The original post: /r/television by /u/RadioSilens on 2025-07-28 12:07:05+00:00.
I used to watch a lot of reality TV as I was growing up in the late 90s and 00s. Shows like The Real World, Cribs, Laguna Beach, The Hills, Flavor of Love, Surreal House, Celebrity Rehab (almost all the MTV and VH1 shows), Project Runway, Top Chef, etc etc. I was probably pretty late to the game, but it wasn’t until I watched the TV drama Unreal that I realized how fake reality shows were. For those who don’t know it Unreal (2015-2018) was a show that focused on the producers of a dating show and showed the role producers play in creating reality TV, from coming up with storylines, manipulating contestants, editing things to fit their needs, etc. Prior to this, I was pretty naive and thought things on reality TV were mostly real. I figured that show creators just picked the most drama-filled and/or wacky people they could find who then, on their own, would create a ton of drama. Maybe people would overreact to things in order to get more screen time, but I thought it was all done by the individual who was just trying to get famous. The role of producing and editing was not even a consideration for me.
Over the years, I naturally got less and less interested in reality TV, but it wasn’t until I binged Unreal around 2018 that my perspective of what “reality” TV actually was changed. So I’m just curious about when and how you realized reality TV was fake, since I think I was probably pretty late in coming to that realization.
By the way, I think this video about the recent TLC show PolyFamily does a great job of breaking down how reality shows are manipulated.
Also, this isn’t a “I learned reality TV was fake and now I hate all of it” post. I still watch a couple of reality shows. I just now do so with more awareness of how fake they really are.