We all love a great reality television show. But we love nothing more when there is something at stake, when there are winners and losers. Reality television game shows have exploded in the past decade and everyone has their own guilty pleasure. Is it Big Brother? The Bachelor/Bachelorette? Iron Chef?
The list goes on and on, and we all know that we would still watch them either way, but you do have to wonder sometimes; are reality television game shows legit, or are they all a scam?
Well, you may not like the answer to this, but it seems like a lot of them are actually scams. You can still enjoy watching them, but unfortunately, a lot of the contestants of these types of shows have revealed via Reddit and other online sources, that much of the shows we perch on the edge of our seats for, are all scripted and prearranged.
For a lot of people this can put them off their favorite television shows, but come on people, this can’t be that big of a stretch can it?
For years, shows like Judge Judy have been accused of being illegitimate, paying courtroom actors and both the defendant and the plaintiff, but when you see behind the scenes, you can understand why.
Of course, Judy has a courtroom full of actors, because us ordinary Joe soaps would be ruining every shot with our billboard saying ‘Hi Mom!’ And of course, the defendant and plaintiff both get paid because who wants to embarrass themselves on national television for free? Not me. But other aspects of the show are real, like the decisions she makes.
The winner may be pre-planned, but only because Judy has looked over the files and figured it out already.
A lot of the aspects of our favorite reality television game shows are ‘fake’, but this doesn’t necessarily mean they are a scam. We’re still entertained, right? We still enjoy the cliff hangers and the ominous violin music, don’t we? It is entertainment after all, and when we all look at our very unsparkly, ordinary, and boring lives, we can see that reality isn’t very entertaining, at least not all the time.
It can’t be. So yeah, a lot of things these game shows are pre-determined, their set up, scripted, whatever you want to call it, but they still keep us watching don’t they?
And when it comes to the prizes of these shows, it seems like the winners actually do win… it just also seems like the ‘losers’ get paid as well, and we can’t begrudge them that can we?
It takes a lot to package something in wrapping paper nice enough to entertain millions, and will a bow that glitters in such a way that those millions will keep coming back time and time again. So, what if some of the details are exaggerated? Do you think that you’ll stop watching any time soon?