A while back, I shared some behind-the-scenes secrets and stories from people who've experienced how fake reality TV actually is. In the comments, the BuzzFeed Community shared even more wild and surprising experiences of their own.
Note: These stories have not been verified. Users are supposedly speaking from their own experiences.
Here are 14 of their top responses:
1. "I was an extra on my friend’s episode of House Hunters. They had already closed on the house they 'chose' on the show and had the option of using family members’ houses as the 'other choices.' It was all 100% staged."
"They had to have multiple outfit changes in a day to appear as if it was filmed over time. Often, only one of the three houses toured is unfurnished, and that’s your sign as to which one has already been bought by the couple.
"I think they only got around $500 for appearing on the show, but most of that went to buying all the required outfits."
2. "I was on MasterChef, and it's completely staged. They even go so far as to have handlers with every cook doing most of the plating."
"It's all a ruse."
3. "A local guy called Tuna Tyler was on My Strange Addiction. He does live here, as does his mother, but he's allegedly an actor."
"They made our welcoming college town look as if we should have stagecoaches and tumbleweeds. We embrace our oddities, and if 'Tuna Tyler' was his personality, everyone would know him."
4. "A friend of mine was on that Amish Mafia reality show on the Discovery Channel about 10 years ago. They filmed him and some of the animals on his farm. But he’s not Amish, and the farm isn’t even in Amish Country! 😂"
5. "A person who went to the same school as me was on a show similar to American Idol. She faked a chronic illness and pretty much her whole life story to get a good sob story going on her audition tape (which was shown on TV)."
"She lasted for about four episodes. People actually liked her online, until I started talking about what she's really like (she was a big bully, she did not have any chronic illnesses, and her tragic backstory was 110% made up)."
6. "For the UK X Factor, yes, they do have auditions with producers first, but to find the ones the audience can laugh at. A majority of the good ones are already on record label books. I know such a lady, and she said she had four of her clients up on that year's series' guaranteed finalists."
"They aren’t finding an attractive, world-class singer working in an office by accident. They have talent and have already tried cracking into the business, so they're known to producers and record companies. It’s their dream. Do people think they did nothing until these TV shows appeared?"
7. "I attended a filming for Bar Rescue. The menu is purposely really limited. The bar I went to for filming was never meant to be a cocktail bar (and still is not to this day)."
8. "My school was featured on If You Really Knew Me, an MTV show that lasted one season. Several students were highlighted as the 'characters of interest,' and I recall them saying that their stories/perspectives were wildly blown out of proportion, to the point of slander. Example: One student was framed as the bully, when in reality, he was the one who was constantly bullied, etc."
"The crew also came to film a variety of classes and gave us the instruction to act 'normal,' as if the cameras weren’t there. A lot of us — myself included — didn’t want to be filmed, yet we were never asked for consent, because our teacher had already said yes. I suppose that’s all the consent that was needed.
"My personal solution was to deliberately NOT act normal while the crew was filming each of us walking out the door (e.g., I looked at the camera and said something silly). Naturally, the crew cut that part, so my mission was accomplished. 💀"
9. "I had a coworker go through several interviews with Spike TV about a show they were developing about people who hunt for Bigfoot. She and her then-boyfriend did, in fact, frequently go trekking through the mountains for two to three days at a time trying to find Bigfoot. The show never came to fruition, and the two of them ended up deciding not to do it anyway because the TV show wanted them to kill Bigfoot if they found one, and they didn't want to do that."
"They would do the interviews on Skype at work, so I got to overhear some of it. It was...interesting."
10. "My ex-cousin-in-law (sounds like a distant former relative, but we actually keep in contact) was on FANatic on MTV back in the late '90s. She said they edited part of an interview where she was crying about her mom to make it look as if she was crying about meeting the band. She also knew they were coming to get her before they arrived, but it was filmed to look as if MTV randomly showed up at her house with a limo to surprise her."
11. "I worked with someone who organized his wedding and got married on Don’t Tell the Bride. The whole thing was scripted, right down to how they met and fell in love."
"The only real thing was that they were really a couple."
12. "I was on a TLC show called Geek Love. It was kind of half genuine and half me being coached on what to say. The producers were actually really lovely to me, though."
13. "My old roommate was a manager at a movie theater in LA. A reality show came to film there. He said they filmed in reverse. They took shots of them leaving the theater when they hadn't even gone in yet."
"And, of course, they did a lot of takes to get it just right."
14. And finally: "My friend was a runner-up in The Real World auditions. They kept asking her if she would ever cheat on her longtime boyfriend. They pried her with all sorts of steamy scenarios, but she was always a steady 'no.'"
"She’s pretty sure they didn’t pick her because she wouldn’t be enough drama."
Have you ever been on a reality show? What was your experience like? What surprised you the most about the process? Share your stories in the comments!
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.