My brother was on The Bachelorette, a top 2 contestant. 99% of it isn't scripted. I am very much like my brother which tells me that he does not do acting and isn't cavalier in the slightest with his feelings and all. It was weird because going into the show no one in the family really had much respect for the show, cause it's reality tv and "who could possibly fall in love in just 3 months??" He went on the show with 0 expectations and thought he'd meet some great guys and a great girl but probably get kicked off within the first couple of weeks. Next thing we know, he's top four and and The Bachelorette filming crew is in my house doing a home visit, and then he comes home 2 weeks later with his heart broken. He legitimately fell in love, legitimately had his heart broken, 100% real. The circumstances are obviously bizarre, but the contestants learn to ignore all of the cameras and microphones which is why they open up so much on national tv.

I will say this though, while almost none of it is scripted, it is VERY producer-driven. Producers will ask the contestants the questions that they want answers to, and will create drama for themselves to have filmed. To top it off, they are EXTREMELY good at editing, to the degree that they take clips of audio that could have been recorded weeks apart and put them together to create seemingly real conversations, and 99% of the people watching don't catch it.

tl;dr: Brother was on The Bachelorette. Made top 2. Fell in love, got heart broken. 100% real to him.

jviall Report

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I was on alaska state troopers. Getting my ticket and everything was real. They just cut a 2 hour traffic stop to 6 minutes to make me look a lot worse. They asked if us if anybody wanted to sign a release to show their face. Nobody did, but people could still recognize me because of my voice. Lots of splainin to do

bigbaby_jesus Report

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My cousin recently tried out for the role of a "bad" tattoo artist who gave someone a s****y tattoo on a show called Tattoo Nightmares. She's never given a tattoo, so that might help you have an idea.

imnotcam Report

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I was once featured on the Food Network show, "Food 911". I said that I liked the food after I ate it at the end of the episode. I didn't like the food.

Pokeadot , Food Network Report

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I can tell you that North Woods Law is as real as it gets.

People really are that dumb up here.

cozmonaut22 Report

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Knew someone on Say Yes To The Dress. It wasn't scripted but they controlled the outcome, forcing people to say yes (when really they didnt want the dress) and adding drama by asking the contestants to say what they didn't like about the dress. When someone says yes they don't have to buy the dress (no they dont win them as a prize) but they get something weird like 16% off if they want to buy it. The person I knew said yes but didnt buy the dress.

turkturkelton Report

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House Hunters isn't real :( usually the homeowners already have their house in escarot (spelling? sorry) and are just pretending to look at other houses.

kadmarco Report

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I was in a hotel lobby in London where Top Model was being filmed. They performed multiple takes of everything, and the 'girls' were coached on what to say, where to stand- everything.

I hesitate to even call it an open secret.

My wife is on a fire department reality show-- it is a bit more like cops, except with the fire dept. While it is not scripted, days of filming end up compressed into the 20-some minutes of actual viewing time, and events are often stitched together out of sequence, and they reuse all sorts of standard footage (of the fire station, driving the streets, etc). But this is reality TV without 'contestants.'

TV is designed to sell advertising (attract viewers)-- not adhere to standards of 'reality.'

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When it comes to Music reality shows [the voice, Idol, x factor etc] this is how it goes down:
You audition for producers. Once, twice, maybe three times. Thousands of people come to the open auditions, it's not feasible to have them ALL go in front of the celeb judges.
In The Voice, you can actually send a video through, which I think is great. The waiting around for shows like X Factor is absolute s**t.

If you're awesome/terrible/have a great backstory they'll keep filtering you through the layers.
That's why it's so cruel when the awful singers get through to Judges audition. Because they've gone through 2 or 3 producer auditions. They get their hopes up high, only to have the celeb judges tell them they're s**t. That's why they're often so hugely upset.

pandalei Report

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A relative of mine was on Jerry Springer. The story, fight on stage, and the breakaway props were fake, but his nipple rings and the womans giant boobs he shoved his face into were all too real.

Also on the show Moonshiners, many of the people featured on the show actually were moonshiners (some friends of my in-laws) but had already served their jailtime many years prior and the show was just a recreation of some of their accounts. The locations they featured were often times real, but intentionally misreported as to where they actually were on the map.

kolfan , The Jerry Springers Show Report

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My wife is a realtor and she was on one of those TLC home buying shows. It was 100% fake. The people had been living in the house they "choose" for 6 months before the show even contacted my wife. All they did was find two other houses on the market and pretend to go look at them. When it was time to "look" at their house the TV crew just moved their furniture from room to room so it looked vacant. Then they moved it all back, changed clothes and shot the "6 months later" shot for the end of the show. It was all pretty funny to see.

Pappy091 Report

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You know Ellen Degeneres? Yea well she's full of s**t. My mom went on her show to see the featured guest (don't remember who) and the producers informed them that the only purpose they were there was to get a good audience feedback for editing purposes for the ACTUAL show that will be televised. Basically Ellen had to half-a*s her routine (she was also in a s****y mood but who cares right? they won't use that recorded material) and it was up to the audience to constantly cheer and clap so they could edit good material for the final recording.

TL;DR Ellen has 2 different audiences at 2 different times for one show, one for good editing material, and one for a featured guest/ the real deal.

edit: Oh yea, b***h didn't even dance when my mom was there.

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I did an appearance on MTV's Parental Control as the douchebag boyfriend that the parents were trying to get rid of. It was pretty organized as to what happens but there wasn't a hard copy script in the season I was in. They filmed the dates beforehand and basically gave me the character I was suppose to play (sarcastic/sexist/a*****e) and just told me to react to the parents or the date however I saw fit and they filmed it. After that we did another run where I had an ear piece where a writer would feed me comebacks to the parents in real time.

The decision in the end was not scripted and they left a surprising amount of content up to us. I was not actually dating or knew the girl though and I had to audition for the part.

Trojandude Report

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They shot an episode of MADE at my high school (a show where they "MAKE" someone into something they've always wanted to be "made" into. )

Well the girl at my hs wanted to be made into this hip hop dancer. The finale of it was to perform at our high schools end of the year talent show that was all the craze and drew out tons of people in the years past.

That was the first and last year we had a talent show. It was made for just the show.

anon Report

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My brother partecipated to pimp my ride a lot of time ago, I was there when they filmed; the interviews were a little bit scripted, but when they showed him the finished bike, it was the first time he ever saw the final product, so the reaction was genuine.

Lollikus Report

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I was a carpenter on Bravos 1st season of their design show Top Design back in 2007. I did the whole season, minus the finale. I was basically the designers assistant, helped build their design, paint, make furniture, even some design and materials choices. Even if my designer, Andrea, a really cool architect from LA, made it to the finale, I was traveling then so wouldn't have been there.

Regarding OPs question, none of the show was scripted, we all just really ran with it. Producers never told us "pick a fight" or " do this, try that" nothing. It was all straight up. When the clock ran out, paint brushes down and compressors off. It was a pretty awesome experience, overall. Long days and tons of hard work. We figured out 4x8 sheets of MDF (medium density fiberboard, kinda like plywood) was the best value, as we could make almost anything from it, beds, tables, trim etc. We'd buy 30-40 sheets each at, HD then have to load them into a moving van, then load them into the Pacific Design Center. Each sheet is 90lbs or so! Anyway, lots of work, tons of fun and made some great friends with whom I still keep in touch with today.

TheTallGuy0 Report

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Amish mafia its COMPLETELY fake, many episodes were filmed on my cousins farm. It's all scripted.

anon Report

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Restaurant Impossible is pretty Legit and not too scripted. My family had done electrical work for one of the episodes and said its pretty much how you see it

rebluorange12 Report

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I was on So You Think You Can Dance. Not much is scripted. They just take a lot of "crowd cheering" shots so they have plenty of material. But we were all pumped and enthusiastic anyway.

They interview you if you get to a certain point and a lot of contestants had mixed reviews on it. The interviews consist of questions to get any info out of you and see if there's a "tv worthy" story there. Some of the contestants obviously wanted to be on TV and were more than willing to share every detail, but a lot of others didn't see it as appropriate and wanted to keep their privacy until they made it further onto the show.

ambitious_cuddles Report

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My friend Paedon is on a show called Sister Wives, where he has like 11 other siblings and 3 other moms. He said that the producers basically tell you what to begin with, what to end with, and something to bring up and go on with their normal lives in between.

RockinMouth Report

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MC Hammer lives in my town, and they did a reality show here about him and his family. They faked a lot of stuff about his son's elementary school. Almost all of my friends had gone there, and one friend's little sister was in his son's class. I guess they made up a "Bring your dad to school" day just so Hammer could show up (he was the only parent there. The guy they showed going on after him was just someone's neighbor, and I guess he was the only other one). They had an episode where the son got bad grades on a quarterly report card, and A) the report card they made looks nothing like the actual school's report card, B) the school year at that school is divided into trimesters, not quarters, and C) the kid was actually doing pretty well in school, they just wanted something dramatic. Hammer goes to talk to the teacher in that episode, and I guess they told the teacher what to say.

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They filmed an episode of Made at my high school. They would flat out go up to kids in the hall and go "Hey, can you say this into the microphone?" There was a lot of other stuff, too. But the long and short of it was that, yeah, pretty much all of it was fake.

Henge , akophotography Report

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Worked with former stars of "Cajun Justice," One of the episodes included officers riding out in Airboats to a location in which the occupants were practicing "VooDoo." The officers show up on scene, find an estranged man drawing symbols and uttering phrases. They book him and all is well in the swamps again.
Under further investigation of this man's "House" in the episode, I noticed something familiar about said house. The "house" is actually what we refer to as a camp, (a well known camp for most in south Louisiana), as it's the state troopers camp where the game wardens sleep during the fall duck season. So they staged the entire damn thing, (because NO ONE practices f*****g Voodoo anymore), and they did it all in their own damn camp. Also as a side note, the sheriff who pushed for this show ran the local sheriff's office damn near bankrupt and in shambles. He was removed from his position shortly thereafter.
Also, Swamp People is mostly true, I cannot speak for how scripted it is, but they do portray the entire act from start to finish pretty well. And the people on the show are 100% real, along with those ridiculous accents, (not all of us have them).

Tl;dr- Cajun Justice uses state owned camp to produce a farce of a show, bankrupts local sheriffs office, and leaves said office in shambles.

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Former reality TV employee here (production assistant, camera assist, camera op) I worked for E!, MTV, and Disney on several shows. From the lowest to the highest in ratings. It's almost entirely faked, or worse instigated. An example is I worked on bridezillas for quite a few episodes and they would provoke these people/guide circumstance to the shows favor or flat out make it up. We had to do a re shoot on one episode because sound was ruined and we re created the entire episode. The expiration these people endure is tremendous. I quite to become a beer rep because I couldn't handle how morally awful all the people were

simonmagnus Report

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I applied for a.. popular singing show.. one year and made it through a few rounds!

The tables on the first day are divided into 3 groups: tables that take people who can sing, tables that only take people who CANNOT sing, and tables that only take people with interesting stories. I heard a girl absolutely kill it and get turned down -- wrong type of table.

That being said, the auditions are so stressful and long, and those people you see at the judges table who suck? They've been through a lot of rounds already and have been told over and over again how good they are. That confusion and disappointment is very very real on tv. It's tragic.

axolotl_roadkill Report

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P**n Stars is pretty much all faked up. A woman brought in a classic 1958 Gibson guitar, saying it had been under her bed for 50 years.

Rick 'called his buddy', who came down and in under a minute pronounced it 100% legit (Impossible; you must remove the pickups and examine them, amongst other things).

I read later that the guitar was for sale in the buddy's music shop, and the lady was a mother of one of the staff.

Oh, and he doesn't actually call anyone, they're already there.

The Repo shows actually have a tiny fine print disclaimer saying these are re-enacted from 'real' repos.

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I was never a contestant but I have worked on a couple of reality shows. The answer is a lot of it is "scripted" but that doesn't mean the content is all fake. First of all, this varies from show to show and really depends on what the Executive Producers or the Network wants to do.

A lot of stuff is re-shot several times for logistical reasons. A good example of this is called a "walk-up" where you see people arriving at a house or walking up to some location. They might shoot people walking up several times to have different angles or to make it look better.

In terms of interviews I find that cast members aren't given a script or told what to say but producers ask them leading questions that try to elicit the response they want. Sometimes they might ask someone to repeat something they've said but phrase it in a way that will give it context or cut better. For example if someone says "That was the hardest thing I've ever done" The Producer might say "Can you repeat that but mention that you are talking about the challenge you did this morning?" So the person might say "The challenge this morning was the hardest thing I've ever done."

In terms of the editing of interviews there's an industry term called the "frakenbyte" where you steal words from another line the cast member said and smash them together to make a new soundbyte. Also a lot of times people will ramble on in real life but to make things concise editors will cut these things out.

You could argue that these kinds of things could be used to completely misrepresent someone and that's true but I've seen it done in situations where it doesn't misrepresent someone and it really just adds clarity or brevity for the audience.

Like I said some shows are probably all "fake" but from what I've seen a lot of times the "scripted" stigma is some what of a misnomer. Didn't mean for this to be a mega long post but I wanted to bring up one more point. Every person who's on a reality show is casted just like actors are casted. Some of these people have ulterior motives for being on the show and are not really looking for love, or trying to survive on an island, etc. but also looking for fame and attention. A lot of them are actors or aspiring actors. As such, they are completely aware that if they act in a certain way they will get more screen time and get talked about. They know that if they become a character such as "the mean one" or the "dumb one" they will stand out more and get more screen time. They know that if they throw tantrums or cry that stuff will make the cut. Most of the time Producers don't need to "script" anything or ask the cast to do anything special, some of these people will do it all on their own.

Turtle_in_a_Top_Hat Report

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My sister was on a show called "house hunters international" and the entire thing is fake. The idea of the show is they help someone find a new house to live in. Instead they wait til you find a place by yourself and after take you to different places that were "up for grabs."

Diabetesh Report

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I was on an episode of Cupcake Wars a few years ago. I'm not gonna say too much about it, but there was a celebrity guest on the show and I got invited to said-celebrity's album release party, where they were filming part of Cupcake Wars. In some food shows where they give food to the audience, it's not the actual contest food. In this case, it was the actual contest food. By far the most delicious cupcakes I've had in my life. Everyone got 2! Everything that I was a part of wasn't scripted. The only thing close to that is when some people from the show would interview the guests and say, "How would you describe this cupcake?" and stuff like that.

meganjoella Report

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I had a friend that was on Beauty and the Geek. He said that it wasn't scripted, just edited to the point that it didn't actually portray reality any more. By putting the contestants in certain situations and with careful editing, unscripted footage can be shaped in to whatever story line the producer is going after.

TheSolarWarrior Report

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I worked on set for a game show that was filming on location. I was part of the prep crew who touched up the set after it arrived and was assembled. The panels were not all on the "wheel" yet so I got a good look at the interior. At the base of the shaft for the wheel was a large motor (about the size of one used in a washing machine). The control booth was testing lighting and what not and they "spun the wheel" and stopped it exactly where they wanted it. I doubt that the winners and losers were random. Since they crowd tested them. I'm certain whomever had a better crowd response was the winner.

anon Report

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I worked on House Hunters International a few years back, which I now regret as I can't enjoy that genre of show anymore.

Basically of the three homes the couple 'viewed', the one they ended up choosing on air was the house they had already bought six months prior. The other homes were picked by a location scout, in this instance at least, because the realtor was super chill about having a film crew invade for the day.

Also, the majority of the furniture/props etc that the couple complained about whilst touring the other two 'possible' choices, were placed in the house by the crew.

*le sigh*

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I was on It Takes a Thief. We had a really positive experience but it was largely staged. They did try to trick us into accidentally allowing a burglar in, but in the end they sent us out of the house while the "robbery" took place.

Jubjub0527 Report

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In the UK, when they show US versions of programs that have a UK counterpart, they often have a disclaimer along the lines of "unlike the UK version of Goat Swap, some scenes have been created for entertainment purposes"

BernardPancake Report

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Brad, the drummer of Korean band Busker Busker, had an interview with Noisey about Superstar K (Korean version of American Idol).

Basically everything was scripted from start to finish. Who would finish, who would drop off in which week, etc. Above that all contestants were offered plastic surgery. Brad's band Busker Busker were scripted to lose pretty early on but then took off with the Korean audience so the writers of the show had to change the script. Eventually they finished second, after the band which was scripted to win from the start of the show.

EunByuL Report

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Highly manipulated. My sister and niece were on House Hunters. Not only had my niece already bought the condo she was "considering" on the show, she never looked at or had any interest in the other two selections. Worse - my sister almost dropped the whole deal when they pushed her to pretend that she wanted her daughter to move in with her boyfriend instead of living alone. My sister - a devout Catholic - would never. The producers backed off. Still - they edited the show to make it look like my sister was a total controlling b***h to her daughter. Far from it. Worst of all - they only got paid $500.

decorama Report

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I was on a reality show two years ago and it wasn't *scripted*, meaning they didn't give me a piece of paper with words to say. But the producers manipulated everything A LOT.

While we filmed the main action they were constantly trying to instigate drama. I'd have a relatively straightforward conversation with someone else on the show and afterwards the camera guys would immediately get in my face and start asking leading questions. Things like, "Don't you hate what they said?" Or "how bad do you hate what they said?" Or "why do you think you hate what they said?"

Even if you tried to deny that you hated anything, they'd edit you saying "hate" with the person's name and voila, instant drama.

Then after we finished the main filming they went off to edit the episodes and established a "storyline" for each person. They came back and did more one-on-one interviews to pick up whatever clips they needed to make us fit the storyline they made up.

They really, really wanted a good friend and I to seem like rivals. So for two hours they separately asked us every question they could to pit us against each other. We both refused to tell them what they wanted to hear, and they finally resorted to telling us exactly what to say.

Basically with a combination of selected clips (an eyeroll during a corny joke on Wednesday, plus a hair flip from Monday, and a person's name you said on Friday) and manipulated interviews, they could make anyone on the show appear to be whatever persona they wanted. And if not, you simply got less air time.

AAAH_IM_ON_FIRE Report

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A former co worker was on VH1's Tough Love couples. By the time I met him he was already divorced from the women he was on the show with. He told me that they were constantly being encouraged to drink and that they would always want to interview him at like 3am when he was trying to go to bed. They would also make a point to tell him that his wife had said something in her interview. What he found out later was they would misconstrue what she said to try and get a reaction out of him.

pivopete Report

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My little sister was on The Sing Off 3 yes ago. They would tell her group to "mess up, pretend you forgot the words" then they filmed the leader when they messed up and asked her to yell and get mad/roll eyes... Before we knew this when I was watching, the show portrayed her as nasty.... Now that I know they wanted that I feel bad for her. Also on say Week 4 of the show in real life - they would tell the group they needed more footage of Week 2s song/dance. The group would have to try and think back to that, inevitably messing up a little, and those were the scenes used when they were "having trouble learning the song". Very fake.

RUlax23 Report

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My close friend's mom owns a cupcake shop that won, one season of Cupcake Wars on TLC. There was a scene where she "accidentally" set the entire kitchen on fire, but the entire thing was planned, and a response crew was already set to control the "blaze"

stoned_fox Report

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My cousin was on MTV show next. She said literally everything about it was fake. Lines were scripted everything.

anon Report

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My sisters dance competitively and at one of their competitions, the show "Dance Moms" was being filmed. They said that they made the girls in the show do their dance numbers about five times and had separate judges just for the stars of the show. Such a shocker that a show as quality as "Dance Moms" is scripted.

snowwhat Report

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These two videos examine how set up [Jersey Shore](http://youtu.be/qhtOXWuzNgw?t=1m9s) and [American Idol](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlAPEPvryyE) are.

Really unless the show is just examining one element of something or is a social experiment in itself, it's scripted. A show can't just air a series of events, that'd be boring, uneven and would just feel like watching reels of pointless footage. Nobody would continually watch a 24/7 stream of, well, anything.

A narrative has to be created to keep people watching and keep people tuning in next time. So these networks deliberately create stories from the event/group/contest so there's *something* to watch.

anon , JESHOOTS.com Report

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THE HILLS IS NOT SCRIPTED

TheBanus Report

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Not a contestant but a reality tv producer here. Been working in reality TV for 7 years now on a dozen different shows. There are a range of different levels of "scripted" a show can be (this is referring to all reality shows, not just competition shows). You've got your traditional reality show that will be about as unscripted as can be. Basically the footage is shot, and in post production the story producers decide what footage from the hours of junk is worth watching and the story is constructed from there.
Then there is your "soft scripted" show. These are shows that the producers will decide when and where a conversation takes place, but often the content is stuff the people would be talking about anyway. Laguna Beach was sort of the birth of this. So Bobby actually wants to date Susie, but the producers make it so he asks her out on camera. A lot of the shows with awful, vapid people are these shows.
Competition shows are trickier. Since the quiz show investigations (made famous by the film Quiz Show), tampering is illegal in competition shows. So producers can't physically intervene and change the results/hamper a competitor/rig the game. They CAN however influence the results by getting in a competitor's head and suggesting player x is their biggest competition and should be voted off next. They also retain the right to influence a judge's decision (this is usually cited in the credits for a show as well). And while they can't rig the game, they can make decisions like "we know player x can't cook desserts, so the next competition is making ice cream."
The biggest tool a reality producer has is influence, to get in a person's ear and suggest something in order to get the desired result. Some shows are more ethical than others in this regard and you can probably discern which those are just from watching.

RealityTvDude Report

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I have two stories about P**n Stars, First off for anyone wondering the store is called Las Vegas Gold and Silver P**n.

The first one involves my Grandmother. Since she moved to Las vegas about four years ago she had always wanted to Check out the p**n shop they had. Apparently she had to stand in a line for about an hour before they asked her Why she was going in, if she wanted to be filmed, and then directed her where to stand/ hang out. She said it was weird but exciting. Now being me I thought it was just " aw Grandma's being cute" kind of thing HOWEVER I then moved to vegas and finally went passed the place on a bus about a month into my move. The line can be anywhere from really long( Like we're talking a few blocks down to Fremont) or really short. In reality it's usually really short, I've only seen it so long during select times in July. All the " shots" they do of vehicles and other large purchased have to be shot at special times because they share a parking lot with both a tattoo parlor, a Tire shop, and one of the many gimmicky bail businesses around las vegas. That parking lot is almost never empty, also they have a " space" that's fenced off from the back. That Parking lot you see when they do large reveals of cars and things is made out to be bigger then it really is, it's a standard 2 lane parking lot which in Vegas is really really freaking small. Also there's so many pawnshops around the downtown area idek how THEY in particular got famous the building looks like a strip club.

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MTV's True Life - VERY scripted, but there is a nugget of truth at the center of the episodes. They tend to "edit" people's lives a bit to make sure they generate the type of response they want from the audience.

smooth_operator110 Report

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My sister auditioned for wheel of fortune and was almost on the show. They have some strange rules for the contestants. They aren't supposed to solve the puzzle right when they know the answer. Also, apparently pat has a foot pedal that can stop the wheel.

Spokes1215 Report

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I was hanging out in Union Square with my friends on the grass and we noticed there was a camera crew preparing to film. We didn't know where they were from until two guys came to us asking to sign waivers. That's when we found out they're from [a television channel] and they were shooting some TV show. What they did was have an actor in a bear costume go up to them and do stuff until they woke up followed by a reaction. There was a couple that was legitimately asleep and at the time, we didn't know it was staged and thought it would be funny if they creeped up on them. We finally knew it was staged when they had actors who were in standby go out and be strategically placed in a random area of the park and wait until the bear got to them. When they were done filming, they said this would be shown in a couple months or something. It has been approximately 2 months since then.


Edit: For fear of being sued, removed channel name

magicx50 Report

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Ive been on:

Hole in the Wall

Wipeout

Solitary

Rock Band 2: The Stars

MTV: True Life

and more, and it's never been scripted in a sense that I'm handed a script and told to memorize it.

They usually interfere to have me repeat something I said so they can get a better camera angle. On a rare occasion, they might through out something to say to get the ball rolling. or ask questions that leads to the answers they want on tape.

However no scripts that I've ever seen!

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Had a friend on comic book men. 100% scripted. They had him come on saying his GF was making him sell all these toys. He was then and still is now single lol.

dietchaos Report

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The Quest is totally real. Orcs and s**t, man.

deviantgent Report

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I had a friend on the Real World (one of the first ones). He said it wasn't so much scripted, but out of 72 hours of footage they find the worst hour that they can edit out to air.

dogfacedboy420 Report

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My brother in law was on masterchef Ireland. Said it was very scripted on the judges side where they would taste the food, leave , come up with what they are going to say , come back and reshoot . all the food was sitting about 2 hrs before they actually taste it. And also when the contestants are put in to a pantry of random goods to make something, they are all told before hand what's there and given loads of time to come up with their idea for the dish.

acrav13 Report

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My husband and I were tracked down by P**n Stars. They found an item we had listed on craigslist for sale. Basically, they told us where to stand, who to talk to and general topics for discussion. What we said was mostly unscripted but the fact that they brought us in just for the item gave it that "unscripted" feel. It was fun but weird. The guys kept trying to make fun of us for not selling the item really cheap. But they gave us $50 just to show up so we didn't care to sell it. Also, the item had the word "homo" in it and they kept trying to get us to make "homo" jokes on TV... uhhhh no thanks.

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I was on an episode of Bar Rescue. The show is totally scripted. The bar was/is closed down even after they did repairs on it. I was shown several times and the producers come up to you and tell you what to say. The producers fed me the line. The bar had been closed down a couple years before they went to the bar. Based on the questions they asked you could tell that they were trying get multiple story lines out of it just in case one didn't work out.

USA2England Report

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I'm probably to late to add this, but I was recently on the Mythbuster's Zombie Special as a zombie (duh). They didn't have a script for any of the dialogue but after they said something, the director would usually have them repeat it 2 or 3 times in different ways.

sfnic Report

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In the end they're entirely scripted. Yes, some things will happen that's unexpected to the crew, but when it gets to the editing, us editors know how accentuate the different roles we want people to be seen as. If you're a "bad guy," we'll look for anything to boost that, right down to snooty facial expressions. Of you're a "good guy," we won't show that kind of stuff if you do it, we'll make you look like the better man.

If you're the "skank," we'll compile our favourite footage of you, add it to our personal collection

jamiezero Report

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My brother's classmate was a beauty in Beauty and the Geek. She was told to act stupid even though she was apparently quite smart.

anon Report

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I was on Whodunnit? on ABC. It was kind of a different show as far as reality competitions are concerned, so maybe that excuses some of the scripting involved. They would essentially let us run through a scene once on our own, then give us "notes" on anything that was off and go again.

Once thing that really irked me was the "story producers," whose title is far more literal than you'd imagine. They float around the house influencing people in subtle ways, creating conflict and thereby producing (fabricating) the stories you see on the show.

kamperez Report

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I was on Supermarket Superstar on Lifetime. Nothing was scripted at all. I was helped to write my pitch, but it was not scripted.

abw80 Report

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My mom was on Judge Judy. The audience in the background are paid and do it regularly.

siteburn Report

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My uncle's house was used for an episode of Parental Control. His lavish bedroom was supposedly the kid's bedroom, everyone is an actor, and there is not one real bit about that show.

tkookookachoo Report

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I really want to know how fake bar rescue is. I usually enjoy it but I just can't believe that the bar owners are that stupid.

my-secret-identity Report

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The main thing you have to understand is that it isn't one producer or a group of writers telling people to over exaggerate their behavior. It's the people being filmed that run around and ham it up and cause drama on camera. They will think up something they can do to stir up s**t with others on the show and drag a camera crew with them to film it happens.

LoveTruffle Report

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While it is obvious that much of "House Hunters" is scripted because of how the people act, I admit to being surprised and disappointed that no real decision is made. That just took all the fun right out of it.

No more home remodeling shows for me. I was already feeling like shows encourage us all to think we need and deserve mansions. Now that I know the shows are way more set up than I already knew they were? I'm done.

ChandraCorby Report

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I feel like The Ultimate Fighter is the only show that is not scripted.

anon Report

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I was on an episode of "Catch A Contractor" with Adam Corolla. My understanding was that most episodes weren't scripted per se, although they are re-shot (i.e. scenes that actually happen authentically are sometimes repeated to get a more dramatic effect), our episode was pretty fake. They couldn't actually find our contractor so we just got our friend to play the bad guy. Most of the crew and producers (including Adam) didn't know it was fake however.

freeethnkr Report

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Bar Rescue, I was an "extra" aka somebody drawn by word of mouth and free drinks for a pre makeover stress test. It actually was the bar portrayed on tv, in fact they even improved it a bit before the makeover (which by the way made it a douchey lounge full of ipads embedded in tables that no college kid wanted to go near). I saw Taffer yelling at some of the staff, seemed very legit.

anon Report

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