10 Reality TV Show Moments From The Early 2000s That I Still Can’t Believe They Aired
Fiyin Olowokandi
9 min read
10 Reality TV Show Moments From The Early 2000s That I Still Can’t Believe They Aired
The early 2000s have given us some ~iconic~ pop culture moments.
A lot of them came from reality shows, which were pretty new at the time — and extremely popular. Shows like Survivor and American Idol dominated the ratings and so, not surprisingly, a lot of networks tried their hand at the genre.
Reality shows came up with the most ridiculous ideas they could think of in order to set themselves apart, but sadly, that meant that real people would get hurt, embarrassed, or exploited in the process.
Here are 10 moments from early 2000s reality shows that fall into that category:
1. On America’s Next Top Model, the models had to “switch ethnicities” for a photo shoot.
CBS Television DistributionContestants had to wear makeup and hair that reflected a different race than theirs. Many of the models wore blackface and brownface.
CBS Television DistributionIn 2020, Mr. Jay told Variety how he felt about this particular photo shoot, saying, “I was so, so, so uncomfortable with this. I was so afraid that I would wear this because I was the creative director, but it was not my idea.”
He also revealed that he brought up his concerns about the photo shoot to a co-executive producer, but was too scared to bring it up with the higher-ups.
2. On America’s Next Top Model, the models had to write down each others’ flaws and then listen as Mr. Jay read the flaws back to them.
CBS Television DistributionThe intentions of this exercise, according to Mr. Jay’s talk with the contestants beforehand, seemed to be to teach the models how to “be true to [themselves]” and to turn their “negatives” into “positives,” but by having their fellow contestants point out their flaws, the whole thing just became super mean-spirited.
In one of the most uncomfortable parts of the exercise, Mr. Jay asked to squeeze the butt of one of the models.
CBS Television DistributionThe contestant appeared to be really uncomfortable and embarrassed about the whole thing, especially considering the fact that she just had her looks picked apart in front of everyone.
After that, Smashbox cofounder Davis Factor looked visibly uncomfortable as Mr. Jay pushed him to read one of the negatives to a model.
CBS Television DistributionI’m guessing this exercise was actually just an excuse to ignite some drama between the contestants — and it worked. The models fought immediately afterward.
3. On Keys to the VIP, the pickup artists saw a male contestant dance with another guy, and they berated him for “not being a real man.”
Comedy NetworkIf you’re not familiar with Keys to the VIP, consider yourself lucky. It was a competition show where an “expert panel of pickup commentators” (whose “personalities descend from the four corners of the male psyche”) pit two men against each other and judge their “ability to seduce women in a real-life battlefield.”
Basically, four men watched through a TV as two separate men in a club tried to collect women’s phone numbers. It was awful.
After getting turned down by multiple women, one contestant, Kyle (aka Smiles), started dance-battling with another man on the dance floor.
The panel lost their collective shit when Kyle wrapped his arm around the man’s neck.
One of the judges, Peachez, seemed especially bothered by this, joking that the contestant competing against Kyle automatically won.
Comedy NetworkSide note: Peachez, in case you were wondering, was described as an “ex-all-star jock-inspired seduction specialist.”
The panel simply could not wrap their heads around what just happened — that a man had touched another man.
Comedy NetworkThey were outraged, and later, Peachez added, “Kyle was a poser, plain and simple — he’s a poser as a man, he’s a poser as a player.”
It was disgusting that Peachez literally said that Kyle wasn’t a real man because he touched another guy and failed to get a woman’s phone number. Disgusting, yeah, but also unsurprising, considering that gay panic was a real thing in the early 2000s. So much so that we had to come up with a name for straight guys who took care of themselves (metrosexuals), lest they get confused (god forbid!) with a gay man.
4. On The Girls Next Door, during a visit to Kendra Wilkinson’s family’s house, Hugh Hefner unsurprisingly got super creepy after watching home movies of Kendra as a kid.
20th TelevisionThe tape they watched was from 1995. Hefner commented that it was from “11 years ago,” further emphasizing the massive age difference between 21-year-old Kendra and 80-year-old Hefner.
Everyone joked around about how much Hefner enjoyed the videos.
20th TelevisionThen, as a really-not-funny joke, Hefner attempted to “steal” the tape.
While reacting to the episode fairly recently on her YouTube channel, Holly Madison said she remembers being uncomfortable and embarrassed by this scene, saying Hefner “just comes off as, like, the worst, grossest, dirty old man.”
She added, “I remember being so embarrassed when we screened this in front of everybody at the mansion. I was just like, ‘Is this really the guy I’m with? So gross.'”
This was just one brief uncomfortable moment in a show made up of uncomfortable moments. And more stories continue to come out about the disgusting things that Hefner has done.
5. On What Not to Wear, Stacy London and Clinton Kelly stripped away a participant’s inpiduality.
TLCWhat Not to Wear stifled its participants’ creativity and sent them home dressed in mid-2000s officewear — so basically, structured blazers and pencil skirts. And at 12 years old, it was my gospel…(super weird, considering I wore sweatshirts all the time).
But if a participant was deemed “weird” or “out there,” sometimes Stacy and Clinton let them buy, like, a cheetah-print blouse or something and tried to convince them that was being “unique.”
In one episode, Lexa, a participant who liked to wear Lolita dresses, voiced her concerns about the process after Stacy and Clinton called her Lolita dresses “costumes,” “freaky shit,” and part of a “fetish.” Of course, Lexa was immediately called “defiant” and someone with an “abrasive attitude” who’s always “ready to fight.”
TLCLexa is Black, and using that kind of rhetoric to describe her was pretty harmful as it fed right into the “angry Black woman” stereotype. I would bet money that they wouldn’t have used this type of phrasing with a white woman.
While Stacy and Clinton were throwing out Lexa’s entire wardrobe, they picked apart every aspect of her clothing.
TLCAfter she watched all of her clothes get put into a trash can, Lexa heartbreakingly described the process.
She said, “I’m concerned about losing my old style because I thought it was very unique. There were one or two things I wanted to keep, and I asked for help to fit it [into my wardrobe] and they said no, and they threw my things away and laughed.”
TLCThis moment basically summed up what was wrong with the show. Though some participants truly wanted to change their appearance, some were already confident in their own style, and they weren’t “lost” or “searching for a fashion identity.”
Stacy and Clinton were cruel throughout the series (I’m assuming per instructions from the higher-ups), pushed the participants to their breaking points, and then called them difficult. Reality TV at its finest. ?
6. On Rock of Love, Bret Michaels took his dates to his “favorite Midwestern strip club” and made them perform for him.
VH1Bret said he was bringing his dates there to “see if they can hang,” but when they got there, he made them all go up on stage and dance for him (and everyone else in the bar…and everyone watching at home).
One contestant, Beverly, appeared to be super uncomfortable with the idea and didn’t want to dance.
VH1So the host and Bret embarrassed her and forced her on stage.
And in yet another attempt by VH1 to embarrass women for ratings, when she got up there and didn’t dance, we saw her in stark contrast to the other Rock of Love contestants.
VH1After the crowd chanted her name and the host told her to take her shirt off, Beverly got off the stage, and Bret sat down with her to talk one-on-one.
She told Bret that she didn’t want her three children or their friends to see her dancing on TV. Bret seemed very understanding and told her, “be who you are.”
In his confessional, though, he said he wasn’t asking her to do anything she didn’t want to do, and then called her a buzzkill…for not doing what he’d asked her to do.
VH1She ended up in the bottom two because of this but ultimately didn’t go home until later in the competition.
7. On The Anna Nicole Show, Anna’s partner, Howard K. Stern, accused Anna of cheating during an eating contest because she threw up.
E! / Via youtube.comThe Anna Nicole Show was one of the most exploitative reality shows I’ve ever seen. In most scenes, Anna spoke incoherently, slurred her words, and appeared to be sedated. The fact that TV execs made money off of a woman’s drug addiction was disgusting. It was made worse, though, by the fact that this was intended to be a comedy. After Anna would say something in her slurred speech, the music cues would tell us to laugh, but it was actually really sad and hard to watch.
There was one episode where Anna, her son, her assistant, and Howard went to a restaurant to have an eating contest. Howard went over the rules beforehand, saying that if anyone throws up, they’re disqualified.
E! / Via youtube.comDeep into the contest, Anna’s assistant took her to go to the bathroom. Not trusting her, Howard followed her to listen at the door.
E! / Via youtube.comWe heard burps from Anna’s assistant’s microphone, which was edited to sound like Anna was potentially throwing up.
When Anna got back to the table, Howard accused her of cheating. She denied it, but he didn’t buy it. Anna became furious and started yelling at Howard for calling her a liar.
The altercation continued outside, and we saw more of Anna moving slowly and slurring her words, while Howard tried to convince her she was overreacting.
E! / Via youtube.comIt was pretty difficult to watch. I mean, here was a very clearly heavily medicated woman trying to express her anger, and you can almost see the producers behind the camera with dollar signs in their eyes. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if producers fabricated this whole scene, possibly encouraging Howard to accuse Anna in order to get a rise out of her and create drama.
When she got home, she tripped up the stairs — a small moment that could have easily been edited out — but of course, since the intention of this show was to laugh at Anna, they just had to include it.
8. On Are You Hot?, judge Lorenzo Lamas brought out a laser pointer to point out the contestants’ flaws.
ABC / Via youtube.comThe whole point of this show was to pick apart everything wrong with a person’s looks. Basically, a contestant would come out on stage, and three judges rated their face, body, and sex appeal on a scale from 1–10. Every moment of this show was ridiculous, absurd, and pointless.
When one contestant’s legs didn’t touch, Lorenzo pointed a laser pointer at her thighs in an attempt to emphasize his point.
ABC / Via youtube.comFellow judge Rachel Hunter protested the laser pointer, calling it “gnarly” and “wrong.”
ABC / Via youtube.comWell, Rachel, I would argue that this whole show was gnarly and wrong, but okay.
9. On Are You Hot?, judges Randolph Duke and Lorenzo Lamas told a contestant she needed to lose weight.
ABC / Via youtube.comRandolph suggested that the contestant needed to exercise in order to be hotter. He also told her that she should get the size of her teeth decreased.
When it was Lorenzo’s turn to score the contestant, of course he had to talk about her thighs.
ABC / Via youtube.comHe spent so much of the episode talking about women’s thighs, and it was so, so, so gross.
10. And finally, on Are You Hot?, judge Randolph Duke told a contestant to eat McDonald’s to gain weight.
ABC / Via youtube.comOkay, this is the last moment from Are You Hot? that I’m going to talk about, I promise. It was just so horrible, and it was hard to pick only one.
The contestant’s face said it all:
ABC / Via youtube.comWhat are some other moments from early 2000s reality shows that you can’t believe they aired?
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