This show is fake/rigged/whatever...

[fireheart17]

This is partially a "Things I Hate", but because it relates SPECIFICALLY to TV shows, I'm putting it here.

I am SICK and tired of people arguing one of two things. Either:

a) a "factual" show (i.e. cops) is staged or faked

or

b) a reality show is rigged or staged.

And I can back this up with a couple of examples:

Border Security Australia: Apparently because they don't show Aussies getting into trouble with customs or quarantine, they're being "racist" or the show is staged because it's just so "convenient" how an Asian man happens to have 30kg of marijuana in his luggage.....

Hell's Kitchen: More so season 9 than anything else, I have seen so many people arguing how convenient it is that someone left before the first service when his food wasn't all that great, that Elise was an actor based upon a website they found of her modelling and therefore she wasn't capable of cooking, how certain challenges always seemed to be rigged towards the females or the males (this was more in the earlier seasons with the photoshoots) and that some of the "SC"s in the restaurant were just paid actors brought in there to create drama. Throw in some slightly strange editing and their argument is supposedly consistent.

Survivor: This was more with one of the less-popular series and the claims were that all the contestants for that series had been "recruited" rather than actually applying (apart from one).

And my personal favourite:

Snog Marry Avoid: Not so much a criticism of the show itself, but of the host. For the unfamiliar, the show promotes "natural" beauty (i.e. taking off the fake tan and the outrageous eyeliner, fake lashes and dressing more like a lady and less like you're in your underwear. I say lady because most of the men that appear on that show tend to go back to their old ways whereas the women are at least willing to either change completely or meet them halfway), yet somehow Jenny Frost has no right to host the show because she has bleach-blonde hair and (supposedly) fake tits, along with "slapping on the makeup". For the record, if she has to "slap" on the makeup, it would be due to the lighting.

OK, they might TRY and add more drama. But from what I'm aware of, the drama itself is NOT scripted. The producers might say "so-and-so said this", but that is IT. It's not like they're going "OK Elise, so you're going to be a complete and total bitch to Carrie and you're going to ask her if she's on medication >.<)


It just irritates me. Yes, fine, make it a bit dramatic. But to say that the show is ENTIRELY fake is taking it too far.

[HYHYBT]

Depends on the series... but anything where people are followed with cameras for weeks on end that's then edited down to the 20 or 40 minutes of show time, you cannot trust the "story" that airs to be a fair representation of what happened.

[DrFaroohk]

Sometimes they do come across as having certain situations staged. Or at least heavily edited. Although I used to think they were entirely scripted, but then I started realizing that'd be more a hassle for the producers than just saying "Go do whatever you do."

There was one I saw that I could tell was fake, where they were pulling practical jokes on people. It wasn't so much the crappy acting or writing of the scenes that tipped it off, but it was that they victim kept looking RIGHT AT THE CAMERA. Obviously you know the camera is there, and I can tell there's at least 3 guys there lugging cameras around, and a guy with a boom mic and probably a whole crew so you can't ac tlike you have noooooooooooo clue something is up.

[Dreamstalker]

Every so often I'll hear how Deadliest Catch is staged. Um, what?!

While it does seem like a couple of the blowups/fights are "for the camera" (or maybe because there's a camera in a captain's/deckhand's face), saying the entire show is 'faked' is astoundingly dumb.

[bex1218]

Big Brother, esp this last season, was a big one for people saying it was rigged cause of the "veteran" that everyone hated won. Good for her.

[fireheart17]

Depends on the series... but anything where people are followed with cameras for weeks on end that's then edited down to the 20 or 40 minutes of show time, you cannot trust the "story" that airs to be a fair representation of what happened.

Edited true, there are a few cases where things have been revealed to have gone differently in an interview, but yeah, claiming that a show is staged based PURELY upon 30-40 minutes of footage is a bit steep.

There were accusations going around some time ago that Jerry Springer was staged. Specifically, the fights.

[Gravekeeper]

Most reality shows ARE at least partially staged or rigged then edited to fit the storyline narrative the producers want. That's why there's always a super bitch / douchebag on Hell's Kitchen in every season and why its been getting worse with every season. Especially the last one. Because Fox has been fucking with it more and more. You can see it quite blatantly in the editing. You think they really had 6 cameras rolling to capture EVERYONE'S individual reaction shots to one event? Fuck no, they combed over all their footage to find reactions that fit the story. You never wondered why nothing is ever a clear win on Hell's Kitchen anymore? Absolutely every challenge ends on a tiebreaker now. Nevermind the blatantly lying next episode previews.

Its right there in small print in the credits of the shows if you look for it but they flash it by in the credits so fast to hide it that its kind of funny. Its literally not on screen for even a full second: "Portions of this program not effecting the outcome have been edited".

While the person that ends up winning CAN cook, the narrative and storylines of the show up until the end are mostly bullshit. Its the same with any other similar shows that Fox has a hand in. Just watch the credits closely.

[Ree]

I've known a few people who participated in reality type shows, and I know that a lot of what you see on TV is pretty edited down and scenes are used to add the most drama

My nephew and his wife were picked to be on a room makeover type reality show.
It was very interesting, after watching the show, to hear how things had actually gone, and how much actual conversation and interviewing had gone on, but had been edited down for the show.

A girl I work with was recently on an episode of a show where they come in to look at antiques and collectibles and offer appraisals or buy stuff.
The filming took most of the day, but it was all edited down to about 15 minutes on the screen.

My sister's friend has an older sister who was also on one of those types of shows. Hers was really an eye opener as to how the storylines can be exaggerated or scripted.
My sister let me know when the show was on, and she said to call her after I watched it because she had some interesting things to tell me.

The story, as I watched it, was that they were doing a bedroom makeover, and giving a middle-aged, newly divorced single mom a break. While they were redoing the room, she was put up in a suite at a hotel and was wined and dined over the 3 days by 3 different "bachelors".
Her daughter stayed behind to "supervise" the redecorating.

The reno went along as they do, but then, oh my goodness, at almost the last minute, they decided to redo an armchair in a certain pattern of Chintz fabric. Only one place carried it, and there was tense drama as the call was placed to order it. Of course, he had none in stock, but he knew where he could get it, but just before the deadline, there was some drama with the material not being available. Then, at the last minute, just in time to get the chair redone, the dude showed up with the fabric.

My sister let me in on the secret that the dates with the bachelors were all setups and there was absolutely no romantic side at all. In fact, one of the guys was a married man who worked for the show.

In the case of the fabric, the material had been ordered well in advance and all that last minute "will it arrive or won't it" drama was staged. The chair was already finished when they were filming the dramatic phone calls.

So, yeah, in many cases, on the reality shows, things are edited down to provide the most entertainment.

I mean, if you really followed some of the cops around for a day as they went about their actual jobs, you would be bored out of your mind at times. Not every night is filled with the stuff you see on the screen. There might only be a couple of calls of that type and the rest is just routine, yawn-inducing stuff.

[lordlundar]

The operative term is engineered, and every show does it, regardless of the format or approach. From camera angles to scripted segments to post production, there is not a show on TV that does not do it.

What makes Reality/wrestling/voting shows so deplorable in it is that they keep trying to advertise and present it as true to life, when the truth of it is that it's nowhere near real.

[Andara Bledin]

I lived across the street from some people who were actually old friends of my brother's and their house was on an episode of Extreme Home Makeover.

First off, the "only a week" thing is bullshit; they took just about a month for their bottom-of-the-barrel workers to actually finish. The crowd is all bused in from Hollywood (or wherever) and you will rarely actually see anyone from the neighborhood in the audience; hell, I bet if you looked, you'd probably start seeing the same people in the crowd shots for different episodes. Oh, yeah, and since it wasn't their neighborhood, they were pigs and left a ton of trash all over the place - totally glad they were down the street a bit and not directly across from us. >_< Any and all romantic drama was made up for the show and all loosely scripted. The ring they had the father of daughter's kid got sold off at the first opportunity, from what they told us. And all of the reaction shots are staged, too, since the process takes a few months before they decide which house they're going to be doing, and everybody at those houses knows all about the process while it's going on.

One of the car make-over shows that shows the car being "delivered" to a house is bullshit, too. A friend of my brother's owns one of the properties where they park the cars at the end of the show. And they take the cars back after filming is completed.

Reality my ass.

Even the ones that are much closer to actual reality are still edited to give a slanted view of what's going on. That doesn't make then much less enjoyable to watch, but it would be nice if shows claiming to be reality shows were closer to being really real.

^-.-^

[blas87]

This could also be fabricated, but I watched a documentary on ANTM, and one of the former winners admitted a lot of the stuff on the show was made to happen just for ratings and the idea that half of the girls hate each other.

[crashhelmet]

Some of it is fixed more than just selective editing.

Jersey Shore Exposed

[draco664]

Ben Elton wrote a book called 'Dead Famous' - a murder mystery that takes place in a Big Brother house. It's very well written, and it reveals the sort of editing that a producer does to encourage the largest audience possible.

It's also the only murder mystery I've read where you don't find out who the victim is until three quarters of the way through the book.

The lead investigator on the case suddenly finds himself in a position of policital pressure, since all his superiors right up the chain of command are under pressure from all over the world. Nothing they do, no announcements, programs or initiatives are considered reportable while this mystery goes on.

Oh, and he has never watched a 'reality tv show' so has no idea the sort of instant celebrity these people have/seek.

[HYHYBT]

I don't know about three quarters, but I've read quite a few where the first murder doesn't turn up (or isn't discovered) until the second half, and others where the victim isn't correctly identified until the end.

[Greenday]

I know Border Security shows aren't faked. I was nearly on New Zealands when some woman who picked her bag up next to me had the food sniffing dog stop her. The cameras came up and I just backed away.