The article examines the linguistic means of embodiment of the specifics of the new genre of reality TV programmes in the text of the work of fiction and analyses the author's evaluation of the new reality created by reality TV. The genre is extremely appealing to young people because of its imitation of reality, actuality. The genre is based on postmodernist motifs such as clichéd perception, spectacle, paradox, mythology and others that reflect a deep cultural crisis of modern society culture. The aim of this work is to analyse the author's evaluation of reality TV as seen in the literary text, and the stylistic connotations which the author puts into the portrayal of reality TV's participants' inner life. The article uses structural and systemic method, the use of theoretical provisions of decoding stylistics and the method of contextual analysis. The results show that there are theatricality, paradoxicality, substitution of spiritual values in the fiction text of reality TV shows. The material of John Lanchester's story shows that the theatricality and spectacle of reality TV has as its reverse side the competitiveness, suddenness, agony and fear of the characters - the participants of the project.