So I’m going through some entertaining videos made by Jenny Nicholson, and she brings up a reality show titled Opposite Worlds(2014), involving two teams of players that compete against each other, one team given all the luxuries of a supposedly futuristic setting and the others made to live like prehistoric savages…and according to this video
The Worst Reality Show of All Time - YouTube
things go horrifically bad from the very first ill-thought-out competition, with a contestant breaking a leg(and it could have gone mush worse) and being rushed to the hospital. I don’t think a single event was tested for feasibility(let alone basic safety, and the fact that an entire season of this show made it on air astonishes me.
Got anything to beat this one as the worst reality show of all time?
Back in the early 2000s, maybe a year or two after 9/11 when the hero-worship of New York firefighters was still at it’s peak, I was channel surfing and came across this show. It was basically a Cops style reality show, except the crew followed a group of NYC firefighters around as they did their job. The thing is, most of the time what firefighters do actually makes for pretty boring TV. The episode I saw mostly consisted of them helping people who were stuck in broken elevators. I think it was called The Bravest or something similar.
At worst, your example was boring at times.
My dad’s a retired FF and he’s always said the same thing, but when things get exciting, they REEEEEALLY get exciting. About 99% of what police do is pretty boring too, for the most part.
I’ve always heard that the worst game/reality show evah was called “Queen For A Day.” In short, women would tell all kinds of hardship stories, and win prizes as a result.
I also heard similar things about “Growing Up Gotti”, and understand that the high ratings were due to its popularity with teenage girls who watched it to ogle the sons. The one time I saw it, they were checking into a hotel, and one brother “pantsed” another in the lobby.
And then again there’s always “Honey Boo Boo.” The first time I caught that whilst channel-surfing, I thought it was a show about people who were having bariatric surgery, until they showed a newborn piglet defecating on the kitchen table. At that moment, I instantly knew what it was.
I was actively horrified by The Swan:
Somehow, there were two seasons of this. I’m really, really hoping this was the worst reality show of all time, because if there’s something that was worse…I don’t actually think I want to know.
That’s some dystopian-level shit. Like something you would see on Black Mirror.
BTW, I just didn’t take Jenny’s word for it-I watch episodes on You Tube. If anything, she downplayed the utter inanity of it all.
I don’t really watch reality shows but I heard about I Wanna Marry “Harry”, a Fox show in which American women compete to marry who they were told was Prince Harry (but of course was not).
And in 2007, CBS had Kid Nation, in which children from 8-15 are supposed to set up a functioning town.
Five single people agreed to be paired up sight unseen with strangers chosen by America. The five newly minted couples met and got engaged on the spot.
My first thought was Kid Nation, mentioned above.
It pains me that I remember Britney and Kevin: Chaotic. Never watched it, but stumbled over episode recaps here.
Come to think of it, Television Without Pity also recapped Kid Nation.
And of course, there is always The Simple Life where Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie pretended to be human by annoying small-town Arkansas. Hell, it’s even on YouTube.
Be careful following those links, you can easily lose a day in the recaps. TWOP was one of the best pop culture sites during that time period.
Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire? Mutlimillionaire Rick Rockwell selected a candidate from a beauty-pageant lineup of fifty women, and married her right then and there.
Only problem was, Rick Rockwell most likely wasn’t a multi-millionaire (or even a single millionaire), and his name wasn’t actually Rick Rockwell. The bride, Darva Conger, had immediate second thoughts, never consummated the marriage, and had it annulled after the honeymoon. She did, however, keep the prizes and posed for Playboy.
The blowback was so fierce that Fox never aired the planned additional episodes.
I came in to mention Kid Nation.
I can’t remember the title. After American Idol took off, another network did a show looking for the worst singer they could find. Celebrity judges (including Tone Loc) would tell the awful singers how great they were. The finale included telling the ‘winners’ the truth.
In the UK, there was a series where they picked people who didn’t know science and would believe what they were told that they could win a trip in a space shuttle. I can’t remember the name of that one either.
There’s Something About Miriam
Hunks compete for the love of Miriam. What the audience knows and they don’t is that Miriam is a pre op trans woman.
But, I know the worst is still to come.
Superstar USA
Superstar USA - Wikipedia was the name of the show with Tone Loc. I had forgotten the detail that a producer told one audience that the singers were dying and their One Wish was to sing for an audience/
Space Cadets was the other show
As stated, it was Superstar USA. When they revealed the truth, the second-place winner took it in good humour–he had had a lot of fun, he enjoyed the “superstar” treatment he received, he got some nice prizes, and he was ready to go back to being an ordinary guy.
The winner, however, refused to believe that she was the worst. No, she was the best; the panel said so. The show’s host must be telling a cruel joke, and she was going to take the first prize of a recording contract and show everybody. To their credit, the producers did award her a recording contract; that part was no joke.
I saw a “where are they now?” follow-up on her maybe ten or so years ago. At that point, maybe five or six years after the original broadcast, she had not used her recording contract.
I thought of that too but couldn’t remember any of the names.
Remember the show Average Joe that appeared on NBC back in 2004-2005? It may be the cruelest reality show that ever existed.
Former beauty queen goes on Batchlorette-style dating show, only to be shocked that her suitors are a collection of “Average Joes”…nerds, dorks, social misfits, even a couple of fat guys (who unsurprisingly are the first to be dumped). Beauty queen is disgusted, threatens to walk off the show but is then “convinced/bribed” off camera by the producers to stay and stick it out.
Just as she starts warming up to a few of the guys, a group of male model types are brought in to the competition. The Joes are humiliated. The competition is set up so it goes down to one of the Joes and one of the MM’s at the end. Of course in both seasons, she ultimately picks the male model type at the end. The way they set up the final dumping of the Joe was really cruel and heartless.
The show actually lasted for two seasons. The second season ending was absolutely hilarious!!! They show the beauty queen and the male model winner on their post competition vacation pledging their love for each other and how compatable they are, etc. Then all hell breaks loose. The male model becomes indignant and highly offended when the beauty queen tells him about her past, mentioning that one of her former flames was none other than Fabio!!! A guy who was probably 20 years her senior. The male model was highly offended, disgusted (“Fabio is so cheesy!!”). He is so pissed he walks out on her, packs his bags and goes home, ending everything. I fell off my chair laughing for an hour. All because of Fabio, a complete buffoon. I don’t blame the guy. That would take away all of her credibility. Funniest reality show moment I have ever seen!!!
In terms of “Why was this made?” the 2010 show “Steven Seagal: Lawman” is up there, based on the false premise that actor/martial artists Steven Seagal is actually also a certified police officer in Louisiana (which was wildly untrue, he got a ceremonial badge in the 80’s but that’s basically it in terms of training/certification). It’s Seagal at his most washed up yet still trying phase (so he’s been out of theatrical movies for 12 years at that point but also isn’t the extremely fat lazy guy he currently is) and is basically just a really bad episode of COPS for the entirety of it. It gets bonus points for being renewed for a third season and having it filmed, only for the network to immediately disown it after Seagals sexual assault accusations occured so now there’s a third season of Steven Seagal: Lawman that’s been filmed but no members of the public have actually seen, being shelved for 7 years at this point.
Dr. Pimple Popper.
If not be the worst reality show, it certainly has the worst title.
mmm