Surviving authenticity: Acun Ilıcalı and/as his reality-entertainment enterprise

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article focuses on Acun Ilıcalı, the adapter of global formats Fear Factor, The Voice, and Got Talent (among others) since the mid-2000s, one of the most trusted celebrities, and the owner of the only entertainment-themed television channel (TV8, 2013, later adding TV8,5) in Turkey. Now an international producer in 13 countries and a local streaming platform owner, he has essentially been understudied as a media personality and an enterprise. This article aims to fill this gap by reflecting on the discursive identification of him and his enterprise mutually, constructed mainly through/around Survivor, through his roles as the presenter/producer/broadcaster and media owner. Drawing on Bourdieu’s concepts of social capital, symbolic capital, and ‘celebrity capital’, ‘media meta-capital’ inspired by field theory, I aim to account for the ways his different kinds of capital are accumulated and recognised. I apply to the journalistic interviews and his on-screen performance within/on Survivor. I first identify his practices of accumulating celebrity capital through enduring visibility and symbolic capital through Do What You Love (DWYL) narrative. Then I move on to the ways his various kinds of capital are enhanced, recognised, and work within Survivor by discussing how the programme became a staple for his authenticity performance.