Docusoaps are generally a “quiet” form of reality television, using show-length narratives in series format to follow a selected group of people through the events and interactions of mundane, mostly occupational life. The “casting” of such shows can be compared with that of soap operas and sitcoms, but docusoaps have generally also drawn extensively on the tradition of observational filmmaking on location, within whose terms an unfolding plan of action and speech is accorded firm roots in nontelevisual reality. High-profile family-based series such as An American Family (Public Broadcasting Service [PBS] 1973) and The Family (British Broadcasting Corporation [BBC] 1974) provide an important part of the lineage here. However, it is work rather than family life that goes on in most docusoap: hotel staff keep their establishments running, airport desk clerks process passengers, vets attend sick animals, and parking wardens give offending motorists fines (to cite a few British examples). This raises important questions about the degree of directorial intervention at all stages of the production, but it makes the program distinct from series such as The Real World (Music Television [MTV] 1992- ) and Big Brother, where the artificial terms of the protelevisual situation is an open condition of the programs’ making and imposes constraints (as well as providing possibilities) for all that follows. 

The appeal of docusoap to the audience’s sense of ordinary life, a life portrayed without any clear propositional intent (for instance, there is no framing of what is observed in terms of larger problems and issues), connects strongly with the British and European tradition of soap opera fictions that focus on working-class families and situations rather than following the U.S. emphasis on the wealthy and privileged. However, whereas soaps in most countries have stayed centrally and sometimes exclusively with the themes of family relationships within the small community, docusoaps have successfully exploited the interest and entertainment potential for people at work or people being trained. Thus, an interest in private lives and in the world of feelings is connected to an interest in routine work settings, relationships, and encounters. This is doubly innovative, although there are clearly precedents for the televising of the mundane. 

In tracing the history of the docusoap in Britain, the success of the BBC’s series Vet’s School (1996) and Driving School (1997) are important. The first series had drawn on the unexpectedly high ratings for the BBC series Animal Hospital in 1994, connecting the sick-animal theme outwards to issues of professional training and allowing stronger narrative and character development to figure, shadowing fiction at points in its construction. Driving School became a national phenomenon through its portrayal of one particular trainee in her bid to gain a license. These early series suggested the further possibilities of using an observational style to follow people in everyday situations outside the domestic frame. The requirement was a small “cast” to give character continuity and growing audience familiarity and a relatively stable workplace setting to give continuity of action, space, and time across the edited episodes. Sheer fascination with the kinds of activity observed carried the viewing experience. Stylistically, the format could incorporate both voiced-over commentary (essential to provide background information and useful in strengthening the comic development) and interview sequences (mostly informal, perhaps spoken while the subject was undertaking an occupational task). It could work with lengthy sections in real-time duration and yet also crosscut across different locations and time collapses as the material suggested. 

Shows developed in the docusoap format within Britain and elsewhere in Europe varied considerably in the recipe by which they combined their more obvious “soap” factors with the exploration of the spaces and routines of work. Some, such as the BBC’s Hotel (1997), looking at the working lives of a small group of people in a Liverpool hotel, seem to carry substantial documentary value, whatever shaping interventions are brought to bear in order to ensure that the audience is entertained. And it is easy to see the appeal of both the BBC’s Airport (1997) and ITV’s Airline (1998) in the context of general public fascination with the procedures and processes associated with air travel and the various problems and tensions that can arise.

To some of those working in documentary departments, the docusoaps seemed to threaten the integrity of their craft. They were seen to do this by a very relaxed approach to “staging” at every level, a preoccupation with what could be seen as the trivial, and a level of audience success that threatened to take the funding and scheduling opportunities away from more serious projects. All these charges have a measure of truth, particularly the final one. However, other producers and directors saw the success of docusoaps as opening up the possibilities for more imaginative documentary ventures in a serious vein and as reconnecting the broad documentary approach with a popular audience. The issue was the subject of intensive debate within the television industry during the period 1995-2000, after which point the mutated varieties of docusoap seemed to be more or less fully absorbed within national television systems. As the novelty effect waned, commissioning and prime-time scheduling dropped back.

British newspapers carried a run of stories in the late 1990s about the “scandal” of docusoaps, particularly their sometimes dubious practices of preshoot preparation and action management, which often aligned them very closely with fictional productions. However, the audience seemed to regard them with a mixture of quiet disdain and casual affection rather than seeing them as a threat to the integrity of the medium itself. While they did not undercut the core practices of documentary output (as some critics feared and some hoped,) they did significantly modify the terms of popular factual representation in ways that will continue to be active in television culture.