Actor and filmmaker Gary Oldman described reality television as "the museum of social decay",[3] while journalist Ted Koppel questioned whether it marked "the end of civilization".
[5] An episode of the NBC drama Harry's Law used the industry jargon "Franken-bites" and gave an example of the audio-splicing trick, which is used to force dialogue that is needed for the drama/story/script, but not actually said by the cast members.
In docusoap programming, which follows people in their daily life, producers may be highly deliberate in their editing strategies, able to portray certain participants as heroes or villains, and may guide the drama through altered chronology and selective presentation of events.
Producers specifically select the participants and use carefully designed scenarios, challenges, events, and settings to encourage particular behaviors and conflicts.
[8] Reality television shows have faced speculation that the participants themselves are involved in fakery, acting out storylines that have been planned in advance by producers.
[12] Producers have also been accused of selectively editing material in order to give the false impression of certain emotional reactions or statements from the castmates.
[13] New York cast member Rebecca Blasband says producers paid a man $100 to ask her out on a date, and that she terminated that plan when she learned of it.
[15] Professional wrestler Hulk Hogan, whose family starred in the reality series Hogan Knows Best and Brooke Knows Best, explains in his 2009 autobiography My Life Outside the Ring that paying unionized camera crews to film subjects continuously until something telegenic or dramatic occurs would be prohibitively expensive, and that as a result, such shows are "soft-scripted", and follow a tightly regimented shooting schedule that allows for typical work-related considerations such as lunch breaks.
According to Hogan, this would result in behavior that members of his family would never exhibit in real life, as when his son, Nick tossed water balloons at neighbors from a window, or when his wife would wake up early to apply makeup and do her hair before camera crews arrived to film shots of the couple sleeping.
The Bachelorette Season 4 winner, Jesse Csincsak, stated that contestants on those series are required to follow producers' orders, and that storylines are fabricated in the editing room.
[21][22] Fleiss stated in an appearance on 20/20 that he develops the show's contestants into characters that will cater to his audience's tastes and that they "need [their] fair share of villains every season.
"[23][24] On February 24, 2012, during the filming of The Women Tell All episode of The Bachelor Season 16, what should have been a private conversation between contestant Courtney Robertson and one of the show's producers went public when the microphones were accidentally left on in between camera takes.
The leaked conversation revealed the producer's role as an acting coach who was encouraging Robertson to fake certain emotions for the camera which she was not feeling.
[32] The international franchise Dragons' Den, which shows entrepreneurs vying to get investments from wealthy businessmen, has sometimes been accused of misleading viewers as to the seriousness of the deals being made.
A 2016 analysis of the American installment of the franchise, Shark Tank, found that, of 237 deals shown being made, 43% did not lead to any sort of investment, and another 30% did occur but under different terms than what was agreed to on the show.
[33] An analysis of one season (2017) of the Australian installment, also called Shark Tank, found an even worse outcome, with only 4 of 27 investment deals shown on the show actually coming to fruition.
[34] A 2019 analysis of two seasons of the British installment, Dragons' Den, found that nearly half of the deals made on the show did not result in any actual investment.
King writes: I would argue, rather, that the simulated setting stimulates feeling, in part because the removal of the participants from their normal surroundings strips them to nothing but the space and affect of social interaction.
[45][46] Some have claimed that the success of reality television is due to its ability to provide schadenfreude, by satisfying the desire of viewers to see others humiliated.
American magazine Entertainment Weekly wrote, "Do we watch reality television for precious insight into the human condition?
Following the show's premiere and subsequent cancellation due to low ratings, the show's winner, Katherine Birch, came out to Splinter News about how she and the other contestants were effectively gaslighted to believe that Hicks was in fact the prince, including being isolated in hotel rooms with no means of entertainment or communication for the week prior to filming and having a therapist (actually a member of the production crew) come on set and consult with contestants who still weren't convinced of "Harry's" legitimacy.
[49] Television critic James Poniewozik has disagreed with this assessment, writing, "for all the talk about 'humiliation TV,' what's striking about most reality shows is how good humored and resilient most of the participants are: the American Idol rejectees stubbornly convinced of their own talent, the Fear Factor players walking away from vats of insects like Olympic champions.