Talent shows. Cooking shows. Matchmaking shows. Antique-finding shows. No matter the type, reality is one of the most popular genres on telly.
I mean, who can go past the unpredictable gloriousness that comes with tossing aside the script, casting real people and just rolling the camera?
Okay, so we know that’s not how it works. We’ve seen UnReal.
But we didn’t realise precisely how they manipulate our favourite shows are until we read a recent Reddit thread.
“We don’t solve problems. We point the camera at them.”
“I have worked on several reality shows,” wrote user, ogcoliebear.
“Some are more fake than others, but they are all heavily scheduled and formatted, never spontaneous.”
ogcoliebearwent on to tell of working on a certain MTV dating show in which a contestant tried to bolt to freedom in the middle of the night, only to be tackled on the front lawn by a producer and dragged back into the house.
“It’s like prison,” she continued, “they are completely cut out from the outside world (no computer, books, phones, watches) and they are fed mostly booze. They all go insane. Also, if the show doesn’t air, they don’t win their prize money. This is a standard for all competition reality shows.”
Read: Whether you love or hate The Bachelor, UnReal is the TV show for you.
“Everything. Every single thing is fake,” insists one competitor on a competitive cake-baking show.
“The judges recorded 2 takes for every comment, one positive and one negative so the editors could put it together however they wanted.”
What?! Surely not. They wouldn’t exploit the viewer’s trust like that, would they?