People Who Worked Behind the Scenes on Reality Dating Shows Are Sharing What It’s Really Like

Imagine spending hours filling in long application forms, preparing for and carrying out video call interviews, and showing up on the day of a TV shoot, only to be paid $125 for your time.

This Reddit user was furious when they found out how little they were being paid for their role in a popular reality TV dating show. Some people do it for the experience of being on television, but there’s a fine line between exploitation and exposure.

This Redditor’s friend had the displeasure of starring in a reality TV dating show that required all of the contestants to live together in the same house. They were forced to fake romantic storylines and instigate fights for attention.

They were even given fake props to throw during arguments! And to make matters worse, they didn’t even live in the house — contestants were given free hotel stays. Audiences were misled, contestants were manipulated, but they found love in the end!

Don’t Tell the Bride is a popular British reality TV show that gifts a free wedding to a happy couple. However, there’s a catch. The groom must plan every detail of the ceremony and reception, with zero input from the bride!

This Reddit user shared the story of their friend’s wedding, which caused so much stress for the groom that he looked physically ill! The participants reported all of the usual drama, including boring reshoots and exaggerated editing techniques.

Okay, so American Idol isn’t exactly a reality TV dating show, but some contestants have been known to fall in love behind the scenes. This anecdote just goes to show how manufactured reality shows are, whether they are talent-based or romance-based.

This Redditor claims that their friend witnessed the filming of American Idol, during which the host made an auditionee walk around a restaurant to sing in front of unwitting diners. Producers told everyone how to react.

We’ve established that the 2000s was a wild time for reality TV show contestants. This Reddit user was on Elimidate, another trashy dating show that was aimed at causing drama while helping singles fall in love.

The contestants were prohibited from talking to each other between takes, and they were denied food and access to their mobile phones. The producers would even take them aside after takes to try and rile them up. It sounds like a truly terrible experience!

This could make or break a couple. Have you ever had to fake a relationship split? That’s exactly what this couple had to do, after agreeing to appear on a reality TV dating show in the 2000s.

They were tasked with going on dates with strangers, before deciding whether they preferred their real partner or their new love interests. This couple decided to stay together, but the producers made them change their story to make a more interesting episode!

This Reddit user was a contestant in a popular Netflix dating show. Although the show may appear realistic on-screen, the true events are carefully orchestrated by producers. The contestants are told where to stand and how to speak, and they often have to repeat conversations over and over again for the cameras.

The editing process is designed to create drama and entertainment for audiences, with many conversations cut short. Audiences are only seeing a small portion of their dates.

This scandalous dating show Naked Attraction is controversial, for obvious reasons! Contestants volunteer to appear on the show with no clothes on, showing their body to the entire world. This brave Reddit user shared some insider information on the audition process.

They were asked to strip naked for producers, got their photo taken, and never heard from them again! At least they were given some free candy in the waiting room! This TV opportunity isn’t for the faint-hearted.

To make their reality TV dating show stand out from the crowd, some showrunners will come up with a wacky twist. This particular show is aimed at pairing up geeky guys with traditionally beautiful bombshells.

One Reddit user auditioned for the show, exhibiting his rap skills in the process. He didn’t get the gig, but he was given a rude awakening a few weeks later when his friend asked him to turn on his TV. They had stolen his idea!

This Reddit user has shed some light on the TV reality dating shows that are filmed in front of a live studio audience. Have you ever watched one of the big reunion shows that are filmed on a sound stage?

These shows tend to bring back members of the cast to stir up drama long after the cameras have stopped rolling on the main show. Everything is meticulously designed, even down to the race and age of the studio audience.

This Reddit user claims that their ex-girlfriend had starred on a reality TV dating show. She apparently experienced a lot of drama on set, the majority of which was caused by planted actors/actresses! These hired guns are responsible for causing tension on set, which they accomplish by spreading rumors and spicing things up between contestants.

The contestants rarely end up together, and their love is manufactured for entertainment. If this is to be believed, then reality TV truly isn’t real!

We head back into the First Dates restaurant with this embarrassing anecdote. One Reddit user claims to have been a contestant on the popular UK dating reality show. They had to wait for three hours before filming started, and they also had to walk into the restaurant twice to get the best shot.

The most annoying part of the evening was when they started chatting up someone at the bar, only to find out that it was their date’s sister!

This 2000s dating show had a unique premise. Contestants had to dig around the bedrooms of unknown love interests, to determine whether they would be a good match based on the items found in their room!

This Redditor claims that the show was largely fake, and that the homes were rented from other families for filming purposes. Zac Efron even appeared on this show before getting his big break with Disney! Maybe he could shed some light on this claim?

Here’s another story from the archives of early 2000s reality television. This Redditor was an extra in an episode of MTV’s Next. They shared an anecdote about the filming process, proving that even the smallest segment can be filmed over and over again to achieve the perfect take.

This unlucky contestant had to run off a bus and do a few backflips before being rejected by his girl. However, they had to do over 25 takes of the shot!

The world of reality TV is divisive. Some people working behind the scenes maintain that everything is fabricated. However, others maintain that these shows are largely authentic. This Reddit user believes that most of what audiences see on reality TV dating shows is real.

The manipulation happens at the level of pre-production, as the showrunners find out what will make the contestants tick. This allows them to create situations that will provoke real reactions, making audiences laugh, cry, or cringe!

The success of a reality TV dating show will usually depend on how well the contestants have been matched. Producers will go to extreme lengths to ensure that the contestants will hit it off — or in some cases, have a huge fight! This Reddit user shared how producers put plenty of thought into their love match.

They had to fill out extensive questionnaires, take part in various tests, interviews, and undertake psychiatric evaluations. Creating love matches is a fine art.

Some reality TV dating shows revolve around contestants being cooped up in one house together. When they’re spending hours surrounded by other attractive singletons, this is where things can get juicy! However, producers often select contestants based on their personalities, deliberately putting contrasting personas in close quarters.

This environment can end up causing more fights than love affairs, especially when contestants have limited opportunities to leave the set. Shows like Big Brother and Love Island work on this premise.

Shows like First Dates are popular with audiences, as they get an insight into the initial meetings between lovers on a blind date. However, many people don’t think about the background dates that are also going on at the same time as the highlighted couples are on screen.

This Redditor shared their strange yet positive experience of being part of the show. They were told what to wear and the restaurant was quiet, but at least the waiters were nice!

High-intensity drama is just one of the reasons why reality TV dating shows like Love Island are so successful. And it’s no secret that producers will do anything to create drama and tension between contestants.

Meddling showrunners will often take things out of context through clever editing, or they’ll ask leading questions to make contestants second guess their actions and relationships. Some shows have even ended up in legal battles when contestants have tried to sue them over manipulated storylines.

This Redditor shared a story from behind the scenes of a dating show with a twist. Contestants had to go on a date with a potential lover, but the dates all took place inside a car! At the end of the date, producers asked him if he saw a future with his date.

When he replied that they would probably stay friends, the episode was never aired. They were expected to fall in love in the span of two hours!

While some things in the reality TV world are completely fake, there are other situations that must be true to life. Capturing authentic reaction shots is important, as audiences will be able to see through the fakery of a set-up first meeting.

Therefore, on many dating shows the bachelors and bachelorettes are forbidden from meeting before the cameras are rolling. Large-scale security teams are hired to make sure that the potential lovers stay completely separate until they are on set.

If you’re a fan of reality TV dating shows, you may be surprised to know that many sequences are filmed in the wrong order. This is often to make the filming process go more smoothly and prevent cast and crew from traveling between locations too many times.

For example, they will often record contestants getting into the cab at the end of their date before the date has even started! Contestants have to guess whether it went well or not.

This Redditor claims that she was an actress in the early 2000s and that her agency often supplied contestants for dating shows. The people involved in these shows often had to fake relationships for the cameras, including three actors who manufactured a messy love triangle!

It was all improvised to entertain audiences, and none of the affairs were genuine. Most viewers have an inkling that things are exaggerated for television, but this takes the fakery to a whole new level.

Reality television shows are often marketed on the promise of real situations involving real people. However, there’s a catch. Many reality TV shows (especially those produced in the early 2000s) are scripted.

Cast members usually have to express certain emotions or say certain things in order to advance the storyline, and many shows simply give the contestants a script to learn. MTV’s Next was a popular show in the early noughties, but rumors suggest that it was highly manufactured.

Here’s another secret from behind the scenes of the world of reality TV shows. Producers often have to stick to strict budgets, and as a result, they will do anything for a freebie. They have no shame when it comes to asking for free access to filming locations, free meals, and free products.

They often offer exposure as a form of payment for business owners. This tactic is controversial, as any businessperson will tell you that exposure doesn’t pay the bills!

Plying contestants with strong drinks is one of reality TV’s worst-kept secrets. While this seems ethically dubious, the producers of many popular reality TV dating shows will offer drinks to their cast members, which lowers their inhibitions and creates more dramatic and humorous situations for the cameras.

This Redditor’s friend was on a Bachelorette-style show, and they can confirm that this happens on set. However, their friend was made to sign a non-disclosure agreement, preventing them from exposing this.

Doce Corazones (Twelve Hearts) was a Spanish-language TV dating show that ran from 2005 to 2017. The popular show revolved around finding love based on your partner’s zodiac sign. It sounds like a great idea, but unfortunately, the show was not all that it seemed.

This Reddit user claims that they were assigned a star sign and had to pretend that they were a Sagittarius for the purpose of the show. Maybe love isn’t written in the stars, after all.

It’s safe to say that sparks did not fly on this reality TV date. This Reddit user spoke about their experiences on a “terrible” reality TV dating show. While the producers insisted that they would set each contestant up with their perfect match, their date ended up being totally incompatible.

They even mentioned that their “dealbreaker” was one of the contestant’s favorite hobbies. It was clear that their relationship was never going to work, but that’s exactly what producers wanted.

This Reddit user shared the story of the time they were cast as an extra on a reality TV dating show. They believed that the date was entirely fake, and that the two cast members clearly weren’t interested in each other.

It was basically a manufactured scenario, as the two lovebirds were filmed repeating segments of their date for the cameras. There was no chemistry, and the entire date looked like it had been set up for the TV production.

Audiences love watching romantic reality TV shows. The popular show First Dates pairs up single people and shows what happens on their first date, as they share a meal at a fancy restaurant.

However, contestants have to pay for the majority of their food, as producers only contribute a measly $20. And contestants must spend long hours on set, repeating certain actions and staging phone calls to create some TV magic for audiences. It’s all worth it to find love!

Being a member of a reality TV film crew can be a difficult job. You have to be on set for long hours, making sure to capture all of the key moments between the cast. When you’re spending hours on set watching attractive people argue with each other, you have to find other ways to have fun!

This Redditor revealed that crew members place bets on what’s going to happen in the show! This apparently happens all the time!

While some producers claim that reality TV editing is judiciously completed to draw out existing elements of a story, others will admit that their shows are sensationalized to the max. This person’s cousin appeared on a reality TV cooking show, but the editing made her seem like a horrible person.

Their cousin received a barrage of online abuse, and the other contestants jumped in to defend her. The TV network refused to apologize, but at least the troll said sorry.

This Reddit user worked behind the scenes on a popular dating show. They claimed that the reactions were real, as bachelors and bachelorettes were separated until the cameras started rolling. However, they did often have to reshoot these scenes repeatedly, in order to get a range of camera angles.

So, these reactions are both real and fake. This pretty much sums up the world of so-called reality television. Some elements are genuine, while others have been clearly set up for entertainment.

Many reports claim that reality TV producers will meticulously edit the footage to manipulate contestants’ personalities or create high drama for audiences. This Reddit user has a different opinion. An acquaintance of theirs appeared on a popular wedding TV show and she seemed like a nasty person.

However, they believe that their acquaintance is actually a rude person, and the editing didn’t make a difference to her personality! Sometimes, the cameras show a person’s true colors. Editing can just exaggerate what’s already there.

If you’ve ever wondered why reality TV contestants are so incredibly good-looking, this Redditor heard it through the grapevine that casting directors often contact modeling agencies to find the best-looking men and women.

Apparently, their male model friend found this out as the producers of various shows had reached out to his agency, in search of the ‘most interesting’ looking people. It just goes to show that reality TV isn’t always that real, despite what the TV networks say.