Just as scripted television series have waned in recent years, conceding prime time slots to less costly reality fare, so too have big-budget porn productions. In place of these legendary movies of subpar plotlines and elementary acting has emerged a new genre of adult entertainment: “reality” porn.

And it’s grabbing the country by the balls.

Gary Blumenthal, Webmaster for OnTheHUNT.com, a spin-off of Manhunt.com that invites its members to be filmed having sex with other members, says that the reality porn genre kicked off a few years ago – the same time video Internet started gaining steam. People were looking for a change, he says, something they hadn’t seen before.

“I think reality porn has been around forever, as far back as stag films from the 1950s, but what has changed is that there are now actual venues to view it. Sites like XTube and GayTube have given amateur exhibitionists a place for people to view their homemade porn. In addition, many video distributors and video-on-demand sites have sprung which specialize in this type of homegrown reality amateur porn.”

OnTheHUNT, which is on the cutting edge of reality porn is as real as reality porn gets. When it launched, the site received more than 4,000 inquiries from Manhunt members interested in meeting other members to have their sexual encounters taped.

“What makes us unique is that we send a famous porn star like Jeremy Hall or Collin O’Neal or Matthew Rush to the participants’ home to film the hook up just as it is happening,” Blumenthal explains. “In the editing process, we leave in about 99 percent of the footage so people can see the good, the bad, and the in-between.”

Brian Christopher, who answered OnTheHUNT’s call, says he had never been in front of a video camera before signing on to star in a reality porn film.

“I received an e-mail from Jeremy Hall,” Christopher recalls about the first time he heard from OnTheHunt. “I wasn’t sure if I was up for it because I knew so many people would eventually be able to see me do whatever it was I was going to do, but I submitted my photos anyway, thinking what the odds were of me being picked. Next thing I know, I’m on a flight to Austin.”

In retrospect, Christopher says he enjoyed the experience so much that he’s decided to pursue his newfound fetish even further.

“As of now, I have not been cast for any scripted porn by any studio,” he says, “and I’m not sure how the transition would be, really. But I’m always up for any challenges.”

How reality porn as a genre came into its own is a topic of debate. Celebrity sex tapes have played a part, giving amateurs credence to film and promote their own exploits without consequence, but Paul L. of MaleSpectrum.com – a site that allows subscribers to view a host of niche reality porn episodes in multiple formats including pay site, DVD, and even mobile – thinks that the explanation is far simpler.

“At the end of the day, I think a lot of guys just don’t care much about a carefully crafted plot or artfully rendered dialogue in a porn movie,” he says. “Sure, they like the fiction and the fantasy, but they’re really in it to watch sex. I also suspect that people who are fans of both forms spend a lot of time with their finger on the fast forward button when they are watching scripted porn.”

There’s a caveat, however. It seems – believe it or not – that straight porn is farther ahead in reality porn than its gay counterpart.

“Fewer gay content studios embraced the reality porn genre in the early days,” explains Paul L., “so it’s more novel to gay fans than to straight. I like to think that as young as Male Spectrum may be, we’re at the forefront of gay reality porn. We plan to stay there and continue to grow and evolve the genre further.”

While there is no shortage of participants in reality porn, a quick Google search accurately gauges the immense popularity of the genre among viewers: Alexa, a Web information company that consistently ranks the most visited Web sites in the United States, lists Pornhub.com and YouPorn.com – sites that allow regular people to upload and view homemade and amateur porn – as numbers 28 and 40, respectively.

To put these statistics into perspective, both sites receive more traffic than those of corporate giants Fox News and Disney.

Blumenthal says he understands why these particular sites and reality porn in general have increased in popularity since its inception.

“That’s the beauty of reality porn: There are no real stars,” he says. “The stars are the guys next door who are filming their own hookups and buddies.”

Former “guy next door” and reality porn star Johnny Maverick, 31 – whose credits include Male Spectrum’s “His First Huge Cock” – agrees: “I think it represents the future.”

And perhaps he’s right. Like the sitcoms of yore that continue to die a slow death, only to be replaced by reality television, so too are over-the-top porn productions now relegated to an X-rated graveyard.

“I think the genre has only just begun,” predicts Blumenthal. “I think we are going to see more exhibitionist sites, more sites with live video like Manhunt’s Mancam, and more everyday guys jumping in front of the camera.”

Veteran porn stars, stand by. Your pink slips are coming.