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Though television networks have been experimenting with reality TV since the 1970’s, the genre really exploded and took off in the early 2000s with series like The Bachelor, American Idol, and Chopped. Since everyone loves a good competition show, combining game shows and reality TV gave TV lovers the best of both worlds. Since then, people have been glued to their screens year after year awaiting their favorite reality TV shows and picking their favorite contestants.

However, despite the supposed realism of the reality competitions, to get the best ratings and the most drama, reality TV producers have learned to bend and twist shots, give contestant scripts, and even plant tasks. You’ll be shocked to know how fake Survivor (page 9) and other reality competition shows really are.

1. The Great British Bake Off

Great British Bake Off
Great British Bake Off | BBC

The Great British Bake Off is a sensational series that follows baking hopefuls in the U.K who make a ton of yummy treats over the course of several weeks in the hopes of being crowned the baking king or queen. One year, the winner even baked the queen’s birthday cake. We would never say an unkind word against our beloved Mary Berry or Paul Hollywood, but we do know The Great British Bake Off isn’t exactly unscripted. According to Reddit user henfrigate,

The judges recorded 2 takes for every comment, one positive and one negative so the editors could put it together however they wanted. They rolled the clock back an hour so everyone else could finish. We had over three months to plan our “spontaneous” cake. Oh yeah, and while we won by the judges vote…a producer decided one of the other cakes would film better for the big reveal so we didn’t win even though we should have.

We’ll take this with a grain of salt.

Next: A reality fashion competition that plans its eliminations ahead of time. 

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