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Forty-five percent of Americans watch reality TV, but reasons for watching differ dramatically across age and gender divides.

While the critics panned Big Brother I, viewers who supplemented their TV watching with online activity overwhelmingly loved the show.

Reality TV may have some staying power after all. This fall season, every major network has at least one reality series on its docket - from the debut of CBS's The Amazing Race to the return of ABC's The Mole and Fox's Temptation Island. And for the first time, reality programs will have the opportunity to jockey alongside sitcoms and dramas for industry kudos at the Primetime Emmy Awards later this month, since previously there were no categories that accommodated the genre. This year, voting procedures and prize categories have been revamped to make room for reality programs. CBS's Survivor has five nominations. Perhaps a win or two will allow this oft-criticized genre to shed its reputation as a fly-by-night novelty and become a legitimate contender in the ever-cluttered TV outback.

Or not. While some media experts believe reality television will alter the topography of TV Land, others are sure this season will mark the beginning of the end for the format, as over-scheduling tends to lead to overkill. Of course, the ultimate vote will be cast by the viewing public, and for now, that includes almost half of all Americans, as well as a full 70 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds and 57 percent of 25- to 34-year-olds - two segments most desired by advertisers.

What is it about the new crop of reality TV programs that has so many viewers riveted? What personality types are attracted to this genre? And what advertising messages and tactics are apt to resonate with these viewers? As the copycats mount, programmers and advertisers who want to connect with consumers through this television vehicle may benefit from understanding not only the demographic composition of this vast audience, but its attitudes, character traits and motivations for tuning in.

Forty-five percent of all Americans watch reality television programs. Of those, 27 percent consider themselves die-hard fans, watching as many episodes as possible, according to a nationally representative telephone survey of 1,008 people conducted exclusively for American Demographics by Edison, N.J.-based Bruskin Research. In fact, 37 percent of all Americans prefer to watch real people on television rather than scripted characters.

While much has been reported about how reality TV is reeling in teens and young adults for the networks, the programs actually attract a much wider fan base. Brian Devinny, who writes the online column, "The Reality Factor," on 3BigShows.com, says he receives e-mail from "all walks of life," from housewives to lawyers, across all income and age brackets. "The shows reach out to so many people on so many levels," Devinny says. "When Survivor I was on, I had many retirees write in to me rooting for 72-year-old Rudy. It's not just young people tuning in."

The results of the American Demographics/Bruskin survey illustrate that diversity. Of all those who watch reality television, 55 percent are ages 35 or older. In fact, even though 18- to 24-year-olds are the most likely age group to tune in, the largest portion of the reality TV audience (29 percent) is actually the 35- to 49-year-old group. And when it comes to gender divides, women are the die-hard fans, making up 64 percent of regular viewers (those who watch as many episodes as they can), while occasional viewers are slightly more male (55 percent versus 45 percent). Also noteworthy: reality TV watchers are primarily in the middle- to low-income brackets - 58 percent have annual incomes under $50,000 - and Southerners account for 39 percent of all reality TV viewers, compared with about 20 percent of residents in each of the Northeast, North Central and Western regions.

What exactly is it about reality TV that has attracted such a disparate group? According to Encino, Calif.-based E-Poll's syndicated online survey of 2,121 Americans, ages 18 to 54, the No. 1 reason people watch is the thrill of "guessing who will win or be eliminated from the show." That thrill is the reason cited by 69 percent of all reality TV watchers, and 84 percent of regular viewers, who make a point to watch. The second and third most common reasons viewers tune in are to "see people face challenging situations" and "imagining how I would perform in similar situations," stated by 63 percent and 42 percent of all viewers, respectively.

Of course, reasons for watching reality TV differ dramatically across age and gender divides, according to E-Poll's findings. For example, 43 percent of 18- to 34-year-old viewers say they tune in because they like to see conflict break out among the contestants, compared with 29 percent of 35- to 54-year-olds. The older crowd, on the other hand, is more intrigued than younger viewers with following the contestants' strategies (41 percent versus 36 percent). Men are more than three times as likely as women to tune in to see physically attractive contestants (31 percent versus 9 percent), while women are more likely than men to tune in because they like guessing the outcomes (72 percent versus 65 percent).

Before becoming a contestant on The Mole and an alternate for Big Brother I, Wendi Wendt, 30, from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was a fan of Survivor, and she continues to be an avid viewer of the reality TV genre. "It's in my blood now," she says. Her current fave is Fear Factor. "I enjoy seeing real people getting the chance to do extraordinary things, and how they evolve as people," she says. And while Wendt has heard the accusations that the producers of Survivor and other reality shows allegedly manipulate outcomes, she's not bothered. Speaking from experience, she notes: "How the players feel is real. You can see their true emotions, their frustrations, their joy. That's real enough for me. If some of the smaller details aren't so real, so be it."

But other fans fear that producers of the programs are starting to tread too far off the path of "real" intentions. In so doing, they may start to lose a core group of viewers, says Mary Beam, a 38-year-old reality TV fan from Cleveland, Texas, who founded the Web site, RealityTVFans.com. "Some of the shows have started to cast only beautiful Hollywood types, who are just in it to become actresses, or overly obnoxious people who are obviously playing a role," she says. In fact, of 18- to 54-year-olds who don't watch reality programs, 38 percent say it is because "the contestants are just trying to get famous," according to E-Poll. Says Beam: "The viewers want to see people who look or act like we do. If we wanted fake, we'd be watching sitcoms." In fact, E-Poll also found that 81 percent of viewers who stopped watching a reality program after sampling a show did so because they found the show to be "too scripted or not real enough."

No group is more adamant about keeping reality TV real than the 18- to 24-year-old crowd, 44 percent of whom say they prefer to watch real people to scripted characters, according to the American Demographics/Bruskin survey. In fact, 27 percent of America's youth says that reality television is better than what's currently offered on the networks during prime time, compared with 15 percent of the total population who say the same.

"These kids grew up with cable television, where unscripted, documentary-style shows have always been a staple," says Ed Martin, programming editor at Myers Reports, which provides research for and about the media industry. "This is what TV is to them," he adds, noting that MTV's The Real World started making inroads with the genre 10 years ago. The popularity of this format with youth also has a lot to do with their growing up in a democratized society, where the Internet, Web cams and other technologies give the average Joe the ability to personalize his entertainment, notes Andy Dehnart, a 23-year-old self-described "reality TV addict." "In today's world, anyone can create a Web site, like I did," says Dehnart, who founded RealityBlurred.com, a site that covers reality show news. "Web logs are huge. Memoirs have taken off. As a culture, we've become so much more interested in real people."