Reality Shows

I've long suspected competitive reality shows are rigged.  They want to make them appear as dramatic as possible, so they'll rig it if the prospective outcome doesn't look exciting.  I used to watch Survivor all the time.  In the first season I remember reading somewhere that the show's producer told the contestants not to vote off three old people in a row.

Extreme Makeover Home Edition came out to Kansas following one of the more disastrous tornadoes.  The rumors I heard is that the show is complete crap, for more than one reason.  The biggest complaint was, the show paints themselves as if they're doing such a good thing, but there are complications that never get addressed and never get aired-  For example, the family isn't allowed to remodel the house or sell it for ten years after the show arrives, and yet they have to pay property taxes on it for those next ten years.  ...You'll notice none of the families they hand these houses to would actually be able to afford the house they're given; that's the whole point.  So when tax time comes, these people end up going bankrupt over owning a house they're not legally allowed to get rid of.

This is all rumor.  I don't know anyone who actually had their house made over.  But as I said, that's what I heard.

Well they're not actors for the most part.  They're pretty much ordinary people picked on various factors, one being they have to mainly have to look good in general, also because of any personality quirks they have.  The staged parts are that they are probably asked/paid to act to various situations in certain ways to keep the show interesting and my guess is the voting off in some shows are influenced by the the director/producers in certain ways in order to get rid of trouble people or keep the ratings up.

And then there's the whole "put them in a really stressful situation with no sleep and alone from everyone they know for 2 months" factor.  While not technically staging drama, it's emotionally torturing people for good television.

Also, you'll notice the REAL trouble maker will not ever get voted off until they are down to 3 people (unless there's another trouble maker.)  It's pretty easy to tell who's going to win if you keep up on any of those shows.  There will be one guy who everyone likes and one trouble maker getting into the top three (haven't figured out the common denominator on the third person yet.)  The hated guy will get knocked out and the most liked guy will win.  Going into the show, anyone with half a brain should have one of two strategies:  1- trust their charisma to be better than anyone else's so they'll win, or 2- trust their actual abilities and their ability to cause problems to take third and become infamous.  He'll still get TV interviews afterwards anyway.

Anyone seen Repo yet? ...I'm seeing the ads and can't help but think that the entire thing is staged... ...Every shot I've seen advertised looks like it's acted.  Reminds me more of the WWF then Reality TV.

Ah yes one of the shows was indeed Flavor of Love (this dude with a clock on his neck picking his girl)
Another question would be, who decides the protagonist? For example who gets to play the lucky person who either chooses his girl, or his friend, or the 'winner'?

My mother always warned me not to marry a pretty bimbo. She said what if my children had my looks and her brain.

Two examples from both ends of the spectrum:

One of my classmates in high school was on Wife Swap and said that they weren't ever fed lines or anything of that nature. All the drama just came from them picking a mom that completely clashed with the family. This girl was one of those super-organized types and the mom took down all the clocks in the house to try and get them to mellow out. She wouldn't even let the girl's sister go to her piano lessons (e2: was mistaken on this, can't remember what the activity was but someone missed something). That combined with having a camera crew around 24/7 was enough. These "group shows" are probably the realest of any reality shows. They focus mainly on the individuals' reactions together and such.

On the other hand, I went to Pelham High School which is about 15 minutes away from Hoover High School, the site of Two-A-Days that aired on MTV. Given how close we were I had numerous friends that went there and they told me essentially everything on the show was staged. There was one story arc where one of the main characters was "cheating" on his girlfriend. Everyone that "knew" was fed lines and was in on it... except the guy's girlfriend. So the reality in that situation was coming from what amounted to a cruel prank on her. They did break up for real over it. This type of show where they focus more on individuals is probably 80% staged, even though the people on it aren't actual actors. Even if the show is about a group of people, it focuses on individual story arcs and that is where the fake starts to play in I would imagine.

e: Here's the link to the info for Wife Swap episode(s?) that I mentioned. http://abc.go.com/primetime/wifeswap/in … ap#t=77694

Last edited by Dugalle (2009-04-16 17:01)

Given the nature of what they are filming and the network it is on, I'd say Deadliest Catch is 100% real stuff just edited for the best show. Considering their filming location though I doubt they are editing out a bunch of boring stuff and more just picking out the most exciting/dramatic. My marine biology teacher in high school was a big fan of ocean kayaking and stuff like that and she said from her interactions with people that had done a season on a crabbing boat and her own personal experiences on the strait that what you are seeing on the show is pretty much exactly what it is like. That shit turns boys into men.

e: god damn I have too much second-hand knowledge.

Last edited by Dugalle (2009-04-17 15:42)

Hmm Hell's Kitchen last night had an interesting twist.  I don't recall anything like this happening before (but I tend to watch very few reality shows overall) but someone actually left the show on his own free will because of health problems (something about a sack around his heart upping his chance of a heart attack).

I agree with hubris - on the defination.

Deadliest Catch is still the most badass show there ever was.

Truth be told, I don't have a TV set in my condominium I watched those TV shows while I was in Europe for a bit which brought me wondering about the authenticity of the shows. Haven't seen Deadliest Catch before though

My mother always warned me not to marry a pretty bimbo. She said what if my children had my looks and her brain.