I was on Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader as a kid. All the answers the kids give are 100% genuine. One of the girls on the show with me is the smartest person I have ever met.

Knowing_nate , Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader Report

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My dad was on Hoarders. To be more clear, he wasn't actually the Hoarder. It was the season finale for season 5 (I think) and the lady's home was so bad, the producers of the show couldn't let her stay. However, the show obviously didnt have the budget to buy her a new home. They came to my dad, hoping they could buy one cheap from him and my dad ended up donating one of his reposessed homes to the lady. I teared up watching.

Surprisingly it's all very real. I mean, of course editors work their magic but all in all, those people really do have hoarding problems.

Edit: By "couldn't let her stay" I mean that the house had actual holes in it once they removed all the stuff. It wasn't a safe environment to call home.

okaygeorgia , A&E Report

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My mom has worked with some chefs that have been on Iron Chef. They are notified of the category of the secret ingredient before hand, like protein, veggie, fruit so they can plan out some general ideas.

However the reveal IS the first time they see the actual ingredient. Also the time limit is only for a set amount of dishes and they get extra time to make enough for all the judges after. The judging is completely real and unscripted.

Naburu , www.youtube.com Report

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I was a production assistant on an episode of America's Supernanny. I can confidently say that *nothing* was scripted. Deborah genuinely cared about helping the families. There was no coaching by the producer and the entire crew went to great lengths to be as non-intrusive as possible while shooting.

JonathanTsunami Report

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Really late, but I was on Judge Judy back in 2010.

I was the defendant. While it isn't necessarily scripted, the producers are really good at getting you to say what they want.

Oh, and the audience is all paid actors. They bring multiple changes of clothes and sit there all day. They're paid to laugh or boo on cue.

anon , Judge Judy Report

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I had a friend on Beauty and the Geek recently, and this is just one of the many examples he gave. He arrives, and the producers look through his suit case, and told him "you can't wear any of this"

All the contestants are actually dressed down at the beginning of the series, to make them appear more geeky. When he got his "makeover", all he did was wear his normal clothes again.

Nihil_am_I , Beauty and the Geek Report

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My tennis coach had a friend who was a sound guy for The Bachelor. He said that they have a huge table with all sorts of alcoholic beverages and the producers 'encourage' all the women to drink to their hearts content right before filming. This is why they are edgy/emotional all the time. Not because they are emotional wrecks (although according to him some of them really are, as the producers purposefully throw in a couple of them to start the drama and s**t) but mostly it's just because they are drunk. Because there are a few psychos, it just takes a while lot of alcohol to get the drama going. Of course then the editors can go in and make it seem like their is no alcohol at all.

The women that inevitably quits because it's not true love or whatever her reasons, are actually the ones that usually refuse the alcohol. Therefore they can see through all this s**t that makes that show fake.

BadLuckBrian13 , Bachelor Fantake Report

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My mom was a producer on judge Judy and no one loses on that show. The show finds your case, flies you out to la and gets you a hotel all on the shows dime. But get this the show pays the judgements. So if she says you owe the other person 5k, the show pays them, not you.

anon Report

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Not a contestant, but I worked on the set of "America's Got Talent".

It was my first reality TV project, I worked with a camera crew. My first days of shooting were the audition process, people with random talents coming in to show off and get recognized.

I learned listening to the radios, that there's essentially two classes of contestants. Green cards, the talent they think could win, and Red cards people who aren't good at all and are generally just there because someone thought they were weird.

The odd thing is, if Red cards didn't show up, they would take Green cards and re-edit their interviews or steer the interviews in a direction that made them look crazy.

I did the season 7 episode set in St. Louis and I remembered there was a contestant who was an older woman who played the drums, she was energetic and friendly and they recut her stuff to make her look insane. She gets to play for the judges who then just demean and mock her, it broke my heart.

Some of it's not scripted, some of it is just made up in the editing room.

anon Report

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I saw my friend on "Cops" being chased down and arrested, I asked him about it, he said it was all scripted.

Twistntle , www.youtube.com Report

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My sister and her boyfriend were on Cheaters. That show is entirely made up. They gave them fake names, fake jobs, the girl he was "cheating" with was an actress that they use all the time (they can do that because her face is blurred out as if she didn't sign a release). There isn't one part of that show that has anything to do with reality.

ImNoScientician , www.youtube.com Report

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MTV "16 & Pregnant" season 1 favorites Tyler and Caitlyn (that adopted out their baby) are from my area. They went to the local "alternative ed" high school, and on the show were "Prom King and Queen." The only thing is, our district wouldn't let them film at school, and the alt-ed site does NOT have prom. The entire thing was staged!

galdanna , MTV's Teen Mom Report

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I always found it interesting on Miami Ink that people who just came in from the streets had their microphone packs already wired up and a convenient sob story cued up.

I also found it pretty amazing that the outside of the shop wasn't packed full of fans of the show.

timoforfaen , ink Report

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Storage wars probably wins the "scripted" prize.

amazem , A&E Report

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I was on Cake Boss for their Spider-man's anniversary episode. Answered a casting call for Cosplayers since I Cosplay as Black Cat, but personally knew nothing about the guy who actually ordered the cake. Only a few people got a piece of the actual cake. Most of us got basic store cakes just to ensure it looked like everyone got a piece of the cake they showed.

Regardless that I didn't get a "real" piece, the Spider-man cake was amazing with working parts and all these crazy special effects on it and an impressive amount of sculpted marvel characters. They told us to make sure to act really excited/impressed when the cake came out, but I don't think many of us had to fake that.

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My dads company sponsored an episode of extreme makeover home edition. He was telling me how they wanted to look around, but all they did was film. Those pan shots of the crowd? He said that they made them do it like 5 times to get it right. Ty and the crew may move 2 pieces of furniture each at the most and that's it. The families and such I heard were real tho, which is cool but the show itself is relatively staged.

Recon740 Report

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A local radio presenter was on The Biggest Loser and according to him the first weigh in happens after a few weeks of working out while the second one happens after a a week. which is why every season the first weigh in has them all losing 5 - 10kg while they only lose 1 or 2 at the second.
The only thing that really disappoints me about the Biggest Loser is the length of time between the weigh-ins. Have you ever wondered how the contestants manage to lose a staggering 12 kilos in a single week? We don't. In my series a weekly weigh-in was NEVER filmed after just one week of working out. In fact the longest gap from one weigh-in to the next was three and a half weeks. That's 25 days between weigh-ins, not seven. That "week" I lost more than nine kilos. I had to stand on the scales and was asked to say the line, "wow, it's a great result, I've worked really hard this week". The producers made sure that we never gave this secret away, because if we did, it created a nightmare for them in the editing suite. The shortest gap from weigh-in to weigh-in during our series was 16 days. That's a fact. The thing is, overweight people get inspired by watching the Biggest Loser. They get off the couch and they hit the gym. But after a week in the real world, some people might only lose 1kg so they feel like they've failed and they give up.

GoodSmackUp , The Biggest Loser Report

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A friend of mine applied to be on Catfish- the show where they track down people on facebook- because her online friend of several years would never meet up with her. Apparently They have to get permission from the person they are tracking down to be on the show, so the Catfish people know the whole time who it is they're looking for.

annieisawesome , MTV Catfish Report

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I was in The Voice this season. And i can tell you that there is a lot of scripting there. Before entering you have three auditions and a recording session with the producer. So they saw your face (blind audition?) and they heard your voice. On tv they use the version you sang at the blind audition, but they autotune it. The interview before the blind audition is also recorded weeks before. you have to pretend it's on the day itself.
Interviews are almost always set up. When we had rehearsels it was mostly three days apart from eachother and we had to wear the same clothes so it would look like the same day.

voting seems pretty real and not scripted.

Rockitlikearedhead , The Voice Global Report

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I have posted this before, but it seems very fitting here;

There is a popular show in England called 'The Apprentice' one of the most popular shows in th UK at it's peak. Essentially, it is a bunch of idiots running around the city, carrying out various tasks while making dumb mistake along the way - it involves going from shop to shop, trying to sell your product that you made to random people and companies and one team tries to sell more then the other - I LOVE IT. Anyway, my dad owns a restaurant chain, and the people from The Apprentice called him up, GAVE HIM MONEY, and said 'x and y will enter your building, listen to what they have to say, try to bargain with them, then buy their product for this price, then we will give you £x amount of money' When my dad told me, I was shocked - turns out almost all purchases are fixed! I dont watch it anymore...

Qasim786 , www.youtube.com Report

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My dad's buddy was on Storage Wars: Texas. He was presented on the show as an expert on western wear. My dad's friend is a Cavender's (a western wear store) manager, he's not an expert on anything. The producers of the show had him read from a scrip and it took 4 hours of filming to create a 4 minute segment.

blaineNIKE , A&E Report

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My dad was in a commercial and an acting class with one of the guys in Millionaire Matchmaker.

Most of those dudes, not actually millionaires!

I_AM_A_BALLSACK_AMA , Millionaire Matchmaker Report

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All the Amish reality shows are FAKE!!! My cousin's fiancé works as a producer for Amish Mafia (which is the worst of all "reality" TV) and he's constantly trying to get people to 'rent' their houses out to production so that the show can set up their skits there. You see my grandmother's house on the show, my aunt's house and my cousin and her fiance's house. All they did at my grandmother's house was shave some guy's face in the backyard.

Also there's a new show that's coming out called Amish Haunting or something. All the skits are fake and I even pitched some of my own stories to the producers (I write paranormal fiction.) we'll see if they decide to use any of my stuff.

buttononmyback , Discovery Channel Report

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I work for a hit survival reality show on Discovery and it isn't scripted at all. From what I hear in the industry were one of the last to adhere to REALity. Most of the time we find it adds to the drama when everything is real, plus it makes the editors jobs less stressful since they don't have to manufacture scenes. But it also helps that the contestants are naked and stranded together for 21 days..

scottybblue , Ron Lach Report

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My best friend in high school was in a long term relationship with Gene Simmons' daughter, Sophie, right about the time they started filming **"Gene Simmons' Family Jewels."** Since he didn't really want to be a part of the show, they literally wrote him out after a few episodes. Some highlights:


-To make his exit seem less abrupt, they created a subplot about Gene not approving of the relationship. There was one shot in particular of my friend and Sophie making out on a trampoline outside, then cut to Gene looking out of a window and shaking his head. That window didn't even look out into the right yard, it was on the other side of the house!


-The family took a road trip to go skiing, which my friend was invited to. However, since he had been written out of the show, he had to sit in the way back and hide for nearly the whole duration of the drive up.


-Scenes weren't scripted, however each family member was given an "arc" for their character and placed strategically in rooms together to fight/scheme/laugh etc. according to what the writers needed. If the producers didn't like how a conversation went, the family would be asked to "do it over."

40dollarsharkblimp Report

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Literally every f*****g aspect of it. I was helping to run and organize a cosplay convention about four years ago and an American Reality TV producer showed up wanting to film the whole thing. We were excited at first, yay our convention is on TV. It very quickly turned into a f*****g nightmare.

They interfered with every single function in the convention. They told us to kick out people dressed as Marvel characters because they didn't want to promote anything Marvel based. They told us to shut down the maid café because the producer said "It's too pedo for our viewers". They told us to turn fat people away at the door because they said there were too many fatties getting in the way of their cameras. They actually ordered the judges of the costume competition to pick winners that the show's main characters revolved around.

BTW the main characters were scripted to bejeezus. They had scripts, cues, practiced blocking for the camera, the works. There was all this petty b******t housewives-style infighting that was totally staged and was nothing at all like what we wanted.

Finally we wound up throwing them the f**k out. They threatened to sue but we never actually signed a contract so f**k'em . Of course people told us we were idiots, "You could have been on TV!"

You know what? ***F**K TV.***

(I know you're thinking of 'Heroes of Cosplay' but this was before them. This production company was independent and not affiliated with Space Channel or SciFi and last we heard no longer existed because we attempted to sue them. We are however forever jilted of reality TV and any production company will not find themselves very welcome.)

JiltedCafe , Ron Lach Report

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I've always wondered how in shows like Hell's Kitchen and Masterchef (all cooking competitions for that matter) they flash to interviews with contestants giving real time feelings when you know it was recorded afterwards.

anon , MasterChef Report

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I live in the same town as Duck Dynasty. It's 90% fake. Willie is a prima donna a*****e and the mom expects everyone in town to kiss her a*s. They also get a lot of locals to play characters. And the big house they show in the opening? That isn't even in the same town. It might not even be in the same parish.

My dad is a chief for the Fire Department and was on one of the most recent episodes. The producers wanted the Robinsons to drive the fire truck and the Chief said, "F**k no!" Also, it was made to look like those guys hang out at the fire station all the time. They never gave a s**t about the department until the producers wanted them too.

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I have a friend who worked for the French version of Survivor (Koh-Lanta). Nothing is scripted, but there are some things and points that skew the "true" experience: for example, the cameramen usually point the area where the immunity idol is hidden with their camera, and the contestants just have to look where they point.

Also it's all in the editing: some quotes can be taken out of their context, some challenges look tense and close while a team actually won by a landslide, and even though voting out someone might be undecided before the tribal council, the vote turns out to be unanimous in the end.

TL;DR: In French Survivor, nothing is scripted, but some stuff can help contestants and editing adds more drama and suspense.

By the way, there was a 25-year old contestant who died last year, on the first day of filming. Heart failure (nothing was detected in health exams), season cancelled.

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Most of it is scripted. 2 of my 3 roommates do production for reality TV. The projects are real. The "actors" will be told to do or say something, but their own words are real. The story is fake though. For example, one of the real housewives had a fake job as a realtor. On big brother, my friend was told to wake up one day and go trash the kitchen and be angry without being given any reason. Things like that are "scripted". The hosts follow scripts obviously.

anon , gnepphoto Report

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