Have you (rhetorical you) seen the ridiculously boring and shallow shit that people watch nearly 24/7 now, though? Video platforms are filled with useless nonsense and people eat it up.

There are people who will have a show playing in the background every hour of the day, showing the "news" or soap operas or reality shows or game shows or movie reruns or etc etc, just soaking it up subconsciously forever until they die.

Go to any doctors office or bar or restaurant (in the US, anyway, maybe it's different elsewhere) and there's a high chance they'll also be playing some nonsense drivel on a dozen TVs strategically positioned so you can't sit anywhere in the place without being subjected to a view of one.

Society loves giving attention to the most inane shit available, even if just for background noise.

The idea of there being an audience for the early years of the Truman Show doesn't seem at all like an unfathomable stretch to me.