From The Real World to The Real Wives of Orange County, whether you like it or not, reality TV is everywhere and it is a big part of American culture.

Reality TV is a type of television show that documents the lives of real people. There is no script and there are no famous actors, just everyday people who are filmed living their lives – at least that is the idea.

Reality TV has become very popular in the United States (as it has around the world) and reality TV stars are now sometimes as famous as real actors, but reality TV didn’t start out this way. Reality TV began in the early 1990s with the show The Real World on MTV. In this show a group of strangers lived in a house together and were filmed 24 hours a day. The show was so popular there were many seasons of it filmed with new people each season.  It was so popular that it led to other staged* reality TV shows like Survivor and Big Brother. Beginning in the 2000’s more and more reality TV shows started popping up and the format of some of them changed into what has become a competition, like The Amazing Race and America’s Next Top Model. Now we have entered an era of reality TV where people and families that are different and outrageous are very popular to watch, like The Real House Wives of Orange County, Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, and Duck Dynasty. In the United States today there is almost no channel on TV that doesn’t run at least one reality TV show!

I have a few clips from American reality TV shows for you to see below, but first let me just present a few vocabulary words that are good to know when talking and thinking about reality TV.

drama: Reality TV is all about drama. Drama is a situation that evokes strong emotions, is vivid, and often has conflicting elements that capture a person’s interest.

outrageous: Reality TV often creates or presents outrageous events or circumstances that are meant to be shocking and push the limits of the story.

a character: A character is a word for an interesting or eccentric person. Reality TV thrives on finding characters to keep their audiences interested.

The Real World
Remember when you are watching this clip that reality TV offers an opportunity to hear native speakers of English speaking just how they would normally, i.e. this is not a scripted situations. This is one good thing about reality TV for ESL learners; it offers an authentic listening experience.

Here Comes Honey Boo Boo
Something else to remember about reality TV is that you are going to hear people speaking in different accents and they may not always be easy to understand! You will find that out if you watch the next video clip. You also will see some of the outrageous aspects of reality TV. Even though these shows are not scripted they are edited, so that the funniest, weirdest, and most outrageous aspects of people’s lives are what is shown on TV.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzt7oCFN3ek

Do you have a favorite reality TV show that you like to watch in English or your native language? Leave a comment about it in the area below.

*staged = to put on a performance, but make it appear as though it is not a performance