People were on reality shows as a kid, how much of it was fake?

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[bluethelucario]

Imagine telling your little kid "You better behave, or TLC will come and make fun of you"

[maggpiprime]

America's Next Top Model was _horrific._
They _absolutely_ did that intentionally.

[AlexRising_]

One of those stories sounds like Supernanny, and honestly the lessons don’t stick if the parents aren’t consistent. Jo *_literally_* warns them accordingly. Her advice is sound but she can’t make them stick to it, so those kids end up extra shitty over the long run because they were already having issues, experienced consistency and the love and attention they deserved, only for mom and dad to stop when the cameras leave and make it abundantly clear they just wanted to look good on screen. It’s no wonder they lash out after.

[AisaWilliam]

The top model hair thing was intentional. Some other models came out and said the same thing. They asked specifically what they didn’t want just so they could make them cry

[gNetkamiko]

I'm at the part about "Dr. Phil", and I was reminded of when my mom was invited to New York City to be on an episode of Sally Jesse Raphael. She was brought there, along with my half sister and said half-sister's husband, Lee. It was an episode about people living with abusive spouses. Now, I do agree that producers will go out of their way to dig up family drama, but in the case of this episode I get why: it is to try to help those in those relationships to try to get out. Lee was 100% abusive to my sis and their sons. I was even on the receiving end of his abuse a couple of times. Only 1 of those times did he get his ass chewed out because I was like 10 or 11, and he had no right to "punish" me for what I was doing at that time (which was trying to keep my nephews calm while they were playing with some old vintage toys owned by one of my aunts, so that those toys didn't break).

These shows *will* air dirty laundry if it is necessary. And in cases like these, I am perfectly fine with that kind of laundry getting aired out, since it puts abusers in the spotlight.

[mightyocelot]

As someone who is considering going into the film industry as a crew member, I suddenly don't want to work on reality TV shows...

[hope]

Story 8 MTV should've compensated the kid's family for the obviously emotional damage MTV caused

[kristinab]

The pizza baby fights sounds like a the actors were having fun on their improv exercise.

[mantaphase]

story 15... yeah. i'm a pediatric behavior therapist and it ALL comes down to their environment and support system. they can only respond in the way they've been taught - or, in the cases of "bad" kids, taught themselves.

[benm]

Story 21. Thank god that was authentic. I loved watching it and learned more than you would think from it.

[chrisemptage]

I have a feeling that X factor ect already have a “winner “ before the audition and it’s just a way to promote their new act.

[AmandaE]

I worked at a factory and Nikkole from 16 and pregnant season 2 started working there. I was fan girling so hard once I realized who she was lmao. She was really nice when I talked to her. She didn't stay working there long though.

[achliscantplay]

Used to work as an audition coach for one of the singing shows, in a Slavic country, 15+ years ago. There were 2 of us in the room for "cattle calls" (publicly known as "open auditions) - everyone is welcome after standing in line for hours.

We were given a literal list of archetypes, whom to cast on a given day - a single mother with as many kids as possible, someone with clear anger issues, an old crotchety guy who thinks himself a gift to the world, a child prodigy, qnyone with a recent death in the family, etc, etc.

In addition to people from cattle calls, there were "industry castings" - actual professional singers from different backgrounds. I was asked to participate in the role of a contestant, too - as "a disappointing wannabe jazz singer, alcoholic, rejected by a family of classical musicians", with a tearful makeover and reunion in the end. I refused. Under the NDA, none of it was possible to disclose to anyone.

In "live auditions" with the actual judges, a lion's share of time was devoted to filming reactiins of the audience separately - when you see people cheering, tearing up, or ewwwing in disgust over a performance, this is not a reaction to any performance, this is a literal prompted task.

What stuck with me the most, is one of backstage producers literally feeding an ice drink, with freakin blended ice in it, to a sick teen, whom they were setting up for failure.

While "industry cast" singers sat in their own separate dressing room with a piano to warm up, etc. And taken to the "cattle room" just to film pre- and post-performance spots.

Disgusting.

To this day, I advise all of my students against televised "reality competitions".

[AisaWilliam]

I went on a prank show (pranking a friend of mine). At the end, my friends and I ran out from behind the scenes to surprise my pranked friend. She didn’t look surprised enough so we had to reshoot that scene. She acted way more surprised the second time even though the second time was basically scripted. Her initial fear during the actual pranking process was real though and hilarious.

I was on another show on MTV (Crash My School). Almost everything they said they did was fake. They had a bunch of empty pizza boxes and made it seem like they fed everyone pizza. They made it look like we got to see a pre-screening of some movie that just came out but it was actually just a long trailer. They did buy the school some new computers though so that was nice.

[dtester]

I don't usually watch reality shows, but I think I caught that episode of Top Model randomly with the pixie cut. I remember her being so upset. What jerks!

[Bladze]

Today I learned that, I can't be in these types of shows cause I am FAR too violent

[snowbird]

I learned one story from extreme makeover home edition, that some of the homes were so hastily built, that the roofs would leak along with other physical problems with the house.

[twiceshy]

I'm an Aussie and the first few seasons of "Big Brother" were actually really good, I was so into it, it was like a really cool sociology experiment- all these different people just hanging around and just talking, having to LIVE together, it was trippy how fascinating it was, there were some really great conversations and "breakthroughs" as you saw a person literally being faced with a person that didn't fit preconceived notions...but then as the seasons went on they added "storylines" and games and then only young beautiful people entered and it stopped being fascinating and just became dumb and so OBVIOUSLY fake...sigh, if they'd just kept it simple...congrats, you played yourself😂😭🤷‍♀️

[GhostBear]

Story 17- they should have those scenes with that audio as a bonus feature

[ArienDragon]

My cousin was on one of those House-Hunter type shows. The house he ended up "picking" was one he had paid to be built before filming ever began, and the big "selling points" were some additions and customizations he had outside of the original blue prints.