Reality television

Reality television is a genre of programming that features unscripted, real-life situations and often casts ordinary people rather than professional actors. In the United States, reality TV rose to prominence in the early 2000s with shows like Survivor, American Idol, and Big Brother. The genre spans a wide range of formats, including competition-based series, lifestyle and makeover shows, and celebrity-focused content. Today, reality television has become a dominant force in popular culture, shaping media trends and influencing social norms.

Reality Competition Shows

Reality television shows started becoming popular in the United States before the 2000s. Shows such as COPS and The Real World were successful, but not until the competition format was introduced did reality programming start to see large increases in ratings and begin to beat scripted shows in primetime slots. In Europe, reality competitions had been popular for some time when producers decided to adapt them for an American audience. Two of the first reality competition shows, Survivor and Big Brother, both debuted in the United States in 2000 and became instant successes.

Survivor, based on the Swedish show Expedition Robinson, premiered in May 2000. Big Brother, based on the show of the same name from the Netherlands, premiered in July 2000. Both shows feature nonactors competing for a cash prize. In Survivor, contestants compete in challenges in exotic locations, and in Big Brother, contestants are isolated in a house under constant surveillance. People are voted off the show (or, in the case of Big Brother, "evicted") each week until only one person remains.

One of the most successful reality competition shows in US history, American Idol, premiered in June 2002. It was a spin-off of the British show Pop Idol, created by artist manager Simon Fuller. The show is a singing competition in which the viewers get to vote for the contestant they want to win. Originally, the winner received a one million dollar recording contract. The show features a panel of three or four judges who offer criticism to the contestants. The original three judges were Simon Cowell, singer Paula Abdul, and musician Randy Jackson. The show has helped launch the careers of several successful artists, including the season-one winner Kelly Clarkson and season-four winner Carrie Underwood.

Beginning in 2004, American Idol became one of the most watched shows on American television, with ratings frequently topping 30 million. Despite its popularity, the show also received negative criticism. Many critics maintain that the show purposely humiliates some people. Professional musicians have also negatively criticized the show. Nevertheless, American Idol influenced several television producers to create their own singing competitions, including The Voice, Rock Star, and The Masked Singer.

Dating reality competitions have also seen great success. These shows commonly feature a male or female suitor and several contestants competing for him or her. Contestants are eliminated each episode until only one person remains. Popular shows in this category include The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, and Temptation Island. Such shows became more provocative during the 2020s, serving more as social experiments, when new series such as Love Is Blind and Love Island debuted. In Netflix's Love Is Blind, contestants go on "blind dates" with each other where they sit inside pods in which neither contestant can see their date. After several days, the contestants must decide whether they want to get engaged, sight unseen.

Another type of reality competition is one in which contestants are competing for a job. These shows commonly feature judges who eliminate contestants based on how well they perform a task related to the job for which they are competing. One of the first job-related reality competitions was America’s Next Top Model, which premiered in May 2003. Hosted by model Tyra Banks, the show featured contestants competing for a modeling contract. Similarly, in RuPaul's Drag Race, contestants competed to become the most talented drag queen. Another popular job competition series was The Apprentice, in which contestants competed to work for Donald Trump in what was billed as the "ultimate job interview." Trump was later fired from the show after making racist remarks in 2015.

Cooking competition shows have also gained large audiences during the twenty-first century. Shows such as MasterChef, Top Chef, and The Great British Baking Show pit novice or accomplished cooks, depending on the show, against each other for a prize.

Celebrity Reality Shows

Documentary-style reality shows about celebrities also became popular in the 2000s. One of the first such shows was The Osbournes, which premiered on MTV in March 2002 and lasted four seasons. The show followed heavy metal music pioneer Ozzy Osbourne and his family, giving the audience a look at their humorous domestic life. The show became known for its heavy use of profanity (that was censored on US television) and for documenting Sharon Osbourne’s battle with cancer. The show was a big success and at the time had the highest ratings in MTV history. It helped pave the way for MTV, which had originated as a music video channel, to focus largely on reality programming.

In December 2003, the FOX network premiered The Simple Life, starring wealthy socialites Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie. The comedic show depicted the two women as they attempted to work blue-collar jobs on a farm and in a fast-food restaurant. The show lasted five seasons and spawned several international remakes. It also helped Hilton and Richie gain international recognition.

After The Simple Life ended in 2007, another reality show depicting socialites premiered in December of that year. Keeping Up with the Kardashians followed the wealthy Kardashian-Jenner family, focusing on daughters Kim, Khloé, and Kourtney. The show made Kim Kardashian an international star and one of the highest-paid reality television personalities in the United States. Likewise, the series propelled to the rest of the family members to fame, including Kendall and Kylie Jenner as they matured; Kendall built a successful career in high fashion modeling, while Kylie launched Kylie Cosmetics, a multimillion-dollar beauty brand. After a short hiatus in 2021, the show was rebranded as The Kardashians and began airing again on the Hulu streaming service in 2022.

Many other reality shows featuring the extravagant lifestyles of wealthy individuals premiered throughout the early 2000s, including the Real Housewives franchise on Bravo. Beginning in 2006 with The Real Housewives of Orange County, the series went on to include dozens of installments in cities such as New York City, Atlanta, Salt Lake City, and international destinations like Dubai.

Occupation Reality Shows

Another popular type of reality show is one in which a professional is filmed doing his or her job. These shows typically depict someone who has a unique or dangerous job. Popular shows in this category have included American Chopper, Dog the Bounty Hunter, and Miami Ink. One of the longest-running reality shows in this category is COPS, which first premiered in 1989. Television channels aimed at educating audiences even started to produce original occupation reality shows. For example, the History Channel produced two highly successful occupation reality shows: Ice Road Truckers, which premiered in 2007, and Pawn Stars, which premiered in 2009.

Another popular reality series focused on the behind-the-scenes staff of luxury yachts. Below Deck first aired on Bravo in 2013, following the lives of crew members working and living aboard superyachts during charter season. Several spin-offs soon followed, including Below Deck Mediterranean (premiering in 2016) and Below Deck Sailing Yacht (premiering in 2020).

Makeover Shows

Several reality shows center on making over a person’s style or physical health. These shows are oftentimes meant to be inspirational and educational, specifically educating viewers about physical fitness, diet, and style. One of the first shows to reach success with this format was Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, in which a group of gay men gave a heterosexual man a style and diet makeover. The show was a huge success for the Bravo network and led to merchandise like soundtracks and books. The LGBTQ community embraced the show, and the five hosts, known as the "Fab Five," became cultural icons. The show did receive negative criticism, however, from people who argued the show made generalizations about gay men being more stylish and knowledgeable than straight men about culture, food, and design. The show later shortened its title to Queer Eye to address this criticism.

Queer Eye spawned several spin-off reality shows, including Queer Eye for the Straight Girl and international versions such as Australia’s Aussie Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. After its original run in the early 2000s, a reboot of the show began streaming on Netflix in 2018 with five new hosts who likewise became cultural icons just the same as the original "Fab Five." The reboot was praised for its increased diversity, including more people of color and transgender people.

The Biggest Loser was a popular reality makeover show that was a crossover with the competition subgenre. The show premiered in July 2004 and would eventually spawn more than twenty international adaptations. In the show, overweight contestants compete to see who can lose the highest percentage of weight for a cash prize. Contestants are split up into teams of two and compete in several physically exerting tasks. The show was met with harsh criticism by many health professionals, who stated that the diet and fitness regimens the contestants partake in on the show are dangerous. Former contestants also came forth, explaining how they would starve and dehydrate themselves in order to lose weight during the competition.

Weight-loss reality shows also crossed over with celebrity reality shows, as in Celebrity Fit Club. Based on the British show of the same name, Celebrity Fit Club premiered in January 2005 and ran for five seasons. The show featured eight overweight celebrities who were split into teams of four. The team that lost the most weight won.

Jersey Shore

Rounding out the 2000s was one of the most popular reality television shows of its time. Jersey Shore premiered in December 2009 and quickly set ratings records for MTV. The show featured eight housemates of Italian American backgrounds and documented their summers at Seaside Heights, New Jersey. The success of the show made the cast members instant celebrities and earned them millions of dollars in endorsement money. Well-known cast members of the show include Nicole "Snookie" Polizzi and Michael "The Situation" Sorrentino.

The show came under heavy criticism for its use of the slang words "Guido" and "Guidette," which are seen by many as ethnic slurs that promote Italian American stereotypes. The Italian American service league UNICO International requested that MTV cancel the show before it even aired. New Jersey governor Chris Christie also criticized the show, stating that it portrayed the state in a negative light.

Criticism

Since their rise in popularity, reality television shows have come under scrutiny and been criticized for many reasons. Possibly the biggest criticism is that reality shows do not represent reality or, at least, that they present a reality altered for heightened drama. Critics explain how many of these shows use living situations that the average person will never experience. The Real World, for example, presents seven people living rent-free in a large house completely fabricated by the show’s producers. Former cast member Irene McGee came forward after she left the show to explain how the producers control everything, down to what the cast is allowed to drink. Likewise, producers design all the scenarios and tasks on reality competition shows, which creates unrealistic environments.

One of the cultural criticisms is that reality television gains viewers by humiliating people and that this reflects meanness in our society and the desire to see others fail. The cruelty occasionally displayed by American Idol judges is mentioned frequently when it comes to this kind of criticism. Some argue, though, that the contestants know exactly what they are getting into and therefore know they may not be portrayed in a positive light.

Many critics worry about the effect reality television has on adolescents. Some reality programs depict young people drinking, using foul language, and having casual sexual relations. Since these shows are popular with teenagers, critics believe they can have an outsized influence on how they think they should act and look.

On the other hand, some experts contend that reality television viewers gain a better perspective on lives different from their own, which can lead to overcoming biases. The diverse demographics presented on reality TV can thus act as a tool for greater social understanding and can also cause people to feel less isolated.

Impact

For better or worse, reality television has had a profound and lasting impact on popular culture in the twenty-first century. It entirely changed the way producers approached new content, offering a cost-effective alternative to scripted programming. As a result, networks flooded the airwaves with reality shows—many of which were short-lived, canceled after just one season. Networks such as TLC and A&E, once known for their educational content, pivoted toward reality programs to keep up with ratings. Some series, such as American Idol, not only dominated viewership but also launched the careers of national celebrities.

Reality television continued to dominate ratings into the 2010s, as streaming platforms like Hulu and Netflix contributed to this new reality television landscape by investing heavily in original unscripted content. However, around the midpoint of that decade, some television industry analysts reported that the market appeared to have reached saturation, and networks began to move away from rapidly introducing new reality programs. Despite this shift, reality TV has remained a powerful force in entertainment well into the 2020s, with an estimated 80 percent of adults watching reality television in the mid-2020s.

Bibliography

Bhandari, Sandhya. "Reality TV Distorts People's Perception of True Reality." Washburn Review, 21 Feb. 2023, washburnreview.org/42994/features/reality-tv-distorts-peoples-perception-of-true-reality/. Accessed 22 May 2024.

Berman, Judy. "Reality TV Has Reshaped Our World, Whether We Like It or Not." Time Magazine, 4 Aug. 2022, time.com/collection/reality-tv-most-influential-seasons/6199108/reality-tv-influence-on-world/. Accessed 22 May 2024.

David, Anna, ed. Reality Matters: Nineteen Writers Come Clean about the Shows We Can’t Stop Watching. It Books, 2010.

DeVolld, Troy. Reality TV: An Insider’s Guide to TV’s Hottest Market. Weise, 2011.

Escoffery, David S., ed. How Real Is Reality TV? Essays on Representation and Truth. McFarland, 2008.

Harari, Julia. "The Original 'Queer Eye' Did Things Differently, but It Opened Up the Conversation for the Reboot." Collider, 18 July 2022, collider.com/queer-eye-original-show-set-up-reboot/. Accessed 22 May 2024.

Murray, Susan, and Laurie Oullette, eds. Reality TV: Remaking Television Culture. New York UP, 2008.

Pozner, Jennifer L. Reality Bites Back: The Troubling Truth about Guilty Pleasure TV. Seal, 2010.

Taylor, Alex. "How Reality TV Changed the Way We Think—For the Better." BBC, 25 July 2025, www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy4nedxl3wyo. Accessed 19 Aug. 2025.