Why do so many reality shows feature competitions?

Why do so many reality shows feature competitions?

Reality television is a heightened version of reality, and in order to be entertained by a group of people - especially a group of people who have no back story together - in general, reality shows are made up of strangers. Strangers come together. They never knew each other before but now they're forced to live together and compete against each other. The reason we often make them compete against each other is because it amps up everything; it amps up friendships, it amps up enemies. It makes people care about what they're doing on the reality show. If I wasn't competing with you, I would probably just be your buddy and I wouldn't care if you said something mean, even. But if I'm competing with you, it makes everything personal and now I'm going to lose and I might not get the money - and I want the money. Competition just amps everything up. You find competition a lot in reality television because it's a mechanism of getting emotion. It's a mechanism of getting people invested and caring about what happens in a very real, visceral way. Otherwise they would just sit around and chat.