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

[Imcomingovertoyourplace]

So far I’ve watched
Playing it Straight (the homophobia is rife!)
Fat Families (just horrific, ‘lard busting’ and shaming overweight kids)
Big Fat Gypsy Weddings (did the producers never want to intervene with what is essentially child abuse?)

I absolutely refuse to watch Love Island or any of that shite. I find it pernicious and incredibly damaging to young people's understanding of love or what is important in a relationship. I think it's way more damaging to the psyche than something like wife swap. There you were "laughing at the weirdos" which is horrible of course. The new breed of reality TV takes fakeness and tells kids it's real and what matters. Urgh.

I think it’s way worse now
virgin island
naked attraction

BOKE

I watched a documentary with real travellers and even though they sometimes marry young, the "grabbing" was over exaggerated for the programme it isn't a tradition just lads acting up.

Yep, that's the one.

I'd bet now that the people guessing we're told what to say by the producers. But still horrendous, either way.

I think the worse one was ‘Your face or Mine’ on channel 4. The premise was you had to vote wether someone was better or worse looking than your girlfriend/boyfriend. Every time you got it right you won some money. But they threw in an ex partners or someone beautiful in the audience. People cried a lot on that show, humiliating!

Reality tv is mostly junk anyway. Always was.

Reality TV is one of the few things I’m snooty about!

I watched around the first two series of big brother before everyone became so self aware that were quite interesting, but everything since is painful.

I think it’s nothing short of exploitation, so many people on these shows are clearly not the brightest buttons, or are incredibly naive, lives have been ruined and people have killed themselves over the lack of care taken with this, but I guess that’s fine as we get to point and laugh at the entertainment and get one or two celebs out of it.

Honestly most of those shows are only a step above (if they are above) some kind of freak show carnival, with people set up to be betrayed, humiliated and hurt so we can see the ‘reaction’. It’s sick.

That was the case back then and it’s still the case now, I judge anyone who adores these programmes, not a lot, but a little bit. I imagine they’re the ones that used to point and laugh at the bearded man and the fat lady.

There was an Educating Essex before there was an Educating Yorkshire.

@WitchHagthere’s moments of warmth in most reality shows though. Like Gypsy Weddings, there is something endearing about hearing directly from these marginalised girls, who would never speak that openly to a Gorger in every day life.

I enjoyed Playing it Straight at the time, but it'd never be made now!

I would say the same about Holiday Showdown if it wasn't for the fact that Rich Holiday, Poor Holiday is the same concept repackaged. Depressing. Again I enjoyed Holiday Showdown at the time, but all these Channel 5 'let's sneer at the poor' shows currently being made in the same vein are atrocious and imho promote a lot of misunderstandings about poverty and benefit culture. As a society we should have grown out of that sort of thing by now.

I thought the first couple of series of Big Brother were the best, where they were still casting relatively normal human beings as contestants and the original concept of it being a social experiment was relatively intact. But Jade Goody's fame knocked all that on the head, and for years now it's felt like they have actively sought to cast the most irritating fame wannabes they possibly can. I find it difficult to watch for any length of time now that the 'personalities' are so grating. The celeb version is actually better now imho as the celebs are mostly on their way down the other side of the fame hill and not trampling over each other to be 'discovered'.

I loved Wife Swap but that definitely came with a healthy side order of snobbery (and inverted snobbery) baked in.

Always used to feel uneasy about 'How Clean Is Your House?' as so many contestants seemed to be struggling with their MH and they'd be scolded like schoolchildren by the presenters as if they were just lazy.

Does anyone remember Chained? Very early E4 offering where the contestants were literally chained together, didn't last long. I doubt things like Chained, Touch the Truck and that one where they had to compete to stay awake the longest could be made now as too much potential for damage to people's MH.

TBH though when you look at things like MAFS (which I do watch and enjoy, but the concept is definitely pretty out there!), Naked Attraction, and some of the newer concepts like Honesty Box and Virgin Island, has reality telly really evolved much/at all? I think we're going to keep seeing increasingly ridiculous (and potentially damaging to participants) concepts tbh.

Yes the shows now are more about sex and objectification and you have to have people in swimwear. Is that any better than pointing out to someone that the reason their colleague weighs less than them is because they are kidding themselves about what they eat? Not saying either are better .

the Swan though that was bonkers .

I loved them haha but they would never get away with them now. Know it’s not a reality show but I used to love footballers wives. 😆

I feel like I’m a bad person for it but I loved The Swan. I wasn’t a mum when I watched it though so I don’t think I realised the impact it would have on your dc if you disappeared for a month or two and then rocked up looking completely different. I just loved the Cinderella aspect of it as the women picked seemed to have had really terrible lives.

@WitchHag That was the case back then and it’s still the case now, I judge anyone who adores these programmes, not a lot, but a little bit. I imagine they’re the ones that used to point and laugh at the bearded man and the fat lady.

Or turned up to watch the guillotine fall on some unfortunate mortal.

Fully agree with the rest of your post btw. Even though it was years ago I still feel uncomfortable about the treatment Susan Boyle received at the hands of the TV company and the viewers who ingested it.

Yes i remember that.

Vomit-inducing.

She wasn't even qualified as a doctor I understand.

Reality shows are garbage, full stop.

The thing that gets me is the popularity of reality TV shows entirely populated by surgically enhanced and altered people.

if you haven’t got huge fake boobs/abs/bum and a face which looks like it was designed by AI you’re not getting on.

i thought getting rid of ‘lads mags’ like Loaded and page 3 was meant to be a step forward for women!

I really liked it at the start, it showed decent families, who were just poor. The rich people were appalled that they were paying less for utilities, CT and insurance than the poor family and most of the time really helped out.
It was similar in the holiday program. It was a bit annoying because there wasn't enough variety. I was topped up by benefits and Egypt was a good, quite cheap choice. I liked that the rich kids liked the Spanish pool holidays and never wanted to go hiking etc (even if through a tropical jungle) again.
Big fat gypsy wedding showed a different culture. I don't see why it was problematic. Although I say that as someone who lives in am area, former travellers have settled, including one of the young brides. I love seeing them all leave for their events, the dresses are still amazing.

I always thought she must've had a 💩 fetish.

Not so sure about that. It exploded the parents but the children always seemed to come out well at the end of it. She did always make it clear it was a parenting issue not the kids. She was particularly good when dealing with teenagers, she treated them like they were on her level rather than domestic slaves or toddlers.

Just the one bean?

I do think that Geordie Shore should have protected the young women on the show. I used it as a teaching tool for my teens. It was non stop emotional abuse, controlling relationships and voyeurism.

I remember sitting open mouthed at Big Gypsy Weddings. I’d never seen anything like it.

I like the one where people lived as if they were in a Victorian / 1940s etc house.

The Back In Time series? I liked those - they did simplify a lot but I think they were made for schools originally. They may be on iPlayer.

I remember Gok because he did seem to focus on making his subjects feel good, not just put them in a uniform. This thread has made me realise my “knowledge” about reality TV is largely second hand from Gogglebox. Possibly because although I quite like the more positive shows like Bake Off I find a lot of them pretty unpleasant and exploitative.

I watched it every week (also before kids). It was really my first look at cosmetic surgery and it honestly looked like sorcery to me. I used to be in awe at some of the changes (it would be interesting to rewatch to see how much my views have changed). Being childless at the time, I admit I don’t think I gave much thought to the children, poor loves.