[ollin]

Swamp People. The cast members are real but some of the scenarios and catching of the alligators are so fake.

[Spiffy_1st]

I have been wondering to what degree Top Gear is scripted. Obviously SOME of the things are scripted, and I think the guys sort of play along with it, and some times things are quite clearly not scripted. There are quite a few moments though where I'm just not sure...

All of the bit in the studio is scripted, they said something about it when they were being racist to Mexicans. Then the rest sort is and isn't, remember that last Indian special? Them just driving down a road is natural, but then that part when they did a party and the lawnmower was on the loose and a firework hit a building is obviously fake. But I think you're meant to know it's fake, they didn't at any point say "this is true life lol".

Why do all American reality shows have a though guy with sunglasses in it?

[jonremedy]

Swamp People. The cast members are real but some of the scenarios and catching of the alligators are so fake.

If you've seen one episode of Swamp People, you've seen em all.

[Captain Tuttle]

Someone mentioned Shark Tank: I had a conference call a few weeks ago with one of the producers of Shark Tank about my "startup" being on their show. I had never seen it before, so I didnt really know what it was. But I found out that the negotiations you see are real, but nothing is binding, and the actual deals are worked out off air. You're not obligated to take their deal even if you've accepted it on-camera. ABC gets either a percentage of equity, or a percentage of the licensing in the company, once you have signed papers. The actual pitches last about an hour, and that's obviously trimmed down for the show.

Is there a Shark Tank OT? If not, we need one, some pretty humorous stuff on that show. My wife and I usually watch it every Friday night. I've read criticisms that it's obviously set up to favor the Sharks but I don't get the idea that it's totally scripted. People really look nervous and the number one reason that they don't get any money is because the sharks don't have any experience in that particular field. Nothing exciting like "You're an idiot for thinking of this!!"

[NinjaBoiX]

Every single time they cut to a reaction shot of someone's face accompanied by a dramatic BOOM sound effect, I think how stupidly contrived that edit is and wonder when in the shoot that close-up shot was really pulled from.

Oh my God, so much this. "Did you see her reaction? I mean, I know she was suddenly in a different place, wearing a different top, and no longer holding her bag, but she looked real pissed! This show is so intense!"

[Moppet13]

Not sure if this counts but those Don't text and drive commercials seem pretty scripted. "You could make her laugh so hard she would snort .... it. was. funny(in complete monotone)"

[CoilShot]

Who cares if Pawn Stars is scripted, I just like seeing the awesome shit people bring in and the stories the experts give. It entertains me even if its partially made up.

This.

[B_Rik_Schitthaus]

Who cares if Pawn Stars is scripted, I just like seeing the awesome shit people bring in and the stories the experts give. It entertains me even if its partially made up.

Just watch Antiques Roadshow, it's for a better class of human.

[Guerrillas in the Mist]

The moment you see 5 separate camera angles catching a "real" and "spontaneous" moment. And yet people lap this shit up.

[NinjaBoiX]

Just watch Antiques Roadshow, it's for a better class of human.

And that kickass theme song too!

[B_Rik_Schitthaus]

The moment you see 5 separate camera angles catching a "real" and "spontaneous" moment. And yet people lap this shit up.

Especially when someone 'storms out' and their is a camera where they end up going.

[jaxword]

Is there a Shark Tank OT? If not, we need one, some pretty humorous stuff on that show. My wife and I usually watch it every Friday night. I've read criticisms that it's obviously set up to favor the Sharks but I don't get the idea that it's totally scripted. People really look nervous and the number one reason that they don't get any money is because the sharks don't have any experience in that particular field. Nothing exciting like "You're an idiot for thinking of this!!"

Sharks in general make for good entertainment.

[U2NUMB]

Ax Men.. and it was a true shock.

I was starting to think that the drama created on the mountain side was getting a little too over the top and you could tell they added punching noises when there was a fight and so forth but this one moment I actually dropped my jaw as I realized it was all a set up.

If you know or have seen this show they pull logs up a mountain to harvest them... normally they will choke a number of logs at a time. Never do they only choke one log... unless it is massive.

Well this one episode a company had a feud going and they split into two teams right next to each other each with their own rig to pull up logs. They set it up as the crews at the bottom were racing to pull logs and were somewhat close to each other.

They of course eventually choked the same log (nearly impossible as the log was not that big) but of course both rigs started to pull it up the mountain and craziness happens. They build it up as OMG WTF scary crazy moment but I instantly thought.. They have NEVER sent up one log that small before.. why would both teams do that at the same time to the same log.

This moment RUINED that show and pretty much any other reality based shows that I thought still had a chance of being somewhat real. Not talking about the truTV crap which is so obvious its pathetic.

[Joni]

I have been wondering to what degree Top Gear is scripted. Obviously SOME of the things are scripted, and I think the guys sort of play along with it, and some times things are quite clearly not scripted. There are quite a few moments though where I'm just not sure...

Every time a car breaks down, it isn't scripted and they chose the cars themselves. The bickering between them isn't scripted either. The weird stuff is scripted and most big statements are scripted. But the trio also do the writing so it will always feel natural.

[Ventrue]

Every time a car breaks down, it isn't scripted and they chose the cars themselves. The bickering between them isn't scripted either. The weird stuff is scripted and most big statements are scripted. But the trio also do the writing so it will always feel natural.

I'm not sure I'm convinced. There have been too many along these lines:

"What is faster: Boat/Cyclist/Shitty Car or Car?
Oh, the obviously faster one is winning.
Oh no, now it's broken down!
Now the slower method is winning!"

[Kinyou]

"Let's see what's in this storage locker. Lesse... one shoe... some old Burger King.... a broken dresser... OH MAN THE FROZEN HEAD OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN THIS IS WHY I DO THIS THAT'S A 5000 DOLLAR BILL ALL DAY LONG!"

lol, that pretty much sums it up all reality shows. After all who'd watch it if never anything note worthy happened.

[Sullen]

The only one I really watch is the First 48. That probably has the least amount of interference. Other than maybe when they bring a camera crew to someones house.

[JGS]

I don't believe the storage wars show is scripted but the ones on Spike & TruTV are. The one on TruTV is so bad they actually have villians. There's no way they can be marketing that as real.

[chubigans]

I have been wondering to what degree Top Gear is scripted. Obviously SOME of the things are scripted, and I think the guys sort of play along with it, and some times things are quite clearly not scripted. There are quite a few moments though where I'm just not sure...

I watched one ep of the USA Top Gear. There was a contest pitting a Viper against a helicopter or something. The Viper is driving around and one of the guys says "ok man let's get a plan going...pull into that car wash over there!" Which they do...and a camera is already set up getting a really nice shot from the car wash.

Camera placement gives away a show 95% of the time for me.

Also, it's nice to know Shark Tank is real for the most part. I love that show.

[rezuth]

Are we confusing the term "scripted" with the term "staged" in this thread?

[BoatAck]

Oh man, undercover boss might be the worst I've seen. Secret Boss: "hello, nice to meet you." Employee: "hey man, I'm gonna show you how to clean a toilet today." "ok sounds good!" "ok, just use the brush and scrub clockwise like this..." "ok, got it." "so my wife has cancer and my son is autistic." Which of course sets up the nice Cancer/Autism treatments the boss will give the employee at the end of the show. Seriously, who spills their life's story to a stranger surrounded by cameras like that.

This made me laugh and that is exactly how it goes! That bugs the living hell out of me. The boss always get paired up with the parent of fucking Tiny Tim. And who falls for the horrible mustache or hair jobs they do to "transform" the bosses into regular workers? They are awful.

[TheExodu5]

I hate it when any show cuts from what we're seeing to a "talking head" that isn't describing something that happened, but is acting like it's happening. "Oh man Lisa totally is getting on my nerves...I hope she can cook that dish properly or else!" But if that part was shot already, then we know she knows what's already gonna happen. Unless they shot the talking heads during the timeline of the show, which seems nuts. My head hurts.

Yeah, that's the main thing that takes me out of Hell's Kitchen and MasterChef.

[LosDaddie]

I ain't going to lie, I enjoy Hardcore Pawn and Lizard Lick towing. Not that I DVR those shows, but they are good time sink here & there.

[Woody Invincible]

That Love it or List it show on HGTV is the worst. Here's the couple Here's their house Here's their renno budget Here's their house budget Wife: I want to move Husband: I want to stay Act 1 Hillary draws hilarious sketches of owners impossible demands Dave finds first house: EWWW YUCK WHAT ARE YOU THINKING JESUS NO Hillary finds something wrong with the plumbing and the fake contractor says 'Well dere's a prablem.' Hillary has to remove one part of the renno Owners get a little mad. No one is happy. Act 2 Dave finds another house: Ok, hey you know this kinda works, but wow let's maybe just stay in our home because Hilary is going to be juuust fine Hillary finds the studs in the walls are made from bones and the electric cabling is made from water Fake contractor: 'Dats gonna cost a latta money' Hillary: Sorry no toilet Couple fakes getting mad, flips over tables, camera films them from far away Hillary gets fake upset and frustrated 'How was I to know a house would have problems, I'm only a designer/contractor!' No one is happy. Act 3 Dave finds Heaven on Earth for twenty bucks Hillary pulls off a miracle The couple decides the opposite what you would expect I'm not happy. To my wife, this routine is Shakespearean.

Best thing I have read in quite a while.

[Ape Gone Insane]

I spent a good few years in my childhood thinking that wrestling was real.

[jackrubyn]

The "Who is a better rapper?" episode of Kenny VS Spenny.

[Woody Invincible]

I spent a good few years in my childhood thinking that wrestling was real.

Yep, I remember Lex Lugor getting out of that chopper and hip tossing Yokozuna on the carrier.

[Seanspeed]

Not saying the show isn't fake, since it obviously is. But, my friends and I use the term all the time when looking at guitars and I've seen plenty of eBay listings use it as well.

Yea, I wasn't trying to say it wasn't a genuine phrase, just weird that I've never heard it playing guitar for so long. I guess I've never dealt much with used/vintage guitars to hear it come up.

The moment you see 5 separate camera angles catching a "real" and "spontaneous" moment. And yet people lap this shit up.

Thats the thing with me. I get that some people realize these shows are fake and still watch them anyway, but I really just cant do it because I feel intellectually insulted by these shows and I refuse to support them in any way, shape or form. They are a plague to modern televesion programming and have ruined a hell of a lot of channels that used to be really good.

[dave is ok]

Hoarders is the only real reality show.

All of the other reality shows are elaborate ruses used to make Americans think the crap they own could be worth lots of money, all so Hoarders will have more people to film.

[pestul]

I'll admit, I love that damn show River Monsters.. but it's also scripted/edited to hell and back. You know Jeremy Wade is totally catching that monster within 10min of throwing his line in half of the time, but of course they have to build a 1hr show around his ridiculous escapades in getting that monster (spirtual acceptance, beating his demons etc.).

[sangreal]

Biggest Loser has to be real. You can't script weight loss. COPS? I always thought that was likely real. Last I saw an episode they busted a party with like 200 people at it. That's quite a scene to pull off just to fake ticket a few college kids. Lots of junky houses too, etc.

You can't script weight loss, but you can certainly script hilariously bad product placement

- Hey you were on Undercover Boss! What you didn't notice the cameras!?

Undercover Boss is a joke for the reason you and others have pointed out, but they explain this part away by saying they told the employees they were filming a documentary or reality show. Of course that excuse holds up about as well as the fake mustache and toupee they put on the boss

[Cheerilee]

It's no secret that pro-wrestling is fake, but I was always under the impression that it was simply a packed house of crazy fans watching a typical match. When I attended a TNA show a couple years ago, I was surprised when they started handing us signs, and getting shots of crowd reactions between matches.

The amazing thing about the ordinary fakeness of pro-wrestling is when you realize that it used to be mafia controlled, and that the mafia set odds and encouraged the spectators to place bets on the outcome.

I mean, could you imagine believing that Storage Wars was real, going to one of their filmings, and then having a cameraman offer to double your money if Dave earns more from his locker than Barry?

[chubigans]

Undercover Boss is a joke for the reason you and others have pointed out, but they explain this part away by saying they told the employees they were filming a documentary or reality show. Of course that excuse holds up about as well as the fake mustache and toupee they put on the boss

I kid you not, one episode had an undercover boss put on an earring and trucker cap. That was it. That was his disguise. It was like friggin Clark Kent.

"well im not an actual employee...*removes earring and hat*... I'm the CEO of this company."
"OH MY GOD I HAD NO IDEA WHAAAAAAA!!"

I hope somebody saw that one because I'm not even exaggerating.

[Mr. B Natural]

I think so, he was having a conversation with the judges, so they had to make it match by having the 'real' judges read the dialogue again.

I don't even think that's necessary. They got hours of those judges talking, saying roughly the same few things over and over again. They could splice in a generic "conversation" with typical character responses with ease. No need to put any specific effort into it.

I KNOW they do that with other reality shows, especially ones where the "character" is being interviewed and seemingly responding to things that are happening on the show.

Edit: Like this Rock Bottom

[poppabk]

Hoarders is the only real reality show. All of the other reality shows are elaborate ruses used to make Americans think the crap they own could be worth lots of money, all so Hoarders will have more people to film.

Some of hoarders definitely looks fake, especially recently. They just seem to have random stuff everywhere rather than stuff that is important to them.

[poppabk]

I've noticed at least once in a home video show the same parachute crash landing edited into more than one clip.

[WoodenLung]

Every single moment. 100% of reality shows are scripted.

Eh not really true at all. But most of the popular bullshit certainly is.

[Mr. B Natural]

I don't watch survivor...I think I watched the first season, but my parents were watching so I decided to watch an episode to see how redundant it has become. Right in the beginning of the episode one guy/girl kept finding the secret totem things before she was supposed to.

Yeah, ok. Like they'd hide those things in a tree for weeks...just because. And the contestant would easily be able hunt down more than one of them hidden on a giant island.

[J-Rod]

Pretty much all of it. Most recent thing that annoyed me was off American pickers. They saw an Indian motorcycle conviently parked near the road way away from the actual residence. They pull in to a beat down trailer and falling apart house, and I think they are probably going to get shot. But they find the most well adjusted guy inside who was the son of a man who worked at a Indian dealership. No one lived in the house as it was deserted, but he just happened to be there at the time for no reason in particular. Turned out this guy's dad happened to own a bike the pickers friend now owned and they happened to find the jersey that he wore when he raced it. Anyway, they made a big hoopla about how it was a random blind stop that the shorter guy spotted. Bull shit, so staged and obviously prearranged.

[Hero_of_the_Day]

I don't believe the storage wars show is scripted but the ones on Spike & TruTV are. The one on TruTV is so bad they actually have villians. There's no way they can be marketing that as real.

It is. Didn't they have an episode where the 'yuup' guys evil brother showed up to try and out bid him? And the back and forth with the couple who can't act worth a shit...

I get sucked into like everybody else, but it's fake as shit. The lockers are relatively cheap, if it wasn't fake, at this point you would have had at least one rich ass hole start showing up and buying everything just to get on TV. And yet, it's always the main cast bidding against each other.

[tino]

I have been wondering to what degree Top Gear is scripted. Obviously SOME of the things are scripted, and I think the guys sort of play along with it, and some times things are quite clearly not scripted. There are quite a few moments though where I'm just not sure...

Stig result is probably real. But everything else is scripted. I am talking about all the "incidents", "arguments", "3rd world adventures", and most importantly, the contest results. Jeremy has won way too much.

That's not the reason I stop watching it though. I stop watched it because 1 hour is too long. An entertainment show like this should be half hour.

[Koomaster]

The Real World is not fake or they would have recreated the fork throwing incident from Vegas. I still can't believe no camera was around somewhere to capture that!

[jackrubyn]

Just thought of another one. In Hell's Kitchen season...4, 5 (?) where the gay wedding planner shows up and he's supposed to be Jean Philippe's nemesis.
Sure, lots of things (challenges etc) are rigged, but that was something else.

[aparisi2274]

So Worlds Worst Tenants comes on after the awesome World's Wildest Police Videos on Spike, so I decided to watch it. It's a show where the group above works for landlords to serve property tenants with warnings or eviction notices, and are usually bizarre situations. Liked the first episode enough to keep watching. Then the third episode completely shattered any illusion of reality they were trying to convey. -They need to find out who's been dumping medical waste in the trash bin before the city fines the landlord. So they set up a hidden camera and come back "24 hours later"...wearing the same clothes as the day before. -The tenants or bystanders on the show act angrily/hostile towards the guys, which is common. They also make it a point not to stare at the camera, which is important for actors but not so much when you're on reality tv and you're supposedly not an actor. The first thing someone would ask is, who the hell are you and what are these cameras doing? (the camera crew make no point of hiding either; they're getting shots where they would be plainly visible.) -They spot a group of redneck guys using illegal automatic rifles on a makeshift firing range, which is what the landlord got complaints about, so they need to put a stop to it. Instead of calling the cops, they get right into the backyard and get into a confrontation with them. Then they call the cops. Who are on the scene in this remote location within seconds. -In fact, every time they call the cops, which they do frequently, they'll respond within seconds, probably standing steps beyond the camera shot. So yeah, kind of a bummer because I like the people the show is based on, as they seem pretty genuine. But geez, there's no way I can watch anymore of this show. edit: I know all reality shows are fake in one way or another, duh. :p I'm talking about moments where it's immediately obvious.

yeah I watched this the other night as well, and I thought some of the stories were cool, but damn it is horribly scripted and pretty silly to boot.

The one show I can think of that is "real" but has some horribly bad staged segments are on "American Restoration." They always have this establishing shot of Rick working on something or talking to someone in the shop, and you can tell it's so horribly scripted, because they want to have that segway to when the customer gets there to pick up their restored item.

It's pretty bad.

[Black_Stride]

I havent watched any of these shows you guys claim are scripted.

But if i find out both of these are scripted:




Im going to blow a gasket cuz ive been watching them for years thinking they are "real" tv shows

[aparisi2274]

LOL!!! You can even see that the ref was like "How the shit did this guy win??"

[JGS]

It is. Didn't they have an episode where the 'yuup' guys evil brother showed up to try and out bid him? And the back and forth with the couple who can't act worth a shit... I get sucked into like everybody else, but it's fake as shit. The lockers are relatively cheap, if it wasn't fake, at this point you would have had at least one rich ass hole start showing up and buying everything just to get on TV. And yet, it's always the main cast bidding against each other.

I don't think so. They do have a guys that outbid them and there is one guy that they dedicated a show to that outbidded them, but it wasn't Dave's brother. They hated him because he was inflating the prices of the units and costing them money or wins.

I think this show is just heavily edited. There are bunches of lockers and they just show the ones they win. The stuff they tend to find is too mundane in comparison to the TruTV one where they always have a massive payout and usually it's the married couple.

I think that the TruTV one re-enacts true events that have happened across the country.

[NinjaBoiX]

I spent a good few years in my childhood thinking that wrestling was real.

[LevelNth]

Step 1: TV producers realized 'reality' TV was a great way to make tons of cash and save on production costs.

Step 2: TV producers realized that 'fake-reality' TV was an even better way to make even more cash and still save on production costs.

End.

[purple cobra]

It usually hits when the star in the show visits someone, and the person answering the door acts like they're surprised that they showed up, and yet the camera angle is inside the damn house. How did the camera man get inside and you not expect _____ to show up? Plus Ghost Hunters died for me when I say the YouTube video of the live episode. I at least held on to a sliver of hope that SOMETHING was real (shut up, I was young), but that killed any doubts

Oh God, I remember watching that. Going live was probably one of the worst things that show could have done. Isn't that when the infamous Grant "jacket pull" happened?

I also agree on the points you made about the camera already being in place when someone arrives. The sort of fly on the wall feeling I get with the shows due to how they film it makes me feel like I'm there but it also makes it obvious as far as everything being prepared.