Are Reality Shows scripted?

[mynameisjosh23]

Does anyone know if they are or not? I am just very curious!! As for me, I think they sometimes can be. Such as the things that happen in reality shows; its like "Wow, what a coincedence...".

 

[419gam]

I can't give you a source of the top of my head but they are scripted a lot more then most people suspect.

 

[AzBeauty23]

I've seen a couple programs on the truth behind reality shows. One was on MTV I believe, and another on E!. Reality shows are a lot less real than we'd like.

 

[tax_man]

yea its rather stupid, and decieving

if you analyzed them hard im sure you could see a lot of errors

 

[Ovda]

I'm sure some of them are.

 

[amyjs]

From what I've seen/heard, they're not so much scripted as set-up and manipulated. The producers often provoke the casts to say certain things and have opinions about other members, like "didn't that make you mad?" or "did you know that so-and-so said this or that about you?" Then they use extreme editing to make things appear different than they actually happened.

I don't watch those "truth about reality shows" specials anymore because I love the shows so much, I don't like to think that they're not real! I choose to be happy in my ignorance!

 

[SuzQ]

I don't think they're so much scripted as they are "cut & pasted" together in the editing to fit whatever the producers want to do.

I'm also convinced that Amazing Race & The Apprentice producers "tilt the scales". In AR, it seems like someone is FOREVER in a car that breaks down, the airlines (knowing they're on camera) let some teams on a soon-to-depart plane, while others are told absolutely "no".

In The Apprentice, something ALWAYS "mysteriously" goes wrong in the final challenges. Omarosa clearly sabotaged Kwame, yet no one told Kwame it was in the rules that he could "fire" her, Bill/team "lost" the sponsor sign of the golf event, I didn't watch the 2nd season, but this last one -Tana/team "lost" the American Flag & not to mention she had a FAR worse threesome helping her than Kendra. However, Danny clearly being "clueless" on purpose & Kendra was told the only place a major sponsor (Playstation) could go was in a BASEMENT??

Give us a break!!

 

[RedTulipMom]

I don't think they're so much scripted as they are "cut & pasted" together in the editing to fit whatever the producers want to do.

Give us a break!!

totally agree! i definitely think the EDITING is what gives the producers the power to make one character look good and another character look bad!!

i think about survivor..they are taping them 24 hours a day and we only get minutes of each day..if they want you to love a character..they show all their good comments and their good side..and never show you the bad!!

 

[tqpix]

In The Apprentice ... Omarosa clearly sabotaged Kwame, yet no one told Kwame it was in the rules that he could "fire" her....

I don't agree with this. Why should anyone tell Kwame about the rules? It was Kwame's responsibility to read and know the rules before participating in the game.

 

[mnphysicist]

I didn't watch the 2nd season, but this last one -Tana/team "lost" the American Flag & not to mention she had a FAR worse threesome helping her than Kendra. However, Danny clearly being "clueless" on purpose & Kendra was told the only place a major sponsor (Playstation) could go was in a BASEMENT??

While those were probably scripted for viewer interest,.... having done a few promotional events, and a ton of trade shows, they are all too typical. As a result, scripting them, was also good for evaluation.

When you have to manage 2000+ tasks, in a very limited time frame, errors will occur. Few businesses have the luxury of staffing to what is really needed... no one keeps excess capacity in all areas. So, the key person can not do all things, nor even double check them. As a result, things happen, the big thing, is how well they handle the problems.

Here are some of mine....
1. truck broke down, and as a result, arrived 22 hours late
2. literature was printed with internal copy..... (it was not cool... just like the programs for the Olympics thing on the apprentice)
3. key presenters got sick and as a result, we had to scramble
4. first presentation went off with a bang, literally, it caught on fire
5. some one stole a crate of materials
6. I was given the wrong directions, and went to the wrong convention center, thus I was 45 minutes late, and someone else had to fill in, with little idea of what the game plan was.

While the above happened over a period of years... the tests on the apprentice were very much real life, although in an accelerated fashion. Stuff happens!!!

Ron

 

[amyjs]

Omarosa clearly sabotaged Kwame, yet no one told Kwame it was in the rules that he could "fire" her

This bothered me as well. I don't think they actually got an official list of rules for their final task. I can understand his assumption that he had to use all of the members of his team, and since it was the 1st season there was no point of reference to see if that was the case. And I've noticed that Donald Trump actually made a point of saying it this season, most likely in response to the confusion in season 1.

Of course I could be totally wrong about all of this, but that's my 2 cents anyway!

 

[sweetlambofgod]

No

 

[Lithium Hobo]

If it wasn't scripted, at least some parts, why would they need a collage of writers? Though their dialogues are not scripted, the situations are put into play to keep things interesting, by the unseen power of the director and writers.

 

[symphonyb]

more than we know!