18 Secrets And Stories From Former Reality Show Contestants And Employees

18 Secrets And Stories From Former Reality Show Contestants And Employees,"I tried out for <i>America's Next Top Model</i>. They had a whole bunch of girls line up chest-to-back against three walls, and we were all so squished, worse than sardines. The girl behind me tried to block me from being seen by Tyra, who was on the computer screen. She was the only one who was chosen."

18 Secrets And Stories From Former Reality Show Contestants And Employees

Recently, I rounded up reality show behind-the-scenes stories from the BuzzFeed Community. In the comments, y’all shared even more interesting experiences.

Here are 18 more BTS stories and secrets from reality shows:

Disclaimer: These stories have not been verified. The users are supposedly speaking from their own experiences.

1. “I tried out for America’s Next Top Model. They had a whole bunch of girls line up chest-to-back against three walls, and we were all so squished, worse than sardines. The girl behind me tried to block me from being seen by Tyra, who was on the computer screen. She was the only one who was chosen.”

“She didn’t make it on the show. I was mad I was blocked, but it was for the best.”

—n43e16d3a4

2. “I was on Jeopardy in 2016. It’s 100% legit, nothing scripted, and we were not even allowed to meet Alex Trebek before the game began to avoid any kind of bias.”

“Backstage, we drew numbers to determine the order in which we would go. Several shows are filmed during the day, so we had to bring five changes of clothing in case we won.”

—danathurmondb

3. “I was on one of TLC’s Extreme shows. It was entirely set up and staged by the producers. What you just watched was completely fake to get viewers to watch.”

—toastyman

4. “I was on The Jerry Springer Show once, and for me, the experience was real. My anger and pain were real because the producers lied to the two people I was there with, and they lied to me and made me believe my boyfriend at the time was actually cheating on me with the other woman who was there. Production had told us this would be the story, although it wasn’t true. Then they separated all of us and filled my head with lies, making me think it actually was true. It was honestly an awful experience.”

“My then-boyfriend was horrible, and at the end of the show, when Jerry shakes everyone’s hand, I was the only person he actually hugged. He whispered in my ear that I should ‘find someone who really loves me.’ I love him for that, and I did what he said!”

—unicornteef

5. “I auditioned for MTV’s Say What? Karaoke. The audition process felt like the cattle calls for musical theater I’d experienced, except for one thing. We were all in a huge room together, and your ‘audition’ was in a three-sided cubical facing a camera. You couldn’t hear yourself, and we were all locked in the room for the whole day. There were no snacks or water, and if you left, you weren’t allowed back in.”

“I didn’t make it on the show, but they called those of us who were rejected back to be audience members for filming. When that day came, filming was long, and they bribed us to stay energized with high-ish end prizes. I still have the Donna Karan evening purse I got tossed for faking excitement.”

—neonata

6. “My sister’s friend was on some basic home makeover show, and the house they fixed wasn’t even her house. She just pretended.”

—lolo1dog

7. “My cousin went on American Idol, and she apparently went on a day where they just were NOT in the mood. She said people were literally going in and out like a revolving door. When her number got called, she went in, sang for maybe five seconds, then was shut down and escorted out. No banter, no funny talk, nothing they do for the cameras.”

“She and several others hung around after to see if anyone got chosen, and no one did. The only contestants who made it to film were two guys and a girl who were horrible that day.”

—morgan_le_slay

8. “A girl from my class went on American Idol after we graduated in 2004. She later told everyone she didn’t get it because ‘they were looking for rejects to laugh at and not any stars.'”

—n43e16d3a4

9. “I was a paid audience member on Beat Bobby Flay — it was a lot of fun! Everything is real. They just refilm the time calls and some audience reactions.”

—tortillachips

10. “I was recruited to audition for America’s Next Top Model via MySpace.”

—lreineri2020

11. “I know a couple who broke up and went to court because he wanted the ring back, and she was keeping it. They were contacted by a court TV show asking them if they wanted to be on.”

“I imagine they have low-level employees just scrolling through state online filings of court cases looking for anything juicy.”

—hans___

12. “When my brother lived in America for a year, he ended up on a Kitchen Nightmares-type of show. He was told to cook a meal for the host to try. My brother was coached to say that the meal was shit, bland, etc. They made up lies about roaches and rats being in the kitchen, but my brother later told us that he’d not seen a single pest at all in his time working there.”

“The restaurant was doing very well, according to my brother, and the drama and problems that they presented during the episode were all scripted.”

—novelust

13. “I was on the college episode of MTV’s Sex in the ’90s. They filmed at my college and used my sorority because one of the producers was a sister. We weren’t allowed to show which one we were, though, because of nationals, but we’re featured pretty prominently in interviews.”

“Spoiler, it’s Kappa Kappa Gamma.”

—shrivercircus

14. “I knew someone who worked as a producer on The Apprentice in the UK. She said that presenter Sir Alan Sugar was really nice to all the crew.”

—kayblu02

15. “A couple I know were on a major Aussie reality show, My Kitchen Rules. For international readers, it’s kind of a cross between Come Dine With Me and MasterChef. The first part of the contest is teams taking turns hosting dinner parties at home, then they move on to a more standard cooking competition. They said the season they were on was edited pretty reasonably, but they told me a couple of fun tidbits.”

“1. The show made out like all the dinner parties were in their real homes, but most of them were actually in short-stay rentals that they were just pretending to live in because most contestants didn’t have a house suitable for filming.

2. This couple got sent to a butcher shop an hour away to film their meat shopping because their actual local butcher didn’t have the right lighting for the film crew. Production made them pretend on camera that it was their local butcher and that they knew each other by name.

3. One ‘couple’ had actually broken up by the time filming started, but they pretended to still be in a relationship because they didn’t want to miss out on doing the show. On the other hand, another team was a lesbian couple who everyone pretended were ‘friends’ for the show because one of them was a school teacher in a conservative area, and she was worried about her job being threatened by it. (They did later come out as a couple in a TV interview.)

4. The filming days were incredibly LONG and pretty boring behind the scenes. They’d also wait right until the end of the day to film their confessional interviews, and they’d keep probing the increasingly exhausted contestants to say something juicy until they gave in because they wanted to go to bed.”

—ellenc42f018350

16. “In the late ’00s, I was a transcriber for a reality show about a woman who’d been on a US ‘Big 4’ network’s comedian competition show. Her family was also involved. I felt so bad for her mother-in-law. They had this sweet, quiet, older lady act like a loud harpy and be mean to the comedian on camera, when, in reality, she apparently adored her daughter-in-law.”

“The producers were young Ivy League guys who had the family portray EVERY stereotypical American Italian trope. They would tell the family what they wanted them to do before each take. The show was cancelled on the low-rated cable channel it aired on after one episode because NO ONE watched it.”

—dbf0705″

17. “I went to high school and college with a guy who tried out for The Real World back in the early ’00s. I believe he would’ve been on the Las Vegas season. He got pretty far in the process and did several phone and video interviews with whoever was in charge. They didn’t end up picking him, but he said that he could tell by the way they talked to him in the interviews that he would’ve been portrayed as the ignorant, small-town guy.”

“Yes, we’re from a small town, but he’s anything but ignorant, so I’m kinda glad it didn’t work out for him.”

—leslies22

18. And finally: “I was on a self-improvement-type of show. I got picked for my sob story, and they one million percent played it up. What others have said about [being asked to redo scenes with] different emotions are true. Mine was voice-over-type stuff using inflections and tones. Lots and lots of filming we did was not used, and we did multiple takes. They were feeding me dialogue and actions to fit the storyline. I don’t regret it, though, because it did actually improve my life.”

“I know firsthand how inflated it is, but I still watch reality TV anyway. Yeah, some of the secrets suck, but what can I say? They gotta make it interesting, or people won’t watch.”

—simplysarahish