# Origin of trainwreck reality shows **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 24, 2019, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-trainwreck-reality-shows/842221 "2019-10-24T08:02:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-trainwreck-reality-shows/842221/1 "2019-10-24T08:02:52Z")
Reality TV started to take off in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and it seems that for the last ten years or so one of its major subgenres has been something that might be termed “trainwreck reality”. In these shows, the producers follow a fixed set of people, either individually or as a group, who are chosen specifically for their negative qualities. The attraction to the viewers is presumably the schadenfreude and feeling of superiority that comes with seeing these people behaving badly, most commonly by repeatedly humiliating or embarrassing themselves and others. I don’t watch a lot of TV so the only examples that come to mind are the following: [ul][li]_**[Jersey Shore](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vp3KLhavxjI)**_ (2009) is an American series about a group of young party-goers, various of whom are narcissistic, aggressive, irresponsible, promiscuous, or just downright stupid.[/li][li]The German _**[Traumfrau gesucht](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcO1CK3h894&t=180s)**_ (2012) assembles a group of downright unlikable men (lazy, unkempt slobs, or prissy, insufferable know-it-alls) who are acutely unaware of their repulsiveness, and then sends them abroad to Eastern European matchmaking services where we get to watch them get rejected by woman after horrified woman.[/li][/ul] I’m wondering, what’s the origin of this subgenre, and what are the very earliest examples? If I had to guess, I’d say that these shows owe a lot to the long-running documentary series _[COPS](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cops_%28TV_program%29)_, which debuted in 1989. But I wouldn’t count _COPS_ as a bona fide example of the subgenre, since it doesn’t follow the _same_ group of criminals (or even the same cops) from episode to episode. There’s probably also some influence from “embarrassment” mockumentaries like _[The Office](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Office)_, which premiered in 2001, but again, I wouldn’t count _The Office_ as part of the genre because it is scripted and uses professional actors. ---
**Author:** ![kitap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b9e5f3/32.png) [@kitap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitap)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-trainwreck-reality-shows/842221/2 "2019-10-24T08:22:57Z")
Queen for a Day would be my choice. > **[Queen for a Day](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_for_a_Day)** > > Queen for a Day is an American radio and television game show that helped to usher in American listeners' and viewers' fascination with big-prize giveaway shows. Queen for a Day originated on the Mutual Radio Network on April 30, 1945, in New York City before moving to Los Angeles a few months later and ran until 1957. The show then ran on NBC Television from 1956 to 1960 and on ABC Television from 1960 to 1964. > The show became popular enough that NBC increased its running time from 30 to 45 min... ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-trainwreck-reality-shows/842221/3 "2019-10-24T08:29:23Z")
Even when the participants weren’t deliberately chosen because they were trainwrecks, the shows often end up that way. It’s sometimes considered that the first American reality show (if one doesn’t include shows with short unscripted prank scenes where the participants didn’t know they were being filmed and some shows where celebrities did things like hunting and fishing knowing that they were being filmed) was _An American Family_ in 1973, which was shown on PBS. The wife demanded a separation on screen. The son came out as gay. It wasn’t intended to be like that. They were an upper-middle-class family who the people in charge of the show thought were happy: > **[An American Family](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_American_Family)** > > An American Family is an American television documentary series that followed the life of a California family in the early 1970s. Widely referred to as the first example of an American reality TV show, the series drew millions of weekly viewers, who were drawn to a story that seemed to shatter the rosy façade of middle-class suburbia. It also became a lightning rod for discussion about the precarious state of the American family in the early 1970s. An American Family ranks #32 on TV Guide's 50 Cr... > **[Reality television](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality_television)** > > Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s with shows such as The Real World, then achieved prominence in the early 2000s with the success of the series Survivor, Idols, and Big Brother, all of which became global franchises. Reality television shows tend to be interspersed with "confessiona ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 9:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-trainwreck-reality-shows/842221/4 "2019-10-24T09:53:41Z")
> [@kitap](#): > > Queen for a Day would be my choice. > > [Queen for a Day - Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_for_a_Day) Excellent answer. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-trainwreck-reality-shows/842221/5 "2019-10-24T10:24:02Z")
> [@kitap](#): > > Queen for a Day would be my choice. Your choice for the origin of the genre, or for the earliest example of it? I haven’t heard/seen the show, but from what I glean from the Wikipedia article, the format is quite different from what I described in my OP. In particular, it’s a game show rather than a straight-up documentary, and it seems that the contestants are not followed for the entire length of the series (or even individual seasons) but rather have an episode-to-episode turnaround. _An American Family_, mentioned by **Wendell Wagner** , better fits the long-running documentary format, though as he mentioned, the fact that it turned out to be a trainwreck was entirely accidental. ---
**Author:** ![bizerta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@bizerta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bizerta)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-trainwreck-reality-shows/842221/6 "2019-10-24T11:04:53Z")
[An American Family](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_American_Family) ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-trainwreck-reality-shows/842221/7 "2019-10-24T11:12:33Z")
My first thought was of the MTV show [The Real World](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Real_World_(TV_series)#Criticism) which started out (ca. 1992) more or less thoughtful but then started to degenerate into “young people in a house fighting and making out”. (At least that was my impression of it; I haven’t watched it much.) ---
**Author:** ![LC\_Strawhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19adc/32.png) [@LC\_Strawhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LC_Strawhouse)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-trainwreck-reality-shows/842221/8 "2019-10-24T11:13:46Z")
The first of the thoroughly modern example just might be **Bridezillas** , which started in 2004. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-trainwreck-reality-shows/842221/9 "2019-10-24T11:40:45Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > My first thought was of the MTV show [The Real World](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Real_World_(TV_series)#Criticism) which started out (ca. 1992) more or less thoughtful but then started to degenerate into “young people in a house fighting and making out”. (At least that was my impression of it; I haven’t watched it much.) Agreed, Real World, and to a lesser extent Road Rules was the first show I thought of. The people were specifically cast for their conflicting/big personalities and the show was edited to make it look like they hated each other a whole lot more than they did. Many of those people have done interviews and many of them have stated that I/he/she wasn’t the asshole they were made out to be, but when the editors have 50,000 hours of footage and the only have to hand 11 hours to the network, they have more than enough material to tell the story however they want while casting any one of them as the ‘bad guy’. ---
**Author:** ![kitap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b9e5f3/32.png) [@kitap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitap)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-trainwreck-reality-shows/842221/10 "2019-10-24T12:45:31Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > Your choice for the origin of the genre, or for the earliest example of it? I haven’t heard/seen the show, but from what I glean from the Wikipedia article, the format is quite different from what I described in my OP. In particular, it’s a game show rather than a straight-up documentary, and it seems that the contestants are not followed for the entire length of the series (or even individual seasons) but rather have an episode-to-episode turnaround. > > _An American Family_, mentioned by **Wendell Wagner** , better fits the long-running documentary format, though as he mentioned, the fact that it turned out to be a trainwreck was entirely accidental. Earliest example. While it was a game show, people watched women try to top each other with their awful lives. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-trainwreck-reality-shows/842221/11 "2019-10-24T14:08:48Z")
This is Your Life, the radio program starting in 1948, probably hit the trainwreck category from time to time, with programs introducing the Hiroshima bombing survivors to the crew of the Enola Gay and reuniting Holocaust survivors to family members they had no idea had also survived (it’s great to reunite them - but to do it on air as a surprise is not cool). [This Is Your Life - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Is_Your_Life#Notable_guests) and [428: Oh You Shouldn't Have - This American Life](https://www.thisamericanlife.org/428/transcript) provide details. ---
**Author:** ![TRC4941](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trc4941/32/6792_2.png) [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-trainwreck-reality-shows/842221/12 "2019-10-24T14:09:25Z")
The first thing I thought of was The Osbournes (2002). That show was actually pretty funny. I forgot about The Real World, but then it wasn’t a show that I watched much. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-trainwreck-reality-shows/842221/13 "2019-10-24T14:15:00Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > This is Your Life, the radio program starting in 1948, probably hit the trainwreck category from time to time, with programs introducing the Hiroshima bombing survivors to the crew of the Enola Gay and reuniting Holocaust survivors to family members they had no idea had also survived (it’s great to reunite them - but to do it on air as a surprise is not cool). [This Is Your Life - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Is_Your_Life#Notable_guests) and [https://www.thisamericanlife.org/428/transcript](https://www.thisamericanlife.org/428/transcript) provide details. I think that fits into the category, but not intentionally a train wreck. Queen for a Day is also like that, they may have been trying to make the audience feel better in comparison to the tragedies faced by some poor woman, but I don’t think they were really looking for the train wreck aspect. An American Family also didn’t intend to feature a train wreck but it might have been the inspiration for the future shows which intended just that. If not for the unintended train wrecks on the show it would have gained no significant notice. ---
**Author:** ![adhemar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@adhemar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adhemar)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-trainwreck-reality-shows/842221/14 "2019-10-24T14:54:03Z")
I would have thought Laguna Beach and The Hills. stupid teenagers doing stupid stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-trainwreck-reality-shows/842221/15 "2019-10-24T15:03:46Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > My first thought was of the MTV show [The Real World](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Real_World_(TV_series)#Criticism) which started out (ca. 1992) more or less thoughtful but then started to degenerate into “young people in a house fighting and making out”. (At least that was my impression of it; I haven’t watched it much.) I remember watching that show at the time, and they did a special where they showed bits of the audition interviews of the cast members. One of the guys said in his interview “sometimes if I find something that bugs somebody I just keep doing it to see what happens” and my friend commented ‘and that’s when they decided to cast him’. I don’t remember the show being especially thoughtful even at the start, they were pretty obviously gearing up for conflict. Maybe they weren’t shooting for as much conflict as they got in the second season where they had to boot David from the show for forcibly stripping a housemate, but they certainly wanted drama like in the third season where Puck got booted for being incredibly annoying. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-trainwreck-reality-shows/842221/16 "2019-10-24T15:17:18Z")
> [@kitap](#): > > Earliest example. While it was a game show, people watched women try to top each other with their awful lives. [“Would you…like to be…Queenie…feraday?”](https://youtu.be/XGj03rntPb8?t=472) ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-trainwreck-reality-shows/842221/17 "2019-10-24T15:35:50Z")
I remember liking a show called _Mass Transit: Safe and on Schedule_ but it only ran one season. Pity. It was very calming. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-trainwreck-reality-shows/842221/18 "2019-10-24T15:44:50Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > I remember liking a show called _Mass Transit: Safe and on Schedule_ but it only ran one season. Pity. It was very calming. Come to Vienna and watch _[Nachtschiene](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAkJN07rmT0)_, which some TV station runs late at night instead of the infomercials that plague other channels. The show is produced by mounting a camera to the front of the local streetcars and just streaming what happens. As far as I know they’ve never shown any accidents. It’s just hour after hour of the streetcar trundling along its tracks and stopping to pick up and let off passengers. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-trainwreck-reality-shows/842221/19 "2019-10-24T16:24:23Z")
COPS debuted in 1989 and fits your definition of “The attraction to the viewers is presumably the schadenfreude and feeling of superiority that comes with seeing these people behaving badly, most commonly by repeatedly humiliating or embarrassing themselves and others.” ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-trainwreck-reality-shows/842221/20 "2019-10-24T16:37:07Z")
Here’s the first of a series of videos which are a history of _Queen for a Day_: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/6AJ1EeP8vLk/maxresdefault.jpg "History of Queen For A Day - Part 1") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AJ1EeP8vLk) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-trainwreck-reality-shows/842221.md?page=2)