We’re going to let you in on a little secret, dear Pandas—just promise not to tell anyone. We absolutely love reality TV shows. The tension. The drama. The larger-than-life characters. We know it’s mostly all fake and dramatized. But it’s all a lot of fun if you’re willing to suspend your disbelief for a little while.

We’ve collected some of the most interesting insights about reality TV shows from former contestants and audience members who spilled the tea in these two r/AskReddit threads here and here. They revealed what’s actually scripted and what, surprisingly, is genuine. Scroll down to check out their stories.

Bored Panda reached out to entertainment, pop culture, and lifestyle expert Mike Sington who was kind enough to walk us through why we enjoy reality TV so much and why it is so scripted. Read on for our full interview with him.

Read More: 30 Former Contestants, Crew And Audience Members Spill The Beans On How Fake Reality TV Really Is

#1

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.

Image credits: Knowing_nate

#2

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.

Image credits: okaygeorgia

#3

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.

Image credits: Naburu

#4

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.

#5

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.

Image credits: anon

#6

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.

Image credits: Nihil_am_I

#7

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.

Image credits: anon

#8

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

Image credits: Twistntle

#9

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.

Image credits: ImNoScientician

#10

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!

Image credits: galdanna

#11

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.

Image credits: timoforfaen

#12

Storage wars probably wins the “scripted” prize.

Image credits: amazem

#13

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.

Image credits: NeuroticWolf

#14

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.

Image credits: Recon740

#15

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.

Image credits: GoodSmackUp

#16

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.

Image credits: annieisawesome

#17

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.

Image credits: Rockitlikearedhead

#18

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.

Image credits: blaineNIKE

#19

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!

Image credits: I_AM_A_BALLSACK_AMA

#20

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..

Image credits: scottybblue

#21

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.

Image credits: anon

#22

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.

#23

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.

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Image credits: anon