The Real Housewives
It is a little ironic that real is part of the title of The Real Housewives, considering how much of it is scripted. There is the usual setting up of drama by the producers like in most reality shows, but it doesn’t stop there.
It is reported that scenes are so scripted that the cast has to shoot them over and over until they get the perfect shot. This was confirmed when Teresa Giudice had to testify in court during her fraud trial, and she said that her image on TV was just “scripted lines and clever editing.”
Catfish
If you’re a Catfish fan, don’t worry, most of what you see on the show is real. However, it is the confrontations with the catfishers that are mostly set up. But how?
Well, have you noticed that, when the catfisher shows up, they already have a microphone on? That’s because they are in contact with producers beforehand. When the meeting is shot, people are told to act ‘surprised’ even though they have already seen each other when they were getting their mics.
Long Island Medium
The existence of actual mediums has always been disputed, and it is not considered credible, so if you think about it, what would be real about Long Island Medium, to begin with?
This controversial show has been under fire many times, with rumors saying that everything is set up and that Theresa Caputo gets information about her clients beforehand so that she knows what to tell them.
The Bachelor & Bachelorette
Although it would be nice to believe that they’re 100% real, both The Bachelor and The Bachelorette are heavily set up by producers. Basically, producers tell the cast what to talk about and when to talk about it to create drama.
Casting is also done extremely carefully so that producers can predict who will actually make it to the top three, and some people are put in the show purely for entertainment. No wonder all couples end up separated after the shows air…
Naked And Afraid
Discovery’s Naked and Afraid is a survival show where people have to survive in the wild without any help —or clothes. Although they do have to sleep in the wild and do several activities, the contestants aren’t really left to fend for themselves.
Think about the liabilities Discovery would have to face if those people were really left in the wild all alone! Contestants are given food, water, and necessary products such as tampons while on the show to make sure they don’t fall sick, starve, or get dehydrated.
Cribs
MTV’s Cribs was a huge success back in the day. Who wouldn’t want to catch a glimpse of their favorite celebrity’s home? Unfortunately, not all the homes featured on the show were real.
In fact, many celebrities just showed houses that weren’t their own —perhaps for security reasons? For example, Ja Rule was sued by a woman for passing off her leased house as his on the show.
Breaking Amish
Breaking Amish showed a group of five people who decided to leave the Amish community and move to NYC to see what the ‘real world’ looked like. Sadly, most of it wasn’t real.
For starters, the cast members had already left the Amish before the show and were already living secular lives. Two of them were even in a relationship and had a kid together but had to pretend they didn’t know each other.
The Hills
The Hills is one of the most outrageous examples of scripted reality TV. Do you know how much of it was scripted? All of it.
Once the show was over, and its stars were no longer bound by contractual obligations, they all basically admitted that 99% of the show was scripted. If you give it another watch knowing this information, it becomes very clear that they are all just acting.
RuPaul’s Drag Race
RuPaul’s Drag Race is one of the most entertaining shows right now, probably because a lot of it is fake. As it turns out, the nails and wigs aren’t the fakest things on the show!
Contestants have claimed that conversations are edited to make them seem way more dramatic than they actually were. Not only that, but season one contestant Tammie Brown said that RuPaul has his clever lines fed through an earpiece, and all his critiques are scripted.
Keeping Up With The Kardashians
Keeping Up with the Kardashians turned the Kardashian sisters into superstars and gave us a glimpse into their glamorous life. However, most of that glamour is either dramatized or scripted.
There have always been rumors that producers tell them what to talk about to start drama between them and repeat scenes until they get the right take, much like what happened with The Hills.