At this point, reality TV has advanced, or devolved, depending on how you look at it,
into basically just filming people doing stuff without their clothes on or behaving terribly.
Shock factor is the name of the game, so rather than just pointing at the entire genre and
labeling it all as uncomfortable, we're taking an awkward trip down memory lane to review
some of the most classic cringeworthy moments from reality TV history.
Enjoy!
America's Next Top Model
Tyra Banks absolutely lost her mind while eliminating America's Next Top Model cycle
4 contestant Tiffany Richardson.
"What is wrong with you?
STOP IT!"
Even the most avid reality TV fans didn't expect this moment to escalate as quickly
as it did.
"When my mother yells like this it's because she LOVES ME!
I was rooting for you, we were all rooting for you, HOW DARE YOU!"
Banks keeps screaming, and then she and Richardson both give their own versions of the classic
reality TV retort:
"You don't know where the hell I come from, you have no idea what I've been through."
Despite Richardson less than gracefully handling the moment, years later, the aspiring model
was able to gain some perspective on the situation.
Richardson told ThoughtCo in 2017,
"We've talked since.
Tyra yelled at me because she loved some Tiffany.
She wanted to see me just do so much better in the competition."
"Learn something from this!"
Jon and Kate Plus 8
By the time Jon and Kate Gosselin announced their divorce on Jon & Kate Plus 8, the tabloids
had already spoiled the reveal, but that didn't stop their somber, separate confessionals
from being heartbreaking and awful at the same time.
"Uh, Kate and I have decided to separate."
There was Kate, with her box of tissues that she doesn't touch because, let's be honest,
she was probably over it at this point.
"I'm not very fond of the idea, personally, but I know it's necessary, because my goal
is peace for the kids."
Then there was Jon, with his Chuck Taylors propped up on the ottoman and diamond studs
in his ears.
"People think I've changed, and I have changed, but I'm now the person I know I am."
It was the final collision of the slow-motion train wreck audiences couldn't turn away from
for two years, and even though it was inevitable, it was still tough to watch.
Deadliest Catch
The Discovery Channel's docu-series Deadliest Catch has to be one of the most harrowing
reality TV shows ever made.
Boats have sunk, and people have died on the show, including the gruff but beloved Captain
Phil Harris.
Season 6 documents Harris' stroke while off-loading a catch and subsequent two weeks of hospitalization
before his death in February 2010.
"Phil's...Phil's passed away…"
"No way."
But this wasn't a case of producers shamelessly taking advantage of a tragedy.
According to People magazine, it was actually Harris who wanted to document his final days,
telling the cameraman in a handwritten note,
"Got to get the ending, ending to the story."
The resulting shows turned out to be real tearjerkers as they tracked Harris' fellow
captains reacting to the news and the heartfelt tributes and memorials from the late captain's
family and friends.
The Bachelor
It was tough to weed out the single, most uncomfortable moment from the many years of
The Bachelor, but then again, when you ask an ex-couple to sit next to each other to
dissect their break-up in front of network TV cameras, it doesn't get much more awkward
than that.
"So you're done talking?
Is there any part of you-"
"That's a first."
Already one of the series' most controversial couples even before their split, Jake and
Vienna delivered the humiliating goods during their break-up postmortem interview.
"You don't know me and I wouldn't have done it and if you…"
"If I don't know you then-"
"PLEASE STOP INTERRUPTING ME...the thing is…"
It's the exploitation of a broken marriage, plain and simple, but it's what they signed
up for, and there's no doubt it makes for amazing reality TV.
"Again I got interrupted...good lord."
"I'm done with this.
You are the fakest person I've ever met in my life.
I'm over it."
90 Day Fiance
On TLC's immigrant marriage melodrama 90 Day Fiance, Ohio resident Danielle falls for the
Tunisian-born Mohamed.
From the very start, their relationship sends up all kinds of red flags, the most glaring
of which being when Mohamed cites religious concerns as the reason he refuses to kiss
Danielle.
"We are like every other married couple."
"Yeah…"
Fast-forward past their inevitable break-up and we arrive at the reunion show, during
which host Shaun Robinson asks Mohamed some pointed questions about intimacy.
Mohamed tries to defer, but then Danielle, in all her subtle glory, blurts it out:
"He has told people that I smell"
"You do"
"and I peed on him."
It's safe to say Robinson speaks for all of us when she says,
"Okay, you know what?
I don't even want to know."