If peering into the lives of others through the safety net of our computer and smartphone screens wasn’t intriguing enough, producers of reality television shows around the world have taken it upon themselves to push the boundaries of voyeurism. The past decades have witnessed people grappling with and eventually becoming accustomed to the concept of unscripted drama, as well as a spawning new genre of reality tv — one that revelled in everything scandalous, bizarre and hedonistic. From My Strange Addiction to The Best Funeral Ever, we take a look at the most controversial reality TV shows of all time.
The extremes of reality TV
Reality television can often be ridiculous, campy, and dramatic. In the three decades that the genre has been around, we’ve been asked to prove if Love is Blind, figuring Is It Cake?, and racing to Keep Up With The Kardashians. Some shows, however, have toed the line between unconventional and outlandish. From plastic surgery pageants like The Swan to women giving birth outdoors in Born In The Wild, there’s no concept strange enough for unscripted television.
As the Writers Guild of America strike pushes platforms to turn towards the genre — a permanent and ever-growing fixture of the world’s content diet — its consumption has only skyrocketed in recent years. Case in point: American TV show Vanderpump Rules has been around for 10 years, but it was only in the spring of 2023 that it truly exploded in popularity and commanded precious mindshare across the country. The reason? An infidelity scandal among its cast members, which gripped viewers and quickly went viral on social media — prompting its producers to restart filming and extend its 10th season.
Meanwhile, Selling Sunset, a reality series showcasing California’s affluent properties, witnessed a massive surge in viewership this year too, thus proving that reality TV is inescapable — whether it’s old or new, traditional or modern, clichéd or plain bizarre. Ahead, we recount some of the most controversial reality TV shows from around the globe.
Which are the most controversial reality TV shows that have ever aired?
1. The Swan (2004)
If we had to pinpoint one moment in TV history to be held responsible for perpetuating toxic and unhealthy beauty standards for women globally, it’d be The Swan. An unexpected viewership success, The Swan paraded several hand-picked, American women on national television after having them undergo several cosmetic procedures — all in an attempt to make them “beautiful”. Your typical ugly-duckling-to-swan cliché, that too, upon the advice of the doctors on set and not the contestants themselves. If that doesn’t sound horrific enough, there’s more!
The contestants were isolated from their friends and family throughout the entire duration of filming. Every mirror they encountered was covered to shield them from seeing their own transformation, and they were put on rigorous regimes. After all of that, the two contestants (there were two makeovers per episode) had to “compete” against each other to see who would move on to The Swan Pageant. This was decided based on how well they handled the recovery from the multiple operations, their dedication to dieting and exercise during the three months, along with how receptive they were to the therapy they were offered, which FYI, was televised for the entire world to watch and dissect. There was open berating of the participants, an unfiltered probe into their personal lives, and a blanket abandonment of ethics. In the end, contestants would participate in a final round, where one would be declared the winner.
2. Bridalplasty
Offering a new flavour of an old, worn-out concept, Bridaplasty herded together an unwavering group of would-be brides who were united in their mission to get plastic surgery done before their big day. While there’s nothing wrong about undergoing cosmetic surgery to achieve one’s desired look, a show like Bridaplasty was built on the foundation of exploiting its participants’ insecurities, while the entire country watched. The 12 contestants developed an extensive “wish list” of procedures they wanted to get done with resident doctor Terry Dubrow. Each week the winner of the show’s multiple wedding-themed challenges would get something augmented, reduced, shifted, or buffed. The last bride standing would get it all — a fully paid wedding, and any surgical procedures she had wish-listed.
The first episode featured an “injectables party,” with a big syringe for decoration. The series went on to question the brides’ “bedroom knowledge”, test their compatibility with their fiancés, and take a lie detector test on television. The show received widespread backlash for its humiliating premise and for spotlighting plastic surgery as a trivial, risk-free procedure. Dr. Dubrow appeared on CBS’s The Early Show and said, “I’ve heard that criticism, but we are really not sending a message, but really just turning the camera on what’s happening across the board in the United States.”
3. Sexy Beasts (2014 – 2021)
If you thought Too Hot To Handle was a strange reality show for its virtual chastity-belting, wait till you get a taste of Sexy Beasts. To eliminate the aspect of superficiality in dating, the show focused on beastly cosplay that inadvertently showcased the prowess of today’s prosthetic artists. The premise? People went on blind dates dressed in ridiculous ‘beast’ getups; so they could get to know the person underneath. Think Love is Blind but with animalistic filters. Originally a BBC show from 2014, the bizarre dating game made waves only in 2021 when it got picked up by Netflix.
4. The Interception (1997 – 1998)
If Christopher Nolan’s Inception is a benchmark, Russian reality show The Interception can be neatly parked on the opposite end of the spectrum. Back in the ’90s when gameshows were scarce, the Russian law enforcement department felt they had stumbled upon an ingenious concept: Giving contestants the opportunity to steal a fancy new car and be embroiled in a nail-biting 35-minute chase by the police. If the participants managed to avoid the cops for the entire duration, they got to keep the car. It was developed to discourage carjacking, which at the time, had become rampant. The show garnered unexpected success but ended up getting canceled after two seasons. Rates of carjacking stayed the same, and given that the chases were done in real Moscow streets, the risks outweighed the benefits.
5. Sperm Race (2005)
Sperm Race, as the name suggests, was a ludicrous German show that tested the virility of its 12 male contestants. Filmed inside a sperm donation clinic, the show”egged” its participants to compete in a challenge to see who could fertilise an egg the fastest. Developed as an advertisement for the clinic in question, the show exploited an extremely private proceeding for catching primetime viewership. It even involved laughable montages of men cosplaying as sperms, and diving into pools of water to illustrate the fertilisation process. Unfortunately, there were very few takers with Sperm Race getting cancelled as quickly as it aired.
6. Born in the Wild (2015)
This show gave the term “natural birth” a whole new meaning. Inspired by a viral and now-deleted 2013 YouTube video of a woman delivering her baby in the wilderness, this reality tv show followed others who chose the same path. The press release of the Lifetime-backed show read, “What happens when the craziest experience of a woman’s life becomes truly wild, and soon-to-be parents decide to take on an unassisted birth in the outdoors? Born in the Wild will document the journeys of young, expectant parents who have chosen to give birth ‘in the wild.” Although producers clarified that an EMT and an ambulance were available on standby, the illusive concept only survived a single season.
7. Joe Millionaire (2003)
Contributing to reality television’s notoriety of being misogynistic, Fox’s Joe Millionaire was an obvious twist on the platform’s other original, The Bachelor — with a focus on scamming women. The premise of the show, which debuted in 2003, posited that one bachelor, Evan Marriott, had inherited a fortune and was on the “hunt for a bride”. Twenty women were lured to the reality dating show and told that the single man in front of them was worth USD 50 million — and for the low, low price of their dignity, he was up for grabs. Continuing the charade, he took the group of hopefuls on dates to luxurious locales, before picking a few to be sent home at the end of each episode. The twist? Marriott was never a millionaire, to begin with, but a construction worker earning USD 19,000 a year. The last woman remaining in the competition was given the option of being with Marriott, which would fetch the couple a real check for a million dollars. A whopping 40 million people watched the finale, eager to see how the winner would react at the reveal of Marriott’s misleading finances.
Often described as “Gaslighting Lite”, the show surprised viewers with a reprised version in 2022 titled For Richer Or Poorer. Building on the original concept but with some adjustments to escape cancel culture, the series introduces two Joes — one rich, and the other less so — who compete for the attention of 18 unsuspecting women. Peppered with the usual tropes of bickering women, “empowered” men who cook, and the whole “gold digger” theme, the show does nothing to avoid being a complete cliché.
8. Who’s Your Daddy (2005)
One of the most exploitative shows in television history, Who’s Your Daddy? made a game out of an adopted woman’s attempt to find her biological father. TJ Myers, the lady in question, was set up in a luxurious mansion. She asked questions to the elderly male contestants and put them through a series of important (*ahem*) competitions like showing off their dance moves (she was convinced her dad was a champion disco dancer). Instead of handing out roses at the end of the episodes like The Bachelor, she would tell them: “I feel like you could be my father.” Duping her was the only motive of the game as a cash reward awaited the last standing participant. The controversial show was cancelled after just a single episode with the National Council for Adoption arguing it “[trivialised] a deeply emotional experience.”
9. Farmer Wants a Wife
10. I Wanna Marry Harry (2014)
I Wanna Marry “Harry” isn’t just trash TV; It’s an exercise in gaslighting unrivalled by any other show. The basic premise of the asinine programme is simple: 12 American women, hand-picked for their looks, and under-26 age tags, are sent to a British stately home, and introduced to a mysterious “Sir” who descends from helicopters and is persistently accompanied by a security detail. Over the course of I Wanna Marry “Harry”, the ladies competed in beauty pageants, bikini runways, and twerking competitions, united in the hope that they’d be “the one” for Prince Harry. It is established that the women believed they were vying for a role in the real-life British royal family as the consort of the man who was then third in line to the throne. In reality, “Harry” was actually Matt Hicks, an environmental consultant who had dyed his hair ginger and memorised facts about Prince Harry for the show. I Wanna Marry Harry is equal parts heartless, and equal parts voraciously anti-feminist.
11. Stylista (2008)
No doubt The Devil Wears Prada is an excellent movie but to understand how CW producers agreed on replicating its premise requires a special level of genius. Stylista, which aired in 2008, saw a group of twenty-somethings debasing themselves for an entry-level job under Anne Slowey of Elle magazine. If the position wasn’t menial enough for the self-proclaimed “fashion wannabes”, out came the Miranda Priestley-esque attitudes, demands for drip coffees, and a strict heels-only mandate for women.
12. The Moment of Truth
The Moment of Truth showcased how people were willing to sacrifice their relationships for financial gain, making it one of the most controversial reality TV shows to ever find primetime viewership. The game show chronicled a contestant as they answered personal true or false questions in front of a live studio audience and their loved ones — the catch being that they had already answered the same questions while taking a polygraph test off-camera. With north of USD 500,000 on the line, the show shocked America when a married participant admitted that she had stolen money from her workplace, was still in love with an ex, and had cheated on her husband. The Moment of Truth spawned several international renditions, including the Indian version, Sach Ka Samna.
13. Best Funeral Ever
“Strange” is certainly the operative word for Best Funeral Ever, TLC’s hour-long docudrama special which aired in 2013. Montaging the Dallas-based Golden Gate Funeral Home as they planned extravagant “home-going celebrations”, the show featured theatrical send-offs for the deceased. Sure, the owner John Beckwith Jr. believed, “If [the deceased] wanted to dunk a basketball, we can make that happen,” but for the regular cable TV watchers of the 2000s( and now), the concept was a far cry from reality. Other characteristic sequences included welcoming pigs and other livestock, an urn riding a Ferris wheel, a barbecue sauce fountain, funeral home employees dressed as elves, and, most curiously, employees providing “professional mourning” services.
14. My Strange Addiction (2010- 2015)
If you’ve ever wondered whether your love for the smell of gasoline or your obsession with cleanliness is weird, think again. My Strange Addiction aired in 2010 and brought together a group of individuals battling compulsive behaviours that threatened to take over their regular lives. The first season itself saw participants binging on toilet paper and glass, treating doll-like mannequins as partners, and sleeping beside blow dryers despite the risk of starting a house fire. As the show progressed, the addictions became prominently anomalous, ranging from eating the ash remains of their dead husband to a woman who was hooked on wolfing down dirty diapers.
15. Penitents Compete (2009)
When it comes to religious affairs, things can get controversial pretty quickly, which is what happened with the Turkish reality show, Penitents Compete. Toeing a delicate line into unchartered territory, the show saw a Jewish rabbi, a Buddhist monk, an Orthodox priest, and a Muslim imam in their attempts to convert 10 atheists over a span of several weeks. Those persuaded would be rewarded with a pilgrimage to the spiritual home of their new religion – Mecca for Muslims, Jerusalem for Christians and Jews, and Tibet for Buddhists. Thankfully, after considering the impending disaster that’d inevitably follow, Turkey’s Presidency of Religious Affairs denied permission, leaving the show cancelled before it even aired.
16. Susunu! Denpa Shōnen (1998 – 2002)
Inevitably compared to a real-life Truman Show and one of the most controversial reality TV shows to ever exist, Susunu! Denpa Shōnen gained a reputation for televised cruelty in Asia. Running from 1998 to 2002 on the Nippon TV network, the show incited feelings of horror as viewers became privy to extreme, debilitating conditions of its contestants. While several participants featured in this livestream-like reality show, the Japanese programme is mostly remembered for its “Prize Life” segment, where a young comedian nicknamed Nasubi was forced to live naked in an apartment for a year. He could only live on sweepstakes prizes, with no other food or drinks.
Initially painting the show as a unique experiment that might or might not air on television, producers strategically convinced Nasubi to believe that he was self-recording his day-to-day experiences for further review, when in reality his most private moments were broadcast for the world to watch, peppered with diss tracks and fake laughter for added entertainment. Though the show was eventually cancelled due to a government crackdown on explicit content, the overarching success of the exploitative series was a textbook example of schadenfreude i.e. deriving pleasure from watching people suffer.
Which of these bizarre and most controversial reality shows have you watched?
