We’re not naïve to believe it’s all-natural but we’re trusting enough to believe that there must be moments of reality.
Thankfully past contestants of popular reality TV programmes have taken to Reddit to
share their experiences.
They discuss programmes from Judge Judy to Survivor and clear up what exactly the behind the scenes process involves.
This is what they had to say:
What Not To Wear
I was on What not to Wear - AMA. :) I will say the hours were really long and they don't make you throw everything away. Also Clinton Kelly was one of the nicest people I have ever met. Went above and beyond to help me get clothes that worked, even staying on off camera at the 15th hour of a day to get the right pants. Stacy was nice too.
The weirdest things were the up close re-shoots. if you pointed at anything while being filmed, they'd come in afterward and do an up close of your hand doing the motion. We learned towards the end to just stop pointing.
BrotherofAllfather
Judge Judy
I was on Judge Judy back in 2010.
Our case was real and hand-picked by the production team. We had to pull the case from real court in order to go on her show.
The decision of who "wins and loses" is made up before you even walk into the courtroom set. The audience is all actors paid to sit there. Judge was wearing jeans and slippers under her robe. Also, she's incredibly quiet in real life. As in, I had to really strain to hear her.
All in all, I got a paid three day vacation to LA and stayed in a decent hotel. I also got paid to be on the show AND when I "lost" they show paid the other guy for me.
Pretty amazing, really.
Mistyranch
American Ninja Warrior
I was on American Ninja Warrior. All in all, it's legit.
The crowd reactions are often from different runs/times, the crowd noise may be doctored here and there, the order of the runs may be changed, and the commentary may be re-dubbed, but that's all minor TV-stuff that's expected.
Everyone that worked on the show was incredibly nice. It's clearly a TV show more than a pure athletic competition, but that doesn't detract from it in anyway, in my opinion.
10/10, would keep watching
DecentDudeDustin
Survivor
Throwaway and probably too late for anybody to see this. I was a contestant on Survivor: Pearl Islands. For the most part nothing is really scripted, although obviously it's cut way out of order for dramatic effect (I learned you can always tell by the pimples that appear and disappear on contestants from scene to scene).
Some people are surprised that we were provided toilet paper and tampons plus a spot to shit and throw away the paper. Which was good because most people had to get up to blast a diarrhea dump at least three times a day from eating rice cooked in stagnant filth water. No matter how much they boiled that water it still tasted earthy and had grains of dirt in it.
survivor-contestant
House Hunters
I was on an episode House Hunters ... it's reality television, so it's pretty made up and scripted. They try to make the show like a 'recreation' of you buying a home.
In reality, the houses you see you aren't even considering for purchase, as you have already purchased the house you 'buy' at the end of the show. In fact, they only approach you to film the show if you are either in escrow or later, so that they don't have a bunch of fakers on the program.
They play off your personality, so when you are 'considering' the other homes, and even when talking about your own home on camera, you have to say things like "oh I really like the fact that it has a pool"... then the director will say CUT, and he will give you direction to say something like "uhh... I just HATE pools, they are so much maintenance"... essentially they want positive and negative about every little thing, so that the production studios back in NYC can piece together whatever story is most compelling.
You have to remember nothing in Hollywood is real, but HH does a pretty good job of creating the actual experience so that you can compare your lifestyle to others, compare money, etc. Overall was pretty fun. Took about 1.5 weeks to film a 22 minute episode.
Where-am-I-at 
