A recent showing of VH1 News puts the credibility of Reality Television into perspective and shows that all reality might not be as real as we all once thought, from body doubles on survivor to the truth behind what the confessional really is.

By Paul
Reality Reel Media
01.13.04

The shows we all love are now at question, VH1 went inside reality tv to find the truth behind our favorite shows. The documentary interviewed cast members form the Real World to The Restaurant. It showed how far producers push the dime with things like confessionals to how editing change the outcome.

In the love shows like Joe Millionaire, it had one of the most famous scenes on reality tv, the infamous “slurping in the woods.” Sara claims her infamous make out scene in the woods with Evan Marriott was fraudulent and was made from editing. The audio of her moaning was actually taken from a completely different scene in the show and was a back massage Sarah received from another female contestant. Sara complained by saying that she has traveled the world, gone to Harvard but will always be known as the girl in the woods. In the show Married by America, producers made it appear that Jill left her fiancé at the altar when oddly enough they both said no at the altar. In the show For love or Money, Rob seemed to come over as an amazing gentleman but was actually kicked out of the Navy for groping a fellow female officer. The cast members in the show admitted that during taping they were eliminated from all distractions and weren’t allowed to call the home, leave the house, or even read news papers. One the cast admitted that when you are in a house without no outside contact, the only person you think about is the person the game revolves around, and inFor Love or Money’s case, Rob. In Paradise Hotel, Toni admitted that the only reason why she was on the show was her performance on another reality show and was manipulated to argue at other cast members.

In challenge shows like Survivor the producers admitted that some of the aerial shots were actually body doubles, even the scenes of the cast swimming out to the water to prepare for a challenge. Jerri (Survivor 2) and Gervase (Survivor 1) both admitted that they were both falsely labeled because of editing. Gervase admitted that he did spend some time during the day doing nothing but was blown out of proportion on the show. Some of the scenes in Big Brother were edited to look like that some of the members of the casts were listening in on their fellow housemates. The Restaurant even went to the extremes, acting an incident of a cast member falling and breaking there elbow when the camera crew only caught the end of the fall but later reenacted the scene. Real Worlder’s admit to never being asked to react to a scene but did admit that confessionals were not what they seemed. In the shows Survivor, Big Brother, Paradise hotel, and Real World all the cast members admitted that the confessionals weren’t them sitting alone with a camera but with a producer asking questions. In Paradise Hotel and Real World the producers went to the extremes of lying and telling the interviewee that a fellow cast mate called them a bitch when that never happened and pushing the dime when trying to get someone to hate or want a relationship with someone. It also pointed out the facts of how Real World 1 is different from Real World 12 and the cast knows how to get airtime. They feel they must top the last season. In American Idol 1 Brian Dunkleman was told by producers to exagerate the situation by rubbing it in their faces in the final rounds when Simon would burn on the contestants. When Brian refused to do that he was left out of Season 2.