An everyday video store clerk agrees to have his life broadcast on television as a reality show and gains overnight celebrity.

However, celebrity has a price, and while Ed initially embraces his newfound fame, he also witnesses the awkward, often humorous and sometimes painful predicaments suffered by members of his family who automatically become part of the program, and infamous in their own right. When he realizes that his on-camera success has turned him into another consumer product, he must find a way to stop his ordeal, cancel EDtv and return to the normal life.