One of the most entertaining things to do is sit back and watch reality television. Many popular shows include Keeping Up with the Kardashians, the Bachelor, 90 Day Fiance, Married at First Sight, Jersey Shore, Survivor, X-Factor, Fixer Upper, and many more. Unfortunately, even though it may seem as if the events in the show are genuine, the scenes are often scripted by producers, cut to change the context, or are based on a complete lie. 

A survey done in 2018 states that 61% of adults believe reality television is unscripted. (Stoll). Naturally, people believe everything they see. In the case of reality television, they should not. The show’s producers frequently orchestrate scenes to make the contestants repeat things in order to get a better shot. Sometimes, they are forced to say something entirely scripted. This creates a dishonest environment that can be entertaining or amusing. However, it paints people in a bad light to get more views on the show. They force certain participants to act ‘obnoxious’ or ‘rude’ to get more viewers. This causes the viewers to have a strong opinion of someone based on a lie. (Kupfer). The shows do not disclose that they are scripted, and many believe what is shown is true. Many people like reality television for the “realness,” but there is nothing real about it. 

Besides scripting scenes, producers also cut clips to make things seem a certain way. They use the lack of context to their advantage and create an unreliable representation of what truly happened. (Rieselman). They can change the mood of a situation with the click of a button. For example, if one of the contestants says something like, “I hate Stacey! She is just so pretty, I’m jealous,” and the producers cut it to say she “hates Stacey.” This causes unnecessary chaos to generate more views. They want to “squeeze” out every ounce of drama, even if most of it is fabricated. (Chaskes). Context is one of the most essential factors in a conversation. Without it, you can never truly understand what is happening.

One prevalent genre of reality television is home renovation. Some of the most popular shows are “Fixer Upper,” “Love It or List It,” and “House Hunters.” These shows lead viewers to believe that the participant is genuinely searching for their dream home with the help of the show's cast. This is simply false. In fact, most people who appear on the show have already chosen their house and bought it. (Piester). They act as though the cast of the show had helped them do so. HGTV put out a statement saying, "We're making a television show, so we manage certain production and time constraints, while honoring the home buying process. To maximize production time, we seek out families who are pretty far along in the process. Often everything moves much more quickly than we can anticipate, so we go back and revisit some of the homes that the family has already seen and we capture their authentic reactions,” in 2012 after one of the contestants came out exposing their lies. In addition, on the home renovation shows, the budget is only used for structural renovations, not the decor seen when the house is revealed. If the homeowner likes the furniture, they must pay extra fees. This is unknown to the viewers and is a form of deception. Having flawless interior design can make the home look much better than it is. They also staple the pillows together and use other unnatural methods to make the room look picture perfect. In addition, not every room in the house gets redone. They only show the renovated rooms on television. That is not genuinely deceiving, but many viewers are unaware and believe the whole house gets a makeover. If that is not enough, the personality on tv is usually not the actual person who does the renovations. (Piester). They chose someone charismatic to popularize the show, while someone else is doing the hard work without the fame. One very known example of this is Chip from “Fixer Upper.” He allegedly never does any work off-camera. Many important details about the home renovation shows are not disclosed, so it is important to remember that just because it was on television does not mean it is true.

Not everything is as it seems. This is prevalent in reality television because of the partially scripted scenes, clip cuts to change the context, and the complete lies that the shows are based on. It is not harmful to watch reality television, but viewers should be careful not to believe the lies. 

Works Cited

Chaskes, Michael. "Use This Technique From Reality TV to Heighten Drama In Your Edit." Frame.io, 25 Oct. 2017, blog.frame.io/2017/10/25/4-reality-tv-editing-techniques/. Accessed 2 June 2022.

Kupfer, Lindsey. "Are 'The Bachelorette,' 'The Bachelor' scripted? A behind-the-scenes look." Page Six, 7 June 2021, pagesix.com/article/are-the-bachelor-the-bachelorette-scripted/. Accessed 2 June 2022.

Piester, Lauren. "Real or Fake? The Truth About Some Of Your Favorite Reality TV Shows." E News, 9 Nov. 2018, www.eonline.com/news/985791/real-or-fake-the-truth-about-some-of-your-favorite-reality-tv-shows. Accessed 2 June 2022.

Rieselman, Deborah. "Reality TV: Is it for real?" University of Cincinnati, magazine.uc.edu/issues/1210/reality-tv.html. Accessed 2 June 2022.

Stoll, Julia. "Perspectives on whether or not reality television shows are mostly scripted according to adults in the United States as of November 2018." Statisa, 31 Jan. 2021, www.statista.com/statistics/948536/views-of-reality-tv-show-content/. Accessed 2 June 2022.