20 Cringe-Worthy Reality TV Facts

1.

Reality TV is one of society's most beloved forms of fictional entertainment. And, being the addictive and socially-destructive dumpster fire that it is, there are a lot of fun and interesting facts to slightly expand your knowledge and get back a tiny smidgeon of the void in your intellect the genre is responsible for. Enjoy!

2.

"that the mansion used on the ABC reality tv series, The Bachelor, is owned and lived in by a family. The family moves out and takes their furniture with them two times a year for 42 days of filming. This allows ABC to redecorate their house each season."

3.

"Jenna Jameson hosted a reality TV show where five contestants competed in a series of sexual performances for a panel of judges" - u/yaboodooect

4.

"Robert Kardashian (father of the reality TV family and defense attorney of O.J. Simpson) pioneered the idea of playing music between movies in theaters, parlaying the concept into a business called Movie Tunes." - u/pickycheestickeater

5.

"the concept of putting strangers together in a limited environment for an extended period of time and recording the drama that ensued (ie. Reality TV) was originated by the Dutch series Nummer 28 in 1991. A year later, 'The Real World' on MTV came out." - u/PatsBruinsCeltsSox

6.

"After surviving a year-long experiment on an isolated island for a British reality TV show, ten contestants learned that the show had been canceled 4 months into production." - u/NYCityNYState10108

7.

"there was a dating/reality TV show with 12 American women and a Prince Harry impersonator." - u/throwaway_06-20

8.

"American reality TV stars Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt spent most of their $10 million of accumulated earnings by 2010 because they believed the world would end in 2012." - u/garamond89

9.

"'An American Family' is widely considered to be the first reality TV series, first airing on PBS in 1973. Over 300 hours of footage of the Loud family was condensed into 12, one hour episodes documenting family drama resulting from a separation of Bill and Pat Loud." - u/MorsesTheHorse

10.

"the reality tv show 'Murder In Small Town X" whose finale aired on September 4, 2001. The winner of the show Ángel Juarbe Jr. ,who was a firefighter in NYC, would be dead a week later, one of the 343 NY firefighters killed at the World Trade Center." - u/GentPc

11.

"Melanie Martinez had her home destroyed four times by Hurricane: Betsy (1965), Juan (1985), George (1998), and Katrina (2005). The reality TV show "Hideous Homes" gave her home a $20,000 remodeling, only to have it destroyed again by Hurricane Issac in 2012." - u/fuckingblackmale

12.

"Survivalist reality TV host Bear Grylls was extremely popular in China including a best-selling book and a celebrity survivalist reality TV show. But his reputation took a hit when he made beloved Chinese celebrities drink their own urine on TV." - u/lqwertyd

13.

"British reality TV personality Bernie Fineman used to fix cars that the Kray Twins used in their crimes." - u/YourOwnBiggestFan

14.

"the true Gordon Ramsay Effect: that restaurants, salons, and other concerns featured on reality TV shoes such as “Kitchen Nightmares” that are aimed at turning around troubled businesses fail twice as often as the industry average." - u/HeroicContender

15.

"that the woman responsible for turning The History Channel into yet another reality TV station was promoted to CEO of all of A&E Television Networks (History, A&E, BIO, H2, Military, Lifetime, Lifetime Movie Network)" - u/Harvin

16.

"David Hasselhoff starred in his own A&E reality TV show about his efforts to resuscitate his career. The series was canceled after the first night." - u/labtec901

17.

"Channel Drift which results in a shift from informative, quality programming aimed at educated viewers, toward sensational, ratings-based, and/or reality-TV programming."

18.

"Eden, a Survivor style reality TV series. Located in a remote part of Scotland, the series was beset with reports of bullying, hunger, a split camp and sexual jealousy. Channel 4 axed it but did not inform the participants, ten of whom stayed for a year. An update was broadcast months later." - ClandesTyne

19.

"Cops is the longest running Reality TV show ever. It started due to a Writers Guild of America strike." - u/alertnotalarmed

20.

"in the U.K in 2005 a reality TV show managed to trick a group (selected for incredible levels of gullibility) of wannabe astronauts into thinking they had been launched into space!" - u/thatsCaptainplanet2u