To think reality shows of the early 2000s have not aged well! Doing a rewatch

Anyone remember watching Jordan back in the early 2000's?

I haven’t read all the posts so it might have already been mentioned but the programme that made me really angry at the time (and now) is The Undateables.

I used to love both of these, I know they tried to do a remake of Streetmate a while ago with Scarlett something or other from Gogglebox.

You can watch episodes of Ibiza Uncovered on Youtube! I used to love the arguments between the two women - can't remember their names now and one was always getting fired from her jobs! Also watching the resort reps, I always wanted to go and do that.

If I remember ladette to lady was very tongue in cheek

I used to love Property Ladder with Sarah Beeny, she had great ideas but hardly anyone ever used to listen to her advice!

Someone mentioned upthread about America's Top Model and I sometimes see reels of it now and a lot of it was really awful. Especially when they would make them get a makeover and there would be some poor girl with waist length hair and give them a pixie cut and then they'd be told to go home an episode later. Does anyone remember the episode where one of the contestants friend died and then she had to pose in an open grave the next day, awful? Janice Dickinson was dire, I loved Twiggy on there though she was always so kind!

I remember one called the Dinner Party Inspectors where two posh older ladies nosed on people’s dinner parties and were aghast at anything which wasn’t ‘proper’. I remember as an impressionable teen when they were horrified at someone arriving at a dinner party with some champagne (acceptable) in a plastic bag (very much not acceptable) and thinking ‘when I’m a grown up I will not carry my gift of champagne in a plastic bag’. Unfortunately I don’t seem to go to any posh dinner parties, and even if I did I don’t think my friends would give a shit if I carried the booze in a plastic bag.

Also enjoyed ‘Ladette to Lady’ which was of a similar vein.

@Emilysmum90 I know the exact clip you mean and it's horrendous. What makes it worse is that Simon Cowell is smirking as he sticks the boot in and enjoying trampling on that girls self esteem.

The one small crumb of comfort I take is that it would never be allowed to happen now. Cowell would be cancelled before the credits had even rolled.

Yes, that's true. Some chose not to continue. The whole thing was groundbreaking and I do think at the time nobody had any idea it would keep going as long as it did, or the implications.

I suppose that was the innocence we have now lost when making these programmes. Too many people looking to make their name by appearing, too many production companies looking for cheap entertainment banking on people's desire for fame to exploit them for the voyeuristic public's edification.

7 up is a masterpiece, however I do think it's shown how this sort of thing can affect people's lives, a lot of the participants really dislike the series

Oh I loved that programme!

I’ve been watching reruns of Wife Swap on YouTube and I cannot believe the misogyny! Even when the husband pulls his weight, they all still refer to it as helping the wife!

Talking of the school one just reminded me of the one about young men being out through basic training which everyone did in the days of National Service.

The thing is, I know a lot is scripted now, but there was a time when it wasn't.

Before reality TV was a 'thing', we had fly on the wall documentaries. And they really were what they purported to be. Documenting the lives of other people.

Most famously, 7 Up. Genius idea. Take a group of kids from different backgrounds and film them every 7 years. Last one they were 63. Next one should be 70 Up, due next year, but might not happen as the original filmmaker has died. It was an experiment exploring the impacts of social class in early years and what truth there is in the idea of 'give me a child until the age of 7 and I will show you the man'.

There was a fascinating one about a boy with Tourette's called, 'John's not Mad'. It wasn't about exploitation, it was about giving the public insight into a little-known condition at the time. Not mockery, but education.

It's all become too 'knowing' now. The shows aren't made to educate or inform, they are made to shock, manipulated for maximum drama and too far removed from 'reality'.

And it all started with bloody Driving School.

Oh my God I watched that! The wife (I think) was saying something like "I'll be fine with anyone as long as they're not black" 😬

There was also an episode where the family were very clearly neglecting their little baby and the woman who swapped was so upset to leave her there at the end of it 😔

And I Kissed a Boy, which has a girl in it. It's like they're just doing this for the "It Was Fine in the 2020s" look-back shock show, to be scheduled somewhere circa 2045.

Shows I liked back in the 00s were That'll Teach Em, where kids went back in time being educated using old strict teaching methods. And Rock School, where the lead singer of Kiss made a rock band out of some school kids. I think one of the main kids later committed suicide, which is tragic.

Yes, I liked Castaway. There have been a couple where people had to live like stone aged man, too. I found those interesting.

Recently a video surfaced on social media of one of the really early series of Pop Idol or X Factor, and Simon Cowell was absolutely tormenting this poor 20 something girl over her weight. You'd think she'd shot someone's nan the way he was reprimanding her about it. Not that it even mattered but she was only about a size 14!! She kept saying how much she was really trying to diet and be thinner, she was getting tearful and he just kept saying "yeah well you've really got to darling".

I wanted to cry watching it it was so fucking heartbreaking, I cannot believe how awful those shows were.

I remember my mum watching some of those and yeah they were bad, also see benefits street and Jeremy kyle. I did quite like the filth fights show that was on and the shows about hoarders but I think they are quite rightly regarded as exploitative these days.

Yes, there was Back in Time For Dinner, Christmas etc. Someone here says they simplified things a lot, which may be the case, but they did have good talking heads: proper academics like Amber Butchart.

I read her books during lockdown. She mentioned that when she went on WNTW she just had a baby a few weeks earlier and whilst she didn't say anything overtly negative about T&S she was very clear that she hated the whole experience with a passion.

Yeah that’s not cool, humiliating someone isn’t entertainment.

Bring it back! I’m all for everyone wearing what they want / like and what suits them. I even gave it a go myself once or twice it just always seemed a little odd to wear trousers and a dress (for me) as there was a lot of material going on.

Yes Jo brand said later that it was an awful humiliating experience they kept hoicking at her boobs and sniggering about the size of her bra !

I seem to remember Jo Brand getting quite upset. Mind you, I think one or two of the styles might have grown on her because she seems to dress more brightly these days, but it was an uncomfortable watch at the time.

I disagree. The producers originally looked for schools with really good Ofsted reports and asked quite a few, around the country. Lots said no. I don't know where all those schools were but they weren't all in Essex. The series went to London, Salford and Cardiff too. I could well be wrong but I always read the title as a play on Educating Rita.

I have a friend who is a headteacher in an Oxfordshire secondary school who has a very mixed intake of kids and struggles with many of the same challenges we see in the 'Educating' series.