These “Reality” TV Shows Are So Fake

Many of our favorite reality TV shows are in fact not real at all. The producers and cast often make changes to boost viewer ratings. Just because it’s called reality television doesn’t mean it’s not downright fake!

South Beach Tow

We cannot deny just how amazing the hijinks in the show are. Bernice has done just about everything from taking off car doors by the hinges using her hands to magically surviving a huge fall and then apprehending a violator immediately after. There is no doubt that it is fake, but it is still very enjoyable!

Duck Dynasty

The wholesome Robertson family lives in Louisiana and shot to stardom thanks to their duck hunting business. The entire cast of characters is basically all related by blood or marriage. However, it turns out that the producers like to create ‘dramatic’ elements to make things more interesting. On top of that, it is said that the production team likes to add ‘bleeps’ even though no one is actually swearing.

Undercover Boss

Did you love the premise of workers getting the credit they deserve at long last? In this show, bosses of different companies infiltrate their business to see how well their workers are doing on the clock. Of course, this also gives them some insight on how to operate the business. The truth is that this so-called reality show is scripted. More importantly, the promises they make to different workers are not kept. Yikes.

Hardcore Pawn

Hardcore Pawn focuses on the Gold family and their family-run pawn business in the rough 8 Mile in Detroit. Can you believe that so many strange people pass by their store on the regular? A lot of the arguments we see on the show just seem way too unbelievable, right? The truth is they are. A lot of the people who appeared on the show admitted that the ‘fights’ were staged. I mean, what are the odds that each episode will have Ashley, Les, and Seth getting into a fight with a customer? Do the math.

Project Runway

Just because this show is very popular does not mean that it is not ‘fake.’ Many contestants who joined the competition, including Daniel Esquivel and Jack Mackenroth, have talked about how inauthentic the judging portion happens to be. In particular, Esquivel has spoken out about how producers reportedly tailored the show in an attempt to sensationalize the contestants to an extreme level.

Cake Boss

This show went on to be a hit in no time at all. Led by business owner Buddy Valastro, the team created stunning and intricate cake designs for our viewing pleasure. However, the truth is that things are not quite as dramatic as they might look. For one thing, Valastro does not really show up at the shop unless they are filming. On top of this, some of the events and weddings are actually staged.

Ghost Hunters

In the past few years, this show has enjoyed quite a lot of popularity. It has also spawned numerous shows ever since it has been on the air. A lot of people have accused it of being scripted, however. Donna Lacroix, former case manager, did an interview and basically confirmed what people suspected.

The Jerry Springer Show

We doubt that this really comes as a surprise. This show is easily one of the most outlandish TV programs in all of history. If you did not figure it out by yourself, we will have you know that the guests and storylines are not at all truthful. This also goes for the production team that eggs the crowd on.

Fixer Upper

Like other house shows, the homeowners have actually bought the house even before filming could begin. This means that they are not truly choosing among the three houses shown at the beginning of the episode. None of the décor or furniture that Joanna Gaines carefully arranges is part of the budget, which means that the owners will only keep them if they are willing to pay. Not every room in the house gets redone either. Meanwhile, there are unverified claims that say Chip only works on the house when there are cameras rolling.

Keeping Up With The Kardashians

We have all heard of this show, right? First aired in 2007, it followed the lives of the members of the Kardashian-Jenner clan. It had a huge cast and covered a lot of their milestones in life. With this in mind, it is not all that surprising to hear that they had to reshoot and edit certain shots for cohesive viewing and a coherent timeline. The court documents from the divorce between Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries revealed that producer Russell Jay said that at least two scenes that involved Humphries had been scripted or reshot. The famous family relies heavily on the editing process as well.

Storage Wars

After he was fired, former star of the show David Hester took the world by surprise when he revealed that the show is scripted. He said that the items they find in the storage lockers have been staged. On top of this, a lot of the auctions are not real. He says that cast member interviews are scripted as well!

Jersey Shore

This TV show first went on the air in 2009. Even though the stars are truly friends, it does not mean that it is a genuine portrayal of their lives. Several locals and extras have reported that a lot of what happened on the show had been planned well in advance. An attorney who lives across the street from them said that he saw rehearsals of the walkabouts. Aside from that, it is said that they often reshoot scenes from other angles. Yup, they basically repeat dialogue and facial expressions to perfection.

Say Yes To The Dress

This famous bridal reality TV show features brides-to-be who are on the lookout for the perfect wedding dress at Kleinfeld in New York. However, the truth is that the producers vet the people who attend the appointment with the bride-to-be. They ask the outspoken folks to stress or repeat a comment for the sake of added drama. The boutique is also considerably less spacious than you might think. A lot of the people who drop by for a visit are shocked to see this for themselves.

Long Island Medium

Theresa Caputo made a name for herself by working as a medium who connects people with the deceased. If you have been skeptical of the show, there is a good reason for this. Caputo has been involved in a scandal that claims she had been given access to information about the clients and audiences of her shows. Producers learn about them through questionnaires, background checks, and social media profiles before feeding it to her on stage.

Cupcake Wars

The show begins with four contestants from various bakeries from different parts of the United States. The contestants compete in three rounds of cupcake baking so that they can be featured in an event that has a display of a thousand cupcakes. The first round typically has a challenge in which the participants must use ingredients that are not conventionally used in cupcakes. However, there are rumors that the contestants already know what ingredients they will have to use beforehand.

Naked And Afraid

This is a survival show that brings participants to exotic places, strips them naked, and shoots them as they try to live off the land. A number of contestants have spoken up about how things are not actually what they seem. The bizarre adventure is reportedly heavily produced. The production team also gives them amenities that they would not find in the wild. These things include tampons, supplements, and prescription medication. We all knew that it was too good to be true.

Basketball Wives

The reality TV program is centered on the lives of ladies married to famous basketball stars. However, not all of them have been happy about their participation in this spectacle. Matt Barnes, a former cast member, has talked about how scripted and staged the whole show actually is. Tanya Young has backed up the claims and said that the producers pitted the wives against each other and started drama.

The Hills

The show had everything you can expect a reality show to have. There was backstabbing, teen angst, and relationship drama on the regular. The show is apparently scripted to the max. Spencer Pratt has said that he and Heidi Montag were asked to shoot one scene fifteen times. It was the part when she believed that she was “pregnant,” and he expressed his outrage. The producers have since admitted that they cast a number of characters on the show, including Lauren’s work best friend.

Last Comic Standing

When this show was still on the air, it was focused on looking for untapped talent and then giving these people exposure or cash prizes for competing. The truth was that, unbeknownst to the judges and the contestants, the producers actually contributed to the vote. This left everyone angry when the name of the winner was named. The show also allegedly edits good performances to make them seem worse.

Red Table Talk

Let’s talk about a different kind of reality and fakeness in Hollywood, the rumors that celebrities have to tackle. Rumors in Hollywood have become a business of their own not only because of PR stunts but because of the development of talk shows that aim to tackle these rumors and bring some kind of truth. Red Table Talk hosted by Jada Pinkett Smith, in the Smith household does exactly this. They tackle rumors as well as deep-rooted topics and issues. Her entire family has featured on the show including her husband Will regarding recent rumors, which the couple discussed openly and honestly.

The Apprentice

This reality show is known for putting Donald Trump in the spotlight once more. Its premise involved a group of celebrities and businessmen interviewing for a job at the company of the current POTUS. Obviously, they added and scripted the firing segment for extra drama. Contestants already knew that they were getting “fired” before they filmed the scene. Perhaps the worst part about the show was that there was no real prize for the winner except for bragging rights.

Love Island

If you like Survivor and The Bachelor, this is the show for you. For the uninformed, the show basically puts together singles for a summer on a tropical island! The participants are enticed to hook up and pair off for the promise of money, romance, and a shot at winning the contest. Reddit says that it is fake. Just about everything in the show, from the arguments to the intimate scenes, are scripted. The producers are said to go through all the takes and only choosing the most “realistic” one for the final cut.

Breaking Amish

Breaking Amish was, sadly, not as real as they made it out to be. Jezebel has talked about the fact that official documents revealed that the Amish folks on the show actually defected a long time ago. This might be surprising to hear if you bought their claims that they just left the community for the “first time.”

Britain’s Got Talent

This show is very similar to its American counterpart. It is a very diverse talent contest that showcases just about everything you can think of. There are magicians, there are dancers, there are acrobats. One dog even brought everyone in the audience to their knees. In 2005, the “Jules and Matisse” dog act won the contest. However, it was actually rigged! The producers swapped out a dog that looked like Matisse since the real one was too scared for the high-wired stunt.

Restaurant Stakeout

Willie Degel is a restaurateur who installed cameras in an eatery that was not doing very well. He did this to figure out what the problem is. The setup relies on basically catching employees who are not doing their jobs properly, if at all. He would then confront them and perhaps even fire them in a dramatic way. It is nearly entirely fake. The restaurant owner from the first season admitted that he was contacted by the Food Network and then screen-tested his employees before they filmed the episode. On top of this, the customers were instructed to behave as annoyingly as they could.

Dance Moms

Did you think that the drama and fighting you saw on Dance Moms had been all for the camera? If so, you were right. In 2015, little Maddie Ziegler told USA Today that some of the dramatic moments in the show are not real. The young girl explained, “It’s hard to do a reality show when there’s so much crying and drama. The producers set it up to make us all yell at each other…The moms have a fake fight sometimes. Afterward they just start talking and laugh about it.”

Hell’s Kitchen

This popular cooking show is hosted by none other than the hotheaded and foul-mouthed celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay. We will admit that it is a highly entertaining show, although one must keep in mind that it is scripted. It was revealed that the customers who end up eating the meals were paid actors.

Toddlers And Tiaras

We do not know about you, but we cannot help but wince a little bit when we catch a few minutes of this show. For some reason, there are people who truly love it. Just like the other shows on the list, Ranker has claimed that a lot of the show is staged. The stars are asked to reword what comes out of their mouth and stir up drama to make things more interesting.

Survivor

Survivor can be considered the real-life version of Hunger Games where the contestants are divided into teams, brought to the wilderness, required to live off the land, and participate in challenges. Sadly, the truth was that many of the competitions and challenges are nothing but fake. Producers admitted that they had to hire body doubles for certain challenges. They also had to reenact a bunch of footage. Stacey Stillman, a former contestant on the show, has said that they rigged her eviction from the show.

American Idol

This very popular TV show debuted in 2001. It has a fairly simple premise. They held singing auditions across the United States until they found the right person to be crowned the American Idol. Most of the millions of hopefuls do not stand a chance at all. Reports say that scouts were already deployed to look for the most talented singers before the auditions are held. How sad is it to hear that it was all a farce?

Catfish

On this hit show by MTV, hosts Max and Nev attempt to figure out the puzzle of “who is really behind these profiles.” It might sound pretty crazy to you, but there are actually lots of people who catfish. That said, this still does not mean that what you see on the show is real. It is said that the producers actually do the application process in reverse. Those who catfish actually had to apply to be on the show.

The Voice

According to a potential competitor, this show is not at all fair. Rock singer Adam Wiener said in his Facebook post that the show actually courted him, but he turned them down. He claimed that the competition is pre-cast and that the producers pick the specific songs and the style of music to be performed. His revelations garnered attention and made people question just how real the show is.

Property Brothers

This will definitely break a couple of hearts. On the show, Canadian brothers Drew and Jonathan Scott work together to help a couple find their dream home. However, a couple of aspects of the show have been revealed to be fake! For one thing, they do not renovate the whole house and only choose a couple of rooms, which have been handpicked by the couple. Next, the show reshoots scenes so that they can shots with more ‘drama’ for the viewing pleasure of the audience. Lastly, the couples opt for a renovation project since the brothers often show them homes that are simply out of their price range.

Pawn Stars

Can you believe that this History Channel show is nearly scripted in its entirety? The store might be real and owned by the Harrison family. However, it has since become a tourist attraction than a real store. The stars no longer work there during regular hours because of the privacy laws in Nevada. That aside, they have already agreed on a price point with the sellers and many items have been researched as well.

The Real Housewives

There had been a lot of speculation that this show was scripted, but we only got the confirmation when Theresa Guidice of Real Housewives of New Jersey swore under oath that it really was. The meetings between the ladies have been planned by the producers in advance. You can also say the same thing for the huge arguments that they have with one another.

The Bachelor/The Bachelorette

We all know that both renditions of the show are very entertaining, but the truth is that much of it has been planned in advance. There are rumors that lines have been fed to the stars. Producers also weed out the dramatic ones and then coax them into dramatic situations together. The rose ceremony is planned out, while the casting is done carefully so that they can already choose the finalists.

The Biggest Loser

While viewers eagerly wait to see how much weight each contestant has lost, it turns out the fancy technology that shows their weight loss is all fake. In fact, the contestants are weighed and measured two whole days beforehand. To top it off, people have questioned the authenticity of the medical professionals on the show multiple times. Some claimed they aren’t qualified to hand out drugs. Not to mention that the show is contrived to show the contestants as lazier and more lethargic than they really are.

The Simple Life

Fans couldn’t get enough of watching Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie take on menial jobs in small towns across the United States while staying with local families. There’s no doubt that the show was hilarious, but later on, Paris Hilton admitted that producers had them play roles of the ditzy blonde and the troublemaker. However, Paris also admitted that she enjoyed playing the airhead with a baby voice, finding it quite funny. In fact, she said she would often revert back to this character voice after using it on the show for five years.

House Hunters

One of HGTV’s biggest successes, House Hunters turned out to be another fake reality show to add to the list. The participants on the show have already picked which house they were going to buy when they go on the show. In some cases, the participants have already purchased the house on the show. To top it off, it has been said that the show occasionally has younger actors play the owners of the houses.

What Not To Wear

Even though the premise of the show is good, in actuality, it isn’t as fun as it’s made out to be. Each participant gets $5,000 to redo their closet and get a complete makeover. However, there are a couple of catches: the producers get rid of all the clothing the participants own and give it to charity. And, the participants have to pay tax on all the items they buy. To top it off, all the clothing gets tailored to fit the contestants exactly, and that’s another expense that isn’t covered by the show.

Pimp My Ride

MTV’s Pimp My Ride was one of the most popular reality shows during the time it aired. Rapper Xzibit would show up at people’s front doors to take people’s old cars to give them a whole makeover. Well, it turns out that the car makeovers were just for the cameras and were totally cosmetic. Someone who was on the show mentioned that their car barely even ran when they got it back. Also, it sometimes took as much as six months for these cars to be taken care of.

Cribs

Another popular MTV show was Cribs. This show would feature celebrities who would show off their crazy homes as fans gawked at their luxurious life through the screen. A lot of famous celebrities appeared on the show during its 13-year run. However, MTV was exposed when a woman sued the channel for showing her leased house as rapper Ja Rules’ crib.

90 Day Fiance

Right off the bat, there are so many things wrong about 90 Day Fiance. The show is pretty much made so that one person from each couple can emigrate to the United States on a K-1 visa. The problem with this is that the couple needs to get married before the 90 days. Otherwise, the tourist visa will expire before they can. Naturally, this causes more than enough drama between the couples, but the producers stir the pot to get better reactions for the show. A lot of times, they will ask participants to do or say specific things.

Divorce Court

We all know that reality TV thrives on drama, and what could be more dramatic than a divorce and marital disputes? Divorce Court focuses on the drama and issues in marriage, listening to both sides of the story and coming to some kind of resolution. However, someone revealed that the show is completely fake. They had said their daughter and daughter’s boyfriend were recruited to be on the show. The couple wasn’t married at the time, not to mention that the producers gave them a backstory to lie on the show about.

The Osbournes

Before the Kardashians became a thing, there was The Osbournes. Ozzy, Sharon, Kelly, and Jack. The show held nothing back, with plenty of swearing by everyone on it. Fans couldn’t get enough of the weird but loving family dynamic. They even got some good laughs from antics that seemed so real. Well, it turns out that none of it was real, most of the show was scripted. Producers supposedly instructed the family on what would happen in every episode.

Teen Mom

MTV isn’t exactly known to have the most authentic reality shows, and Teen Mom was no different than the rest of them. The show came around after 16 and Pregnant, following the young mom’s lives once they gave birth. No one can deny that a lot of the drama, arrests, and breakups were very real. However, it has also been claimed that the producers would carefully edit conversations to make them seem more dramatic than they actually were.

Beauty and the Geek

This reality show wanted to pair beautiful women with nerdy guys to compete in couples’ challenges. The geeks on the show were portrayed as socially awkward and unable to talk to women, but this wasn’t the case in real life. As it turns out, one of the guys from the show had a girlfriend back home. In addition, the show was accused of hiring actors to play some of the contestants.

I Am Cait

This show followed Caitlyn Jenner’s gender transition, documenting her journey in becoming her true self with all the struggles and hardships along the way. While the first season of the show was very much real, the fans learned all about Jenner’s transition, not leaving much to show in the second season. As a result, the producers started faking scenarios for Caitlyn.

Famously Single

This E! Network reality show features several single celebrities who the coaches try and set up with different people. The celebrities live together while going through therapy sessions and also recap their journey to find love. However, these celebrities aren’t the best actors and it’s clear a lot of the situations are fabricated. Of course, different celebrities and people from their past are brought into the show to stir up some drama.

Total Bellas

Seeing as WWE was totally fake, it only makes sense that a reality show based on the Bella Twins is going to be less than real. The series followed Nikki and Brie with their partners, John Cena, and Daniel Bryan. A lot of the scenarios in the show were clearly brought up by producers and plenty of the drama between Nikki and John Cena was played up for the cameras.

WAGS

Once it was on the air, WAGS became one of E!’s most popular shows, showing the lives and drama of the wives of sports stars. The show was very reliant on fake scenarios, with the producers creating drama between the women to make it more interesting for viewers. Even though the marriage breakdowns were real, the conversations and competitiveness between the woman were all fabricated. In fact, there were even women who weren’t dating sports stars who were brought on to make things more interesting.

Wife Swap

Viewers couldn’t get enough of Wife Swap. It was so popular that it ran for nine years. Watching wives walk into new households and change their rules to their own always caused major drama and conflicts with the husbands and children. Later, it was revealed that the producers would tell contestants to act a certain way. Not to mention that the manuals were created by the producers, too. Also, the show was edited in the way the producers wanted to portray the families. One contestant even admitted that he wasn’t with the partner they showed on the program.

Big Brother

If you haven’t heard of this show, all you really need to know about it is that a bunch of strangers are put in a house together and they need to get through some challenges. Each week, the public votes one person out, usually based on their personality. Well, it turns out that production tend to favor certain people and will go as far as editing footage to work in favor of them in the show. While CBS claims the show is authentic, there have been stories going around for years about how much it’s manipulated.

Dancing With The Stars

This popular show draws in around 8.5 million viewers per season. However, it looks like the dancing might just be one of the only real parts of the show. Some celebrities have an unfair advantage with their dancing backgrounds. One person mentioned how the show is more about personality than dancing. To top it off, Wendy Williams was kicked off in the second show of her season when she refused to follow a script the producers wrote. Of course, there have also been reports of fake voting.

RuPaul’s Drag Race

This show has contestants compete in the art of drag. They do everything from celebrity impersonations to lip-syncing. While the looks are fierce and the lip-syncing is great, the contours and waistlines aren’t the only things that are illusions. According to a former contestant, the show edits in soundbites out of context to create storylines. The show is definitely fun, but it’s not real.

Bridezillas

We all know that marriage is a big step in anyone’s life, but the women on this show take things to a whole new level. Oftentimes, the brides come across as spoiled, demanding, and stubborn. The smallest problems can trigger these brides into major panic attacks and overreactions. However, not all bridezillas have been happy with the treatment they got on the show. One former participant says she was tricked into thinking she was participating in a documentary named Manhatten Brides. Another bride had a similar experience and ended up suing the show for misleading her.

MasterChef

Another popular cooking content that has become majorly popular is none other than MasterChef. The show promises home chefs the chance to audition and compete for the title of MasterChef and win $250,000 dollars. Despite that tempting premise, a former contestant has said the competition is anything but real. They explained that participants had to agree to potentially fictionalized and humiliating portrayals of themselves on the show. They also claimed that editors would put together pieces of dialogue to create things that were never really said.

Family Game Night

Believe it or not, all the answers on Family Game Night are preplanned. One contestant shared, “I was on Family Game Night after being on the right street at the right time in California. There are certain cards you aren’t supposed to pick because they have nothing behind them. And when it’s your time to pick a game, they give you like six choices. In reality, they tell you there’s only two they have set up and ready to go. All of the answers and games are preplanned. Most of the time, the family has already been on the vacation they won so they can show a picture the following week of them in their destination.”

Let’s Make a Deal

Let’s Make A Deal doesn’t pick its contestants randomly, they purposely pick the weirdest people in the audience. The producers tell the audience ahead of time to be as wild, crazy, and exciting as they can. Then, they asked them ‘interview’ questions before they were even inside and said they use that to determine who would be selected for each deal.

Love It or List It

Don’t judge the listings by the outcome. As it turns out, the show tapes two outcomes to each episode. One “love it” and one “list it”. In fact, one couple was on the show, and they recorded both endings, as usual. Well, they ended up living in the house they bought and they love it, but the show says they listed it. The network simply chooses which ending to use, no matter what actually happened.

Beachfront Bargain Hunt

Like a lot of other real-estate shows, Beachfront Bargain Hunt is as fake as the rest. While couples on the show seem to be very, very picky about the houses they turn down, there’s a reason for that. They had already closed the deal on their real home purchase, and all they’re doing is walking through fake “potential” homes and listing ridiculous reasons for rejecting them. All to pad out the TV show’s format. In fact, one realtor that appeared on the show said the requirements for a client were that they had to be under contract for a home or be a new home owner.

Mountain Men

When talking about History Channel’s Mountain Men, the word exaggeration comes to mind. The stars of the show have all admitted at different times that their rough personas are just an act for the cameras. Not to mention, they have a lot more money than the show lets on. To top it off, a lot of the seemingly dangerous incidents on the show are scripted recreations.

Designed to Sell

If the guest of a show isn’t planning on selling their house for a year or more, what is a real estate reality show meant to do? Well, HGTV has an answer for that. For their show, Designed to Sell, all they did was stage a fake open house and filmed a bunch of friends and family walking around pretending to be potential buyers. Sounds weird, doesn’t it? The show also asks guests to film multiple endings for different sell-or-not-sell scenarios. Not to mention, it turns out that the show does sloppy repairs which are usually concealed by careful camera work.

American Pickers

This show is all about the haggling, but sadly, it turns out that the haggling prices are predetermined, according to guests who have been on the show. The rundown locations where they find all the great deals are located by producers ahead of time, who send representatives to investigate about a month before filming. By the way, “Hobo Jack” (Jack Sophir) isn’t an actual hobo – he’s a successful collector who owns multiple buildings and never once called himself Hobo Jack before the TV show started.

Deadliest Catch

Aside from having some fakery going on, Deadliest Catch uses methods for creating dramatic TV that could be causing real problems for the fishing industry. How? Well, since the TV fishing crews are making money from producers, rather than the industry, they don’t need to meet fishing quotas. Meaning that they can price out regular fishermen, making it harder for everyone else to make a living. To top it off, the show uses editing to create dramatic storylines.

Ice Road Truckers

The opening of the show’s first season featured a truck dropping through the ice into freezing cold water. Well, that entire scene was created through miniature models. While that’s bad enough, cast members have said the show is scripted, and then edited further to make regular people look like heroes and villains. Pretty standard when it comes to reality TV. And even though ice road trucking is definitely quite dangerous, the series makes an extra effort to make circumstances look a lot riskier than they are.

Mystery Diners

On Mystery Diners, the owner of a restaurant calls the host, Charles Stiles, who then sets up a secret operation in the restaurant to try and catch bad employees. However, former employees have said that the show was completely fake. A lot of them say the “employees” who are misbehaving on the job are paid actors and the real workers sign non-disclosure agreements to keep things quiet.

Southern Charm

This Bravo reality show tries to keep you occupied by the “charm” rather than notice that the show is basically like any Real Housewives show out there. Given that it follows pretty much the same format as the others – wealthy people – it’s not surprising that the show isn’t real. According to some reports, the show’s original couple didn’t actually live in Charleston, South Carolina while filming season one. Additionally, it’s been said that a heavy amount of editing is involved in order to create more drama.

Chopped

Chopped, a Food Network favorite, puts chefs up against each other in a timed cook-off. Each cook is given a set of ingredients and prepares dinner courses for the judges, who eliminate them one-by-one, until the last remains. Despite the timed cooking challenges being real, other things on the show are not what they seem. It turns out that in the beginning of the show, the producers would purposely short a common ingredient (like butter) in the pantry to create drama between contestants. While they don’t do this anymore, they still cut corners. The chefs have plenty of time before filming to look through the pantry to start thinking of dishes they can make. Lastly, the best dish in each round doesn’t always win. While the judges do taste the food, they don’t always eliminate the worst dish. At times, a chef with a compelling story will be left on the show.

Geordie Shore

The British version of Jersey Shore, Geordie Shore, is just as fake – if not more – than its American counterpart. One mess-up was when MTV came out with a new trailer for an upcoming episode. In the clip, Marnie is shown celebrating her 26th birthday. What’s the problem? Well, the trailer came out on her actual birthday, meaning that it was filmed months earlier. Fans took to social media to express their confusion. In fact, Marnie responded in a quickly-deleted tweet, saying “It’s coz [sic] it’s fake and scripted.”

Made in Chelsea

Another British reality show that isn’t really based in reality is Made in Chelsea. It’s about the posh area in London, with plenty of drama surrounding the wealthy youth of the show. As one would expect, much of that drama is, in fact, very fake. Former stars have called out the producers for scripting scenes and creating more drama out of nothing. One former star said they would get an early call in the morning with instructions where to be and what to do, and even how to act.

Alaskan Bush People

Would you be able to survive the wild Alaskan wilderness? The Discovery Channel show follows the Brown family who was “a newly discovered family who was born and raised wild” according to the network. Soon after premiering, their story began falling apart. For one, Brown’s neighbors said that the family didn’t only live in the wild, they were also residents at the Icy Strait Lodge in Hoonah, Alaska. Other locals mentioned that the “bush home” was only used for filming.

The Island

Getting dropped on a deserted island to try and survive for four weeks is no easy feat. The contestants of this show have to find water, food, and shelter. Normally, things start out rough, but there seems to always be a body of water that appears at the last moment. And magically, food appears too! Turns out this was no coincidence. The producers of the show stated, “We had to ensure the island’s only water supply, a muddy pool, would last through filming in the dry season and that there were enough native animals and native vegetation that could sustain the men for 28 days — as long as they had the ingenuity to find it, catch it and kill it.”

Kitchen Nightmares

Gordon Ramsey has become one of the staples in reality TV nowadays. Well, it turns out that Ramsey was called out for making a restaurant in Manhatten look worse than it really was, leading him to get sued. The lawsuit was eventually thrown out.

Top Chef

While Top Chef isn’t quite as fake as other cooking shows out there, there are some things that are pre-planned for the sake of TV magic. In the first season, one celebrity chef threw a fit since the contestants’ dishes kept getting cold before the judges could taste them. It turns out that the cameramen held everyone up while they were getting close-up shots of the food. Now, the contestants need to prepare two dishes: one for the judges to taste, and one for the cameras.

Cash In The Attic

The U.K. show, Cash in the Attic was a thrill for viewers. The show essentially says that they will help you find buried treasures in your attic, and then sell them in an auction. There is no competitive component here, but there is cash potential. However, it turns out that the entire show was a scam. One person said they didn’t find anything at their house, so they pulled out some paintings and a vase from the van and “found” them.

Vanderpump Rules

This Real Housewives spinoff focuses on Lisa Vanderpump and the staff of her restaurant. However, it’s clear that plenty of the show has been altered and heavily edited. Fans love pointing out how staff members suddenly wear different items during scenes, proving they’ve been doing multiple takes. One star even admitted to having faked a breakup for the drama.

Tattoo Fixers

This reality show gets people with tattoos they regret and make a design they don’t tell them about and turn it into a tattoo to cover up the old one. Then, they “surprise” them at the end of the episode. It turns out that the surprises aren’t all that authentic. The “big surprise reveal” can be filmed many times until they get it right and the person is surprised enough.

Bad Dog

This show is known to create their own story out of the footage they get. One example is when they were filming a dog that would get into the trash and into a cabinet secured with baby locks, they set up cameras to see how. It turns out he would open the cabinet a little and then put his paw in and push the baby lock down to open it. Well, the producers decided to form a story that the ferrets living with the dog were influencing the dog. They portrayed that they raised the dog and taught him how to do this trick.

Extreme Makeover Home Edition

One volunteer who was on Extreme Makeover Home Edition spoke about his experience. He said they would film what they called “camera-ready” volunteers a little during the day, and then a real crew would come in to do all the real work.

The Real World

The Real World is pretty much the same idea as many other fake reality shows: rich people create loads of drama and go behind each other’s back day in and day out. Well, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that these people were simply putting up a show for the cameras to make things more interesting for the viewers.

Punk’d

Ashton Kutcher was the host of this celebrity pranking show, but the question is: how much of it was real? It turns out some of the time. In a few cases, the pranks were real and the reactions were genuine. But, most of the show was heavily manufactured. A few celebrities even knew they were being pranked and just went along with it.

My Super Sweet 16

How could people believe this was all true? The premise of the show was for rich teens to throw the most epic sweet 16 parties in history. The more over the top, the better. With all the meltdown and tears, it only made sense things weren’t the way they seemed. It turns out we were right. In fact, the cars they got were only just for show, too.

A Shot At Love With Tila Tequila

VH1 came up with this show to rival MTV’s own weird shows. This one involved 16 straight men and 16 gay women who were all competing for the love of Tila Tequila. The show, which lasted two seasons, was a disaster built on a house of lies. The winner of the first season never even got a chance to communicate with Tila once filming wrapped.

Paris Hilton’s My New BFF

This is definitely a very obvious one, but all the same, this show was as fake as it gets. The competition show is still marked as reality TV, so we needed to point that out. The premise of the show was for Paris Hilton to find a new best friend after she had a falling out with Nicole Richie. That’s it. That’s the show.

Ex On The Beach

It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, but Ex on the Beach is apparently scripted. Who knew, right? Well, the reality show is meant to collect a bunch of single people and put them all on a beach together to find love. Only, the contestants don’t know their exes will be showing up, not random singles. While it sounds great, it does take away knowing that it’s scripted. But like we said, by this point, we shouldn’t be surprised it’s fake.

Supernanny

We’ve all seen how Jo Frost magically made rowdy kids become angels in just a week, but let’s be honest, it doesn’t seem very realistic. At all. As it turns out, we were right in suspecting that the transformation wasn’t real. It is said that producers would instruct the kids to cry and throw more tantrums. That alone discredits the whole show, don’t you think?

America’s Got Talent

A Reddit user once wrote that this show is, in fact, just as fake as the British one. The user said that any singer or musical act that seems too good to be true will generally get cut or will never even make its way onto television, for fear that someone will discover the contestant and they will get a record deal before the show is even over.

Floribama Shore

Just as Jersey Shore is as fake of a show as they come, so was its spinoff, Floribama Shore. Though the shows have different casts and are filmed in different locations, the idea behind the two shows is pretty much all the same. The actors on the show are not nearly clever enough to deliver the lines that have been given to them properly.

Next

This show is unbelievably intimate for the fact that it’s basically blind date after blind date while a group of people is waiting for you to rejoin them in the back of a van. A Reddit user who was on the show said, “Most of the show is scripted. The producer would tell me a line and I’d be like, ‘what about this…’ They asked me if I would get down to my undies and I said yes. It kind of just happened.”

Made

This show is all about taking a hopeless teenager with sky-high goals and helping them learn the talents they need to pursue these dreams. Some examples would be becoming a surfer or a star athlete; the thing is, though, the teens on the show already have the skills they’re trying to gain.

The X Factor

When Simon Cowell decided it was time to leave American Idol, he created a new talent show on TV called The X Factor. Just like American Idol, it’s rumored that the talent brought onto the stage on this show was preselected. This is also how they avoid too many of the same talents appearing in one episode- because everything has already been planned out.

The Amazing Race

This show is based around a team of two people, usually who have some sort of relationship with one another, competing in challenges and races against other couples all around the world. Many people argue that this show is fake because not only can the average person not afford to travel all over the world for these competitions, but they also see that the teams are picked strategically making sure to include couples that accentuate age, ethnicity, and sexual orientation.

Guy’s Grocery Games

Guy Fieri seems like a super great guy, and it’s a really amazing idea behind his show that any unused food gets donated to organizations in Sonoma County, California, but the “grocery store” that participants are using to gather their food is not really a grocery store. It’s stocked to look like a real store, but it’s actually just a set for the show.

Kourtney And Khloe Take Miami

This spinoff of the famous Keeping Up With The Kardashians was pretty short-lived with only three seasons airing on TV. The premise of the show was that Kourtney and Khloe moved to Miami, Florida so that they could open a new branch of their boutique store DASH. Viewers didn’t seem to love the show and preferred to just stick to being die-hard fans of the original KUWTK which is still going strong today.

Counting On

This is a spinoff of the very real 19 Kids And Counting, but this show is not as reality-based as its big brother. It has come out that this show is not only heavily scripted but that there are also many scenes that are written and performed as if it were a fictional TV show. The show has also hired actors in the past.

My Strange Addiction

If you have seen any episodes of this show, you’ll be able to understand that some are much more dramatic and played out than others. Some of these addictions range from being addicted to being an adult baby, to being addicted to eating paint or sting yourself with bees repeatedly. There’s a lot going on in this show.

Sister Wives

There are many red flags in the show Sister Wives that may suggest that it’s not as factual and real as they make it seem like it is. Timelines don’t match up, the drama is clearly just being started for the sake of starting drama, and to top it all off, these people weren’t really exiled from their lives. There’s barely anything real about this show.

Extreme Couponing

If you’re someone who likes saving a few dollars here and there at the grocery store or someone who found a big inspiration in couponing from this show, you may be disappointed to hear that the show was very much staged. Apparently, it’s not uncommon to use fake or expired coupons or to just completely ignore the terms and conditions in the fine print. It’s also simply not realistic to give someone 100 coupons and expect them all to be useable.

Jon And Kate Plus 8

If you have somehow escaped hearing about the drama between Jon and Kate Gosselin over the last few years, consider yourself one of the lucky ones. The show never shined a light on the difficulties of raising eight children, and we know there is no way that difficulties never arise. While the kids were obviously real, the premise and personalities of the show were very fake.

Cheer Perfection

This show is just like any other TLC show involving children. The parents get far too involved for it to be healthy and they bring up unrealistic expectations for how a parent should be acting. It almost seems as though parent to parent drama was the forefront of this show and the cheerleading came as a background story.

Little People, Big World

Most of the aspects of this show are real and factual, however, the youngest son of the family on the show once pointed out that, “producers have to try to get us to follow the talking points.” While this doesn’t make the show completely fake, it makes it scripted. It’s unnatural, at a minimum.

Gypsy Sisters

There’s nothing real about this show other than the fact that these girls really are sisters. This was the kind of show that makes people think “did they really just do this?” The show highlights their lives and individual personalities, but nothing that happens on the show is actually real.

America’s Next Top Model

Any reality show that has been on the air for as many years as America’s Next Top Model definitely has its own little secrets hiding away somewhere. While the show is true in the fact that it teaches aspiring models skills, it’s pretty rare that someone who wins the competition actually goes on to be a successful model. Many decisions are rigged and many situations are forced or scripted.

Botched

A lot of things that happen and a lot of patients that come onto the show on Botched are either fabricated or completely false. Even if the base of a story is true, the crew from Botched adds more drama and medical gore to it to intrigue viewers. That’s the base of the show, after all, to highlight the horrible surgeries that have happened and for these doctors to swoop in and fix them.

Exiled

There’s nothing more entertaining than watching an entitled teenager get shipped off to a third world country to learn the value of life, right? Well, maybe, but this show is not totally real. There are far too many complications and logistical mess-ups that could happen by doing such a thing like this in real life. These teens may have gone to these countries, but there’s no way it was without their permission and not fabricated.

Total Divas

This show is similar to Total Divas, but basically the premise of the show is that it looks into the lives of female WWE wrestlers. Just like WWE matches, this show is absolutely fabricated and not totally real whatsoever. It is scripted and built up in many ways.

Very Cavallari

Just like Kristin Cavallari’s first reality show, this one also seems to be pretty scripted. While there are some behind the scenes looks that make it look like some parts are authentic, the drama and overreactions to many small and minute situations make fans think twice about whether this show is real or fake.

Flip It Like Disick

This is another Kardashian-esque spinoff series, this time, featuring Kourtney’s ex-boyfriend, Scott Disick. This show focuses on his new endeavor, which is home flipping and remodeling. He has been involved in the Kardashian and reality show world for many years now, and each show is just as fake as the next.

Bachelor In Paradise

This Bachelor and Bachelorette spinoff on ABC is another elimination-style competition to find love. Most of the competitors are former Bachelor or Bachelorette contestants coming back for another shot at finding love. Just like The Bachelor/Bachelorette, this show is heavily scripted and dramatized.

Outdaughtered

This show may actually be about the every day lives of the Busby family and how they are managing to raise five young children, but at the same time, it is partially flawed and scripted. Adam Busby said, “We may have two big scenes in the show, but the producers may as us to talk about a particular subject in one scene.”

The Little Couple

There has been a lot of news surrounding this show and the fact that it is so heavily scripted that viewers no longer know what is real and what is fake. On top of this, their production company recently got investigated by the FBI for possible embezzlement charges. Something doesn’t seem right here.

American Ninja Warrior

Of course, the strength and skills seen on this show are not fake, these contestants are actually incredible and are doing something very difficult. At the same time, though, this show is not completely truthful. Many things can be refilmed if the camera crew feels it needs to be, and some people advance farther than others for the sake of entertainment.

Extreme Cheapskates

Extreme Cheapskates is another TLC show that cannot hide the fact that it is scripted. For starters, some of the spending habits they claim to have are simply unrealistic. You can’t use hair as dental floss, it’s just not possible. Driving all around the city to find the cheapest bottle of ketchup will end up costing you more money in the end on gas than just buying a bottle of ketchup. There are a lot of flaws in this show.

Watch What Happens Live

When you’re watching a show about Hollywood’s most famous stars dishing all of their drama and giving their opinions, you know that things are scripted in some way. Celebs can’t usually say exactly what they want on television, especially not on a tell-all show like this.

Below Deck

Many scenes are either cut out of the show or are heavily edited to change the course of what was really going on here. So, what is going on with the cast may actually be happening, but the show is edited so much that it makes the real situations look completely different from what you’re seeing on TV.

Millionaire Matchmaker

Patti Stanger’s entire show is comprised of things that should, in a great world, disqualify this show from being considered reality TV. There is absolutely nothing real about it. Patti’s team is made up of actors, they barely actually check the people who are coming on the show, and Patti herself is preaching things that she doesn’t follow. They are simply looking for people to come on the show for good entertainment, not for people to actually find love