What was the impact of 'The Real World' on reality television?

What was the impact of 'The Real World' on reality television?

This idea of doing a social experiment reality show with people, and putting them in some kind of weird situation, or live in a fish tank, or live on an island, was pioneered by Bunim & Murray. They said, "We could make a soap opera out of real people just trying to be roommates." It turns out that the difficulty of bringing different people together to become roommates, almost like freshman year of college, is interesting. It's always interesting to see people figure each other out, get to know each other, make friends, make enemies, try to figure out a bathroom schedule, work out who's leaving stuff in the refrigerator, etc. It turns out being roommates creates a lot of conflict. That early reality show, The Real World, was basically the opening point for all the reality television that has come since.