It’s everyone’s guilty pleasure. Whether you’re watching suburban Moms fight or doing a series binge of selling old antiques, reality TV has something for everybody, but is any of it real? You won’t believe which of your favorite ‘real’ TV shows are scripted, staged, and reshot. Read on to find out which ones are totally fake…
Pawn Stars
This one shouldn’t be too surprising, as Pawn Stars is one of the most scripted shows on television. The only thing true about this show is that it really is Rick Harrison’s pawn shop, but he’s never behind the counter. Additionally, all customer interactions are arranged beforehand. No one comes into the place with an item that the team hasn’t seen before. Kind of a bummer!
Dancing with the Stars
This show about dancing has more to do with personality than a celebrity's actual skill level. According to Alfonso Ribeiro, comments are sometimes edited and taken out of context to create a narrative that there is animosity between contestants.
America’s Got Talent
Those audition rounds are anything but real. There are actually tons of preliminary auditions before you ever get in the same room as the star-studded judging panel. The producers avoid picking anyone who doesn’t have the right image, sounds too professional, or won’t make for good and interesting television. You’ve got to be the total package to make it on AGT.
Love It or List It
Though Hilary and David have great on-screen chemistry, they have nothing to do with the process. They’re just actors who know how to act like they’re selling the house. And those big surprises with structural problems are all well-known beforehand. And a lot of “lists” were actually "loves" and those folks still live in their renovated homes.
The Voice
While the singers on the show really can sing, they might not be as hard-pressed as you might think. Apparently, the application form asks for the applicant's most difficult experience. The entire basis of the show is selling a good story, so the producers use the story told on the application and spin it into a tragic moment and reason to root for someone.
Duck Dynasty
The Duck Dynasty producers conjure up a lot of ways to create tense situations. The arguments are scripted between characters (yes, characters). Before the show, the guys were clean-cut, nicely dressed men. The guys hardly even use cuss words—apparently, a lot of those ‘bleeps’ are put in just to make them seem more aggressive. A crazy idea that actually worked!
The Great British Bake-Off
On The Great British Bake Off, every critique reportedly has two takes—one of them is positive, the other is negative. It's then up to editors to shape the show however they want. The frantic surprise cake baking actually wasn’t much of a surprise at all, as each contestant was aware of the challenge three months in advance. Also, the cake that wins is ultimately the one that looks the best on-camera... go figure.
House Hunters
Before filming even starts, the couple has already chosen a house. The other ones are just fake fillers. But the hunt for that dream place makes it more relatable, and gives the audience a house to root for! The worst part? Their budgets are unrealistic for a reason: they’re made up by the producers. So, if you’ve ever wondered how a kindergarten teacher and a stay-at-home parent can afford a million-dollar mansion, spoiler alert: they can’t.
Love Island
Love Island is incredibly scripted. The cast is given lists of things to argue about and what to say. There are also unseen cleaners and waiters on call for the islanders, an agreement that the relationships are just for the show, and £75,000 just for appearing at all. Doesn't sound like a bad gig...
Jersey Shore
Make no mistake, the Jersey Shore cast really is that crazy, but for the show, they’re even more exaggerated. Those ‘grenades’ the group brought home after nights at the club? All of them were vetted by producers, not random clubbers. The worst truth is that no one ever called Nicole Polizzi ‘Snooki’ before the show—she put it on her application as a joke! Unfortunately, the joke stuck around for a little too long, but she goes by Nicole these days.
Long Island Medium
Fake TV psychics are a tried and true tradition. The truth is, like many other fake mediums, she does her research on clients long before they have a reading with her for the show. The way she figures a client out is through their social media accounts. She's just a modern-day Internet sleuth. People post a lot more than you’d expect, and she uses this knowledge to her advantage.
Fixer Upper
Chip and Joanna Gaines captured America’s hearts, but that didn't happen without some tricks up their sleeves. First of all, the new furniture isn’t for participants to keep. It’s just for the show. Additionally, the reactions on Fixer Upper are constantly reshot for better angles, lighting, and sound quality. So if the couples look a little underwhelmed coming inside, it’s because they've shot that scene five times already.
Keeping Up with the Kardashians
It was the end of an era when KUWTK ended after 20 seasons, but this show was anything but reality TV. The show orchestrates fights for the girls to get into as well as relationships. Two proposals on the show were even staged.
Beachfront Bargain Hunt
Just like House Hunters, the scenarios on Beachfront Bargain Hunt are pretty much completed before the filming even starts. The buyers just walk through fake homes and pretend to consider them after they've really already picked the house they will purchase. What a hoax!
Catfish: The TV Show
Instead of the victim seeking to find their catfish, usually, the catfish is the one that emails the producers. They apply, sign release forms, and agree to be edited for the typical format. It's not too exciting when you know those details.
Cake Boss
Look, everyone, the cakes are real, the punchlines, however, are staged. Though it appears that the customers trust the Cake Boss wholeheartedly, the reality is that all the cakes are discussed beforehand to make sure they get the final product they want.
Property Brothers
Before they were the iconic carpenter and realtor duo, they were actually regular television actors. They do have some realty background, but Drew and Scott are pretty much just glorified show hosts.
Survivor
Believe it or not, Survivor is almost entirely real. The bugs and the burns are all real occurrences. The only detail that is hidden from viewers is that the contestants sometimes get food off the screen to ensure they have a somewhat healthy diet.
The Biggest Loser
Perhaps unsurprisingly, The Biggest Loser doesn’t exactly promote healthy habits. The trainers are not properly trained, the contestants might be under the influence of drugs, and the scale on the big stage isn’t even real. Don't even get us started on the video game that was created based on the show...
The HGTV Dream Home Giveaway
This one is more real than you’d expect. HGTV does give away a big home for free but doesn’t help out with the high property tax. You owe almost half of the value to the IRS, so many of the winners are forced to sell. This seems like something that should be thought of before the giveaway...
The Bachelor & The Bachelorette
This dating show doesn’t usually create lasting relationships, as most winning couples ending up getting divorced or breaking up after airing. Also, the producers are pretty keen on making a series villain for fans to hate. The producers essentially control the narrative of the whole season.
American Idol
American Idol is a legendary singing show, but do you know the truth? The best singers are actually scouted out months before they ever audition. According to directors, many people don’t know if they get in front of the judges for being really good or really bad. Ouch.
American Pickers
This show is all about finding gold for the best price. These prices don’t come from haggling on the show though, everything is predetermined before filming. Also “Hobo Jack” was a nickname Jack made up for the show.
The Real Housewives
According to New Jersey housewife Teresa Giudice, the show is surprisingly very scripted. The fights are all part of a bigger producer plan, and many of the housewives are actually in debt. Sounds like a bad time!
Deadliest Catch
The TV fishing crews make money from the producers, not from the fishing industry. They have no incentive to meet fishing quotas. They also typically splice together old storm footage to make the ocean events seem more deadly.
Storage Wars
Who would have thought that a TV show about storage lockers would be so successful? Not David Hester, who claimed the show planted items inside certain lockers. A&E gave no denial of this allegation. Interesting…
Bridezillas
The women who appear on the show have reported being pushed to make their scenes more dramatic and over the top. The more they throw a fit, the better the ratings. That's reality TV for you.
Breaking Amish
Although the Amish people pretend as if they have never met, they usually have been longtime friends. Others had left the Amish lifestyle many years prior to filming. It’s all fake!
Ice Road Truckers
Remember in season one when the truck dropped through the ice into cold water? Yeah, that was done using miniature models. Yikes. Furthermore, the show is heavily scripted and ice road trucking isn’t as dangerous as they make it seem (but definitely still risky!)
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
One of the most heartwarming parts of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition are the thousands of volunteers who come to build the house. Yeah…those are actors. After filming, a real crew comes in to build the mansion.
Ghost Hunters
Here’s a shocker: the ghost hunting show is completely made up. They add in static sounds and weird happenings to make the show seem more plausible, but really, there’s not much there.
Hell’s Kitchen
Though he seems like the worst person to work for, Gordon Ramsey is actually a very sweet guy with a very fake show. The customers are paid actors and chefs are told to play it up for the camera.
The Hills
Young women from LA star in this early 2000s "reality" show on MTV, but even though it was said to be a reality show, it was famously very fake. In fact, it was very dramatized, scripted, and edited for higher ratings.
The X-Factor
Like many talent-search shows, most these auditions happen off-air and months prior. The people are pre-selected to make for good TV, no matter what.
Mystery Diners
From 2012 to 2016, the Food Network aired this totally fake reality show. The “undercover stings” to monitor restaurant behavior were always set up, even the workers were actors.
America’s Next Top Model
Though the show has tons of loyal followers, (and equally as much backlash) it plays up the drama, and even has one report of a contestant who says she wasn’t allowed to leave the show. Yikes!
The Real World
The Real World? Not so real after all. Known for changing the way we view reality TV, this was the first reality show to capitalize on carefully selected actors and clever editing to create drama.
The Amazing Race
Though the show gives teams a certain budget, it helps out with the plane and travel expenses. Many people have criticized the show for not showing realistic costs of last-minute travel options.
Made
Teens with a dream come to MTV's Made with the hope of achieving their goals. Luckily the teens really are as talented as they seem, but the show is scripted and staged otherwise.
Basketball Wives
These women were all married or once married to famous basketball athletes, but the entire thing is staged. It’s all the formula of reality TV, creating problems where there aren’t any.
Cupcake Wars
Say it isn’t so! The surprise round has contestants utilize their mystery ingredient, something like hamburger or beans, and it’s usually full-on panic. That panic is all an act, though, because they find out about the ingredients months ahead.
Vanderpump Rules
From fake breakups to constant reshoots, this reality show isn’t as real as you might want to believe. In 2016, Tom Sandoval revealed, "One thing that [producers] do that trolls us, and it sucks—if someone is a total complete a–hole, and they have beef with someone who is not, at all, they’ll kind of edit to even the playing field," he told Jezebel. "To get viewers to want to take both sides."
Undercover Boss
The boss often ends episodes of this show with promises to change the employee’s lives. It’s the most moving part of the episode, but many employees later reported that there was no follow-up, and things remained largely the same. Disappointing!
RuPaul’s Drag Race
For fans of Drag, this show is a favorite. However, the soundbites are often taken out of context to create classic TV drama. The participants even say they were pushed or tricked into saying things that turned out poorly for them.
MasterChef USA
This famous cooking show is a total hoax. One contestant revealed that the show splices together things people say to create new sentences, literally putting words in their mouth.
Southern Charm
An unexpected Bravo hit, this show fakes the continuity of the story. Scenes are forced into a singular narrative regardless of when they happened. So, what is the truth?
Cash in the Attic
This UK show invites antique dealers into old homes to find valuable and rare items. The trick? The items are all planted beforehand for the hunters to “find” and sell.
Tattoo Fixers
At the end of the show, tattoo artists show the fixed tattoo to the client for a big reveal. That big reveal usually has several takes until producers get the best tv-worthy reaction.
Mountain Men
These men live off the grid and off the land…or do they? Actually, the characters admit it’s all an act. They also have much more money than they appear to show on the series.
Hunting Hitler
This one shouldn’t be surprising. Following the rumor that Hitler ran away to South America, the hosts investigate various locations and find clues of his presence. Yeah, they're all fake and planted...
What Not To Wear
The reveal on What Not To Wear was often refilmed over and over until the audience gave the right reaction: surprise, shock, and awe.
Divorce Court
Those who want to be on Divorce Court just have to ask. Regular, non-divorcing couples typically appear on the show and appear as an act. Don’t trust everything you see on TV!
The Simple Life
"The Simple Life" secured Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie's places in millennial history, their characters on the reality show weren’t genuine. In 2016, Hilton revealed that her character on the show was all an act. 'They said, 'Nicole, you play the troublemaker, Paris, you play the ditzy airhead,'" Hilton told Access Hollywood.
The Jerry Springer Show
The Jerry Springer Show was rife with betrayals, brawls, and an obsession with finding out the “truth." But like most of these dramatic television shows, not all of the elements were real. Sometimes the guests were actors, sometimes they were encouraged to fight by producers, and sometimes the stories were entirely fabricated
MTV Cribs
According to House Beautiful, there were several occasions when the house didn’t even belong to the celebrity showing it off. For instance, Damon Dash allegedly rented Mariah Carey’s London home for his episode.
The Apprentice
While the competition part of the show was real enough, the "firing" segment of the show was scripted for added dramatic effect. It was also revealed that none of the contestants were ever truly kicked out of the house. Instead, they simply had to stay in a different section of the tower with the rest of the season's losers.
Project Runway
Even though Project Runway won a Peabody Award, there is some evidence that points to the show being scripted. Season 4 contestant Jack Mackenroth claims that every elimination was pre-planned and the producers would edit footage of the episode to make the audience agree with them.
Naked and Afraid
Though contestants are supposed to live off the land, the crew provides the participants with medications, tampons, and vitamin supplements, so they're not roughing it quite as much as viewers are led to believe.
The Osbournes
The Osbournes was one of the first reality TV shows that followed a family. It eventually came out that most of the show’s events were actually scripted. 'The Osbournes' simply came up with crazy ideas before each episode.
Wife Swap
The families that appeared on this show were encouraged by producers to play up their differences, the children especially, and they loved getting to push the other woman's buttons. Also, the “manuals” written by the wives to guide their replacements were actually fabricated by producers.