15 Small Details You Might Not Have Noticed That Prove Reality Shows Are Fake, Fake, Fake

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Reality shows often bill themselves as being an honest look into the lives of their subjects. If you watch The Kardashians, you would assume that you're seeing real life unfold.

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But the truth is that most reality shows aren't as "real" as they claim to be. Here are some examples of shows that were either caught faking it during an episode, or were revealed to be faking later by one of the show's stars:

1. The amount of food on Sal and Mallory's plates kept changing on an episode of Love Is Blind, showing how much the show's narrative is pieced together during editing from different moments.

@straightouttaperu

The amount of times we will never notice 🤡 #loveisblind

♬ original sound - karl

In fact, this is why the show uses those signature gold cups for drinks. You can't see the level of liquid inside them, which helps immensely for continuity. Otherwise, people's glasses would be magically refilling as the editors pieced together the lines and reactions they needed.

a couple having dinner and the words, "I'm convinced this whol show is cut-up clips"

2.The "Bling Ring" Netflix documentary The Real Bling Ring: Hollywood Heist revealed that the cops showing up at Alexis Neiers's house on her reality show Pretty Wild was completely staged.

a person saying the cops have a warrant for Alexis's arrest and Alexis saying you're actually seeing a film crew on the producers outside
Netflix

Alexis explained that the arrest happened when the production crew wasn't there, so they returned later and re-created the arrest by having a couple of the producers knocking on the door.

3.In an early season of Keeping Up With the Kardashians, there's a storyline where Kris hires a nanny who sunbathes topless and generally behaves unprofessionally. Here's the thing, though: The "nanny" is actually porn star Bree Olson, who says she was cast on the show through her talent agent.

Bree Olson sitting on a couch

The show probably thought they could get away with it since Olson wasn't famous at the time. However, she hit mainstream fame a few years later when she was one of Charlie Sheen's "goddesses."

Bree Olson and Charlie Sheen
Daniel Boczarski / Getty Images

4.When Snooki and Jwoww got in a "fight" on Jersey Shore, Jwoww's socks kept appearing and disappearing on her feet, showing that it was shot with multiple takes.

5.Heidi Pratt said that her job at Bolthouse was made up for The Hills, so the storyline about her being "fired" was also BS.

two women partying
Amy Graves / WireImage

Of course, The Hills also ended with that final shot revealing the cast on a sound stage, so we should probably assume that a LOT of that show was fake.

6.Many game shows that feature an audience — like Deal or No Deal — feature paid audience members to fill out the crowd. You can often find listings for these "roles" on casting sites.

Deal or No Deal audience

I worked as one of these paid audience members before, and they will actually direct the audience to react certain ways! For example, they might tell one section of the audience to yell, "Deal!" at the contestant while another section yells, "No deal!" Sometimes, the production team will have the audience cheer, boo, lightly applaud, or act shocked when there aren't even any contestants onstage, just to have a variety of reactions filmed.

women holding suitcases with numbers on them

7.Remember MTV's Next? And how they had all those "fun facts" for contestants? Well, some contestants have claimed those facts are fake and that the show wrote lines for them.

Casey, 19: San Diego child archery champion; saved a guy from a burning car

8.Naked and Afraid provides medicine (as well as food and water to take with the medicine) to the survivalists, according to one contestant. The same contestant also claimed they were so close to a nearby town in their "middle of nowhere" setting that they could hear DJ music from a block party at night.

contestants on "Naked and Afraid"

9.Storage Wars allegedly plants valuable antiques in the storage lockers to create drama, according to a complaint filed by former star Dave Hester. Hester even claims that the show's production staff would sometimes fill entire lockers with stuff.

Dan Dotson, Laura Dotson and Dave Hester attend A&E's 'Storage Wars' Lockbuster Tour
Tibrina Hobson / Getty Images

10.Christine Quinn claimed on Twitter that Selling Sunset has "5,000 fake storylines."

She didn't go into detail as to which ones were fake, but knowing what we know about OTHER reality shows on this list, it's not that wild an accusation.

11.One Love Island fan pointed out a continuity error in this scene from the show, in which case a glass magically moved.

12.People who have auditioned for shows like X-Factor and American Idol claim that you have to pre-audition for "off-camera judges" first. So if you see a bad singer performing onstage on television, that singer was allegedly first approved by the casting department.

Kelly Clarkson performing on stage for American Idol Season 14
Fox / FOX Image Collection via Getty Images

13.Product placement is rampant. A redditor said their wife got a tattoo on a tattoo competition show, and was given branded headphones to wear during the tattooing session. However, she "wasn't allowed to actually plug them in and listen to music." The headphones were just there to show off the brand.

a tattoo artist

Once you start thinking about product placement, you'll see it all over the place in reality shows. Shows like Property Brothers, for example, have heavily featured Wayfair during their furniture shopping, even doing an onscreen demo of shopping on the company's website or app.

14.People who have been on House Hunters have claimed that the show was fake, at least on their episode. One past house hunter claimed that they had already bought their house before going on the show, and that the other houses they toured were just for the camera.

a realtor talking to a couple

Even Jonathan Scott of Property Brothers fame told Popsugar that the homeowners on their show have already narrowed down their house search and usually already have a specific house in mind that they want to buy.

15.Game shows will get technical when giving out a "lifetime supply" of anything. One redditor claimed that their teacher won a lifetime supply of WD-40 on a game show, but, "It turns out that with average usage, a can of WD-40 lasts 20 years, so a life's supply is four cans."

Bob Barker on The Price Is Right
Amanda Edwards / Getty Images

Have you ever caught a reality show faking something during an episode? Let us know about it in the comments!