.
