Do reality show writers ever invent stories that didn't really happen?
A lot of people ask the question, "How real is reality television?" and, "Am I watching something true or is it being made up for me? or, "Are they being scripted to do what they're doing?" Different shows have different levels of manipulation. Some reality shows are very heavily manipulated by their producers to the point where they'll pull a person aside and say, "Why don't you go in there are get into a fight with Suzie, because it'll make you a bigger TV star." Then they'll go in there and get into a fight with Suzie, and you'll see it on TV as a real fight. Some reality show producers do hardly anything at all, and they let events play out as they occur, and they try to tell you that story. Some producers are in between the two, where they might suggest that it'd be better if you got in a fight with Suzie, or they might interview you and say, "How do you feel about Suzie? Are you feeling like she's a bitch?" They use the power of suggestion. There are lots of different ways to manipulate reality shows and people, and different shows do it to different levels. My policy is to stack the deck properly ahead of time: cast well, make your set pieces interesting and create problems for the cast. Simply making someone the boss for the day is enough, usually, to get things going. You can do enough and not manipulate the cast so much that things start feeling fake. I feel like the home audience can smell it when a reality show feels fake. I feel like a reality show should do its best to deliver to the audience unpredictable real life as much as possible, because that's actually why they want to see the show. If the audience feels like they're watching something fake, they will reject you. The better reality shows are a lot less fake than the shows that are not so good.
